From the centre of Brazil to the centre of Bolivia

This is a real mammoth post and I do apologise for it but I did not have a phone for some weeks to write or add pictures or anything. So things that I want to share have been piling up.

I last stopped off where we had reached Catalão, which is a smallish town about 300km south from the capital of Brazil, Brasília. Brazil's futuristic capital was built in 1960 smack in the middle of the country to aid in the development of the areas that were far away from the coast. Before that, all the money and activity had been mostly near the coast - in Rio and Sao Paolo and so on. The city centre, all designed by one architect, is made up of very scarcely located futuristic government and other administrative buildings (like the library, tv tower, bus station etc) on big empty fields between roads that had cars in 4-5 rows at least. The visual effect of the centre was quite cool as is the fact that they actually planned for the big raise in the number of cars, but for anyone who is walking... the distances are immense.

This is the house of Government of Brazil.



During the week there we also visited another psytrance festival near the city,  wandered into a higher-class house party and tried to see the National park of Brasília that is just a few minutes away from the centre of the city. On the gate we managed to negotiate the entrance price down to the price for Brazilians (because why should we pay double price). From the internet we had read about the multiple cool walking tracks where you are sure to encounter all kinds of animals and birds, so we managed to find our way past a big swimming pool with loads of people (of course there were no signs indicating the way or maps as to where the walking tracks or anything else is situated). We walked through a 1km track that consisted of thick quite boring bush with no animals or much to see. When we tried to get to the beginning of the other (presumably more interesting) tracks, we were stopped by the security guard who announced that the rest of the park was closed. So they have no problems selling you tickets when the park is actually mostly closed. That did not seem to bother the locals chilling by the pool, as they were apparently not interested in the rest of the park anyway.

Hanging by a freshwater pool after not being let into the national park



That is one thing that I have actually discovered in all latin america so far - people usually don't respect other people's time or well-being as much as they do in 'the western world' in Northern and Central Europe. They can be very loving, friendly, nice and so on, but making someone wait for hours is no problem (In Estonia you usually have a good reason if you make someone wait, if you see that you are not going to make it on time you actually let people know and you also apologise for it).  Over here it is not even worth mentioning. Listening to your music on full volume in the bus is nothing frowned upon. In the beginning of almost every traffic jam you can discover a car that has stopped in the middle of the road because... well they wanted to, although there is plenty of room to pull over. Indicator lights were apparently accidentally fitted on the cars as they don't serve a purpose here anyways. And when you make plans with someone then they don't let you know when they change the plans or cancel them. Ant it is not because people are 'bad' or anything, it is just the normal way of being. It started bothering us especially in Brazil, but similar attitude is seen in most of the continent so far. At least in Estonia, the attitude is different and my own behaviour is very different (at least my aimed behaviour) - I always give my best not to cause discomfort to anyone else and try to be as considerate as possible.

Sunrise at a house party in Brasília



Connected to that attitude and some of its consequences is why we left Brasília and in the end also Brazil without doing any capoeira and actually not even seeing any capoeira. We had this picture in our heads that there would be capoeira happening on street corners and parks everywhere we go but that is not really the case - you actually have to look for it. After a few failed attempts we were really not in the mood to search for it either so we decided that it will come to us if it is meant to be (it didn't).

After Brasília our original plan was to head straight towards Bolivia, although people were insisting that we simply can not leave Brazil without seeing the coast and the beaches and Rio and so on. We explained time and time again that firstly,  it is not a small d-tour on a motorbike (a week to get there, a week to get back to the centre of Brazil and some time also staying there). Secondly,  we are not that impressed by or interested in beaches, and thirdly, we are even less interested in big cities (the reason why we got Moto is because we wanted to spend more time away from cities). People were a bit sad and hurt by our unappreciativeness of their suggestions, but they said that in that case we at least need to go to Alto Paraiso. It was still 250km more north than we had planned to go but after many people insisting on us to go, we finally gave in.

