Brazil - Amazon

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Dear family and friends

There is only one road out of the small dirt-street village of Oiapoque on the northern border of Brazil, and that road goes south to the Amazon River. The first part of the road is red dirt and passes though rainforest – but because it was raining the road was slippery red mud. Then the road is tar to the town of Macapa on the northern bank of the Amazon. It was late at night when arrived in Macapa, after 13 hours of travelling (there are few accommodation options along the route).



'The road to civilization' - the only road from the northern border of Brazil passes though beautiful amazon rainforest.






I pushed the bike across many of the numerous wooden bridges on this road - just to be safe, as they were either slippery (with muddy off-road tires) or........



.... were in a poor state of repair.  A partly completed bridge is to the left - though work on it seems to have stopped some time ago.




Replacing broken brake pads.


Whilst looking for a hotel late at night in Macapa, we