On our way to Alto Paraiso was (one of the?) highest waterfall in the country



Alto Paraiso (which translates to 'Highland paradise') is a small touristic town (or area) nestled between hills and valleys with hundreds of waterfalls. The town itself has a colorful vibe to it with hippies and bohemians roaming the streets - popular destination among Brazilians, not that well-known among foreign tourists. We unfortunately got there exactly when Brazil had a four-day weekend so the accommodation prices were way up and the town was full of people.

With our newly found host in Alto Paraiso



So far we had not paid for accommodation in Brazil or Argentina (except when we gave some money for the electricity and water that we used if we stayed in someone's place) but we were considering to pay for camping for the first time in Brazil in Alto Paraiso, before we found out the busy weekend price situation. So we asked a guy on a terrace of a bar, if he knows where to find a cheap accommodation option. He said that we can stay at his house for half the price of the cheapest camping option that we found (24 AUD for the both of us). In the evenings there was live music and busy nightlife in the centre of the town, during the day most tourists were out discovering the waterfalls so we did the same.

There was usually one main waterfall but before and after it, there were small waterfalls with smaller pools. 



There are dozens of waterfalls all in a 50km radius of the town, with walking tracks and waterfalls to swim in. The problem was that most of them were 20 reales (8 AUD) per person per entrance while our budget is 30AUD per day per person, which has to cover food and drinks, accommodation, petrol, unexpected expenses (motorbike repairs, stolen or broken phones or other things) and the tourist stuff, if we are doing any at that period.  The waterfalls were very nice and lovely but not worth that sum for each fall. There were also other waterfalls that were free, but they were further away on a gravel road and needed a guide to get there (as we understood, the guide was free as well but did not have his own method of transportation, so that was not an option either).



So we ended up visiting four of the waterfalls in two days (managed to brake off one of the bike's shocks while driving to one), they were all very nice and you could swim in all of them (which some of the people used to wash their hair with shampoo in) but thanks to the big 'long weekend' thing,  a bit overcrowded. So on a Sunday we headed to a neighbouring town with similar vibes, but smaller in size and with gravel streets.

The streets of Sao Jorge



This time we found a bit cheaper option for camping and moved in in the morning when the majority of the people had already left to get home to Rio or were packing to do the same. We had not too many accommodation options as we had to stay in a camping place that accepts payment by card because neither Alto Paraiso nor Sao Jorge had an ATM to get any money out.

I put my phone to charge near the utilities block, as I had seen someone do a moment ago after which we met some people who were about to leave and chilled with them for a while. One of them was living in the tent that was right next to ours.  After our neighbor had left to head home, my phone had also disappeared, leaving the end of the charger hanging sadly by the sink. Somehow my sunglasses had also run away from my bag in the tent, although they were prescription glasses and noone but me can see anything with them. I hope she was happy with the shitty phone and unusable glasses. 

We were in this kitchen, cooking, when my stuff walked away



Before we actually reach the next state in the story, Mato Grosso, where we headed next, I can't avoid the big topic of Brazilian nature. Yes, I admit that I only saw five states and only around the areas that we passed but I do still feel that my criticism  is justified and I will also tell you why.

Most of the first 2000+ kilometres that we had passed,  after entering the country,  were huge fields (later it was also mostly fields but maybe slightly smaller ones). And when I say huge, I mean that as far as you could see around you, all the way to the horizon, there were practically no lines of trees separating or segmenting the big empty wind-fields. The only trees were the ones that were at the most bottom bit of the valleys, because there was no point in making a field there anyways; or in the creepy eucalyptus forests, with trees growing in eery straight lines and no animals or birds, because no other plant could live there. And that was what we saw in the first four states, with only some small natural parks still having some nature to see (and pollute with shampoo and garbage) for quite an expensive price.

About the maximum amount of trees that was possible to see in the first two states of Brazil





Spent a night by a sweet little (but full of trash) stream, where the locals were swimming in the evening. In the morning we woke up to the sound of it being destroyed

Now you could say "but the other states are better! They have the whole Amazon rain forest, and Mato Grosso is not that bad and surely there must be places where you do have a few trees still left in the states you saw as well." but I say "So what? Everything is connected". On the big fields, the strong winds,  that have nothing to stop them, take away the fertile top layer of the soil. There is no forest to keep the humidity so the air is dry and it rains a lot less every year as well, which further makes the soil more dry for the wind to take it away.

All that makes these humongous fields less and less fertile and people have to use more and more artificial fertilizers for anything to grow in the soil. So the fields are actually less and less fertile still every year. And this all means that new land is needed for growing different stuff and that means that more forests have to be taken down to make more fields. And the new land is being claimed right in the only places where there still is some forest to take down - the Amazon and Mato Grosso etc. 



The nature changed when we got to Mato Grosso

So driving through Mato Grosso was refreshing, as there still was some actual nature left, especially by the road that we took - there were native people's protected areas that were hidden away from the road with signs 'do not enter' blocking every road. At least they have found their safe haven for now. Let's hope the businessmen don't run out of space to make fields and mines soon.

We had just two real contacts with wildlife in Brazil, both in Mato Grosso. The first was when we were having a stop by a small river, when we noticed a few monkeys climbing around the trees on the other side of it. Suddenly one of them noticed us and started coming towards us. The next moment there were at least four of them moving fast towards us along the branches while not letting us out of sight. Although most monkeys are not really dangerous, it was a bit scary how they rushed so we got up and got our stuff ready for leaving. Our sudden movements also frightened them so most of them turned back; only one lingered a bit more and kept a watchful eye on us. The second encounter with wildlife was when we were camping and making a bonfire when we heard someone walking in the dark behind us. It turned out to be a big hairy tarantula that made its way right across our blanket before settling in one of my thongs.

Our last 500km to the border were nice visually but the culinary side leads me to stop a bit longer on the topic of Brazilian food. Mostly because I have had stomach troubles after Alto Paraiso and I have been much more sensitive to what I eat (the 40+ degree days that we have had since then haven't helped either) . Right now I am not talking about big towns or rich people or expensive restaurants, where surely it is possible to find all kinds of options when you are willing to pay.

I am talking about the options that you get in the smaller towns where you might have two places to eat or thirty, but it does not matter as what you get from there is the same. And this is exactly what average people eat.  From the early hours to late afternoon you could go to places called 'lanchionette' which is a place where you can get up to five-six different pastries( called 'salgados') - all deep fried, all filled with meat, some having mandioca/tapioca/yuca (the potato-like root that they loved in Paraguay) pastry instead of the normal pastry. Sometimes you got a coffee as well (premade, weak, with lots of sugar) and some soft drinks or candies. Some places sold only two different variations of salgados and had no coffee.

From eleven thirty, all the restaurants and churrascherias also served 'churrasco' (grilled meat) or 'marmitex'. Marmitex meant a big bowl of rice with a pile of barbecue meat and some beans, churrasco meant that you could put the same ingredients on your plate yourself. In bigger towns you had also places where you could add some salad or vegetables, in small places that was usually not an option or you had to pay extra, even if you wanted to swap some meat for salad.

The same ingredients were also sold in all 'supermarkets' in smaller towns - the only available vegetables were onion, potato and garlic (sometimes pumpkin, although I never saw anyone eating it) and sometimes you found a few bananas and oranges as well, if lucky (but usually not).

When we did find vegetables and fruits, the prices were actually cheap. And it was, in reality,  possible to find them in every single town and village. But selling and using vegetables was just not very common. They were happy with their rice, beans and meat. They are just not interested in vegetables. And the difference between a 'churrascheria' and a restaurant? Can't be sure, because many 'restaurants' served a few hours of 'churrasco' during the lunch and all the rest of the time just sold 'salgados' (by my standards that is not even an 'eatery' and certsinly not a 'restaurant'. Jumping a bit ahead, I can say that Bolivians like meat, sweets and anything deep fried any time as well, before they even consider eating vegetables.

Before we actually cross the border, which we were, at that point, looking forward to doing,  because of the food, nature and language situation (we did not try super hard to learn Portuguese as we knew that after Brazil we will not need it again in the near future), I have to bring out some more interesting things that we found in Brazil.

*Brazil is a very colorful mix of people - it consists of the Brazilian native people, Portuguese colonizers, black africans (originally brought in as slaves), and the later arrived European, Arab and Japanise people. So there is also a wide array of cultures, religions, traditions and celebrations mixed together.



The celebration of one of the religious holidays originating from Africa

*In Argentina I once heard a guy who was looking for a new house say "It is a good house, good walls". It took me a few weeks (or maybe even months), until I actually noticed why he said that. Over here (in Brazil) , a block of houses is one continuous wall with (always closed) doors, when you look at it from the street. The houses are close together but divided by walls. Inside the house and little yard, everything is made of or covered in concrete or stone (sometimes there is a tiny little flowerbed among all this concrete). If in Estonia there are big open windows opening towards the sun to catch every possible sunray, then over here 'shade' is the key word, because hiding yourself from the heat is the main problem.



The sea of little concrete boxes behind walls

*In Paraguay, most places looked poor and run-down so you did not have big expectations to them working. Over here, everything looks quite fancy, modern and developed (and of course many aspects of life actually are) but it is very deceptive because inside all of those fancy supermarkets and offices you still have the same people working, who are not really interested in being efficient or fast or better in their job.



Brazilian cities look and are quite modern

*I already mentioned that people don't really care about traffic rules here much, the same goes for people who organise traffic in the cities. They don't really care about it being easy or logical. Half of the streets are one way and on half of the intersections you can't go either left or right. When we were still quite new to Brazil and hadn't really tried driving in bigger cities/towns, we were in a car of a local and I could swear that the guy who was driving was just circling the same places to make us feel disoriented and then kidnap us. We later discovered that he was probably taking the best and fastest possible route. Because the traffic is organised as it is, you have to circle around and cross the same intersections various times until it is possible to actually go where you want to go. We had to drive 4km to get to a house less than 100m away in the ultramodern capital, where you could surely organise the traffic better, considering that the original architect of the town has given you at least three-four rows on each side of the road to organise the flow of cars.

About 300km before the Bolivian border, we found out that it was going to be 700km of gravel road until we get to the first big town and the start if paved road. Later it turned out to be 300 but because we had accepted that our fate was to do the 700, the 300km came as a very welcome surprise (although it was quite annoying still).

So we made it to the border on a Sunday afternoon to be greeted by some very friendly border-guards, who saw nothing wrong with us owning a Paraguayan bike that was not on our name. They just told us to get an exit stamp at the next building.  Before we were able to get back on the bike, another guy showed up who stopped us. He told us that our bike actually needs to have papers of entrance to Brazil and an insurance as well, but it was too late for that anyways. The bigger problem was that the stamp that they had on the border, was not good enough for us, as we were from another continent, so we had to go 100km back to the previous town to the federal police.

So we drove all the way to the town and back, got pass the Brazilian Border and reached the Bolivian. They were busy searching through a car and didn't really care about us. They said that if we go back towards the Brazilian border, there should be a place to get the stamp if we wanted to. We only found some guys drinking coke and having a siesta in front of a mud-hut between the borders, so we entered Bolivia without any paperwork.



Getting our exit stamps from a closed Federal Police building

We spent the rest of the day enjoying our first hotel room in the last two months since Paraguay had been the last place where we could afford them. The next day was Monday so we got stamps in our passports. The immigration lady was a bit suspicious at first when people from a country that she didn't know existed, claimed that they have a right to stay in the country for 90 days without a visa, but finally she found Estonia on her lists. Things were a bit less smooth at the aduana (department of transportation or something similar), as they actually didn't have Estonia or the make of our motorbike (Star) in their system. So Erik is now officially a Finnish driving a 'Starcraft'. Our bike already had a first name (Moto) so now we decided that it also deserved a second one - it is now named Moto Starcraft.



Visiting a local shop

In the first few days of being in Bolivia (our way through the sparsely populated area from the border town to the first bigger one) we  already saw much more wildlife than in Brazil. We saw a deer, a black jaguar, some capibara-like things (we saw capibaras only in cities in Brazil. They are world's biggest rodents and look like dog-sized guinea pigs), ostritch-like birds (got a video of us having trouble catching up with it with a bike) and also some dead crocodiles.



Capibaras

We saw several indigenous villages on the way and visited one as well. Their houses were made out of mudd and wood, with grass roofs (as were many non-indigenous towns on the way) and they make jewelery out of seeds, but we didn't encounter many traditional clothes. They still have their own languages and traditions and they have communal small fields where they grow food for themselves. Some villages are probably more welcoming than others but they are all happy if a passing tourist spends a bit of money in their village. 



Getting lunch in a village

On the way to Santa Cruz, we also stopped by some towns founded by the Jesuites. They all had very lovely town centers with a central plaza (a nice well-taken-care of park with plenty of shade and places to sit), a beautiful church by the plaza, with carvings in wood and stone,  and carved wooden pillars. The other houses and businesses around the central plaza follow the same style - wooden pillars and small painted decorations on the houses. I liked that even businesses like banks and phone shops had made their signs out of carved wood. Houses often followed the same style throughout the whole town, although the further from the centre, the less strict the style (wooden pillars and covered walkways seem to continue even into the biggest city of the country).



A bank has made an effort to blend in

On the 1. of November evening​ we were circling around San Ignacio and noticed that the center of the town was quite empty of people and most businesses were closed. During the day we had seen quite a lot of people around the graveyard and we noticed many people moving​ in this direction also in the dark. We figured out that it has to be somehow connected to All Saints day (Día de los Muertes around here or Hingedepäev in Estonia).



Día de los muertes. Found the only small corner of the graveyard where there were a few graves without any people. Actually everything was full on people but it seemed disrespectful to start photographing them on this day

My experiences with that day in Estonia are that some older people or people who have lost someone recently, do go to the cemetery as well to light a candle, but mostly in our house we just light a candle (if we remember that it is Hingedepäev) - so not a very big and important holiday.

When we made it to the graveyard in San Ignacio and parked Moto in the sea of motorbikes outside the gate, we realised that the whole town was there. All the graves were full of candles and flowers; people had come with chairs and snacks and drinks (nothing alcoholic) and were just sitting and talking to each other. And people of all ages did the same - from small children to teenagers to the oldest members of the family. Away from the graves there were people cooking and selling traditional food and drinks. That was quite an amazing experience and an amazing difference to the attitude in Estonia.

So now we are staying two weeks in Santa Cruz, which is the biggest city in Bolivia (but not the capital) to rest and organise some things. For example camping and living outside is starting to take a toll on all of our stuff - the wearing, the sun, the washing, the dust and ants chewing holes in everything. Everything we own is just falling into pieces faster than we can replace things. So we should deal with that a bit.

We also considered getting a new bike, as ours is a bit small for the mountains and needs more and more repairs every day. But since we entered with a Paraguayan bike, we have an obligation to exit with it as well. The only option is, when the bike is really really broken,  but in that case we would have to give the bike away for free to the aduana. And we could not get the new one on our name anyways because we are foreigners. So for now we will probably just change a few parts and see how far we get with it.



Fixing, fixing, fixing

Since we have been so far off the popular tourist attractions, we have had a total lack of communication with others who are going through the same difficulties of being a European on this crazy continent. Before Santa Cruz we have had contact with Europeans on exactly five different occasions (in more than four months of traveling). Usually we try to avoid them as well (especially in Australia, where seeing another backpacker was nothing special) but for now we are happy to actually communicate with someone 'like us'.

The other day we were looking for a new phone for me when Erik decided to put his phone in his very loose pants' pocket. Clearly not a good idea while you are riding a motorbike. Long story short, a car drove over it and we were one phone down again (it is quite annoying because we don't have a tablet or a computer or anything like that). By now we are both proud owners of chinese smartphones.

Some things discovered so far about Bolivia:

*People seem to respect and value their surroundings and traditions more than in Brazil and Paraguay. The cities and towns and countryside are considerably cleaner of trash than all the previous countries. The city centers actually have a historic feel to them and have used traditional methods.

The church in Concepcion

*There is a certain kind of 'shop ladies' who all look the same and act the same. They have a body shaped like a ball, they wear a short buttoned shirt and a knee-high (sometimes longer) skirt pulled up to the shirt and their hair is usually in two long braides (sometimes one). But the main thing about them is that they are absolutely not interested in selling you anything or even being nice or making eye contact.

So usually it goes like that:
Me: "Tienes agua?" (do you have water?)
Her (without standing up or looking my way or doing anything) : "Hay" (there is/ I have)
Me: "Puedo comprar?" (can I buy some?)
She remains quiet and as if I am not there. In 20 seconds she peeks up, sees that I am not leaving, sighs deeply and sends someone else to get the water. The sigh is especially loud if she does not have anyone else to send and she actually​ has to get up herself.
 I once wanted to buy something to drink but didn't really know what they were selling (second day in the country). The lady was getting more and more upset by my questions about what they had, so when I finally asked if I could see what she had, she said a very resolute and upset "no!" turned her back on me and walked away, although I was in the middle if buying other stuff as well.

*Before coming to Bolivia I had read about the fact that coca leaves are legal here to help against altitude sickness. What I did not know is that it is not the only reason they use it here. Most men constantly walk around with a big ball (from the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball) of leaves in one of their cheeks and you can buy it in every small shop. I suspect the shop ladies are the biggest consumers of the coca tea which is also sold everywhere

A lady selling coca leaves - both of the white bags are full of them

*The food is cheap, with the cheap everyday food usually being 2AUD for a big plate. It is still mostly rice and meat but there are also other options. For example there are 200 different varieties of potatoes in this country. And right now we are being spoilt by the choices of a big city (burgers, pizzas and shwarmas near our place).



Inside markets are the places for the cheapest food

*Some years ago Bolivia had a law that forbade selling fuel to any foreign vehicles. A few years ago it changed to 'you are allowed to sell fuel to foreign vehicles but you have to do so at double price'. That means that the rest of them still don't have to sell you. You can often get around it parking your bike a bit further away,  borrowing a small fuel canister from someone (everyone with foreign plates or no plates has one on their bike) and taking the fuel to the bike. We once made it to a gas station with very little fuel and engine troubles so we decided to drain the fuel to clean the fuel pump. After we had fixed the problem, Erik went to get the petrol. When he spoke to others standing in the line with a cannister, he found out that this particular fuel station also requires you to have a local id-card. Because they had been speaking to Erik, the fuel station also refused to sell fuel to two other guys because 'they may give some fuel to us'. At this point we didn't have any fuel to take the bike anywhere else either. Luckily one of the guys with a cannister took Erik to the other station, secretly bought fuel to us and brought him back with the fuel.

*When for the Brazilians we did not look so special because all races are common there, then in Bolivia we stand out again because 60% of people are more or less indigenous. That means that we are considered rich tourists again. It is hard to explain to people the difference between a tourist and a traveller. Tourists are usually on their trip for a very limited time (usually a few weeks tops) so they sleep in hotels, eat in restaurants, buy souvenirs, go see as many tourist attractions as they can and generally have spare money to spend. We could not afford any of that, neither financially nor emotionally - imagine looking at tourist sites for eight months in a row every day or carrying around souvenirs from everywhere. We spend more time trying to figure out how the local life works and then trying to live that life. Waterfalls and touristic bars are a great refreshment but not why we are here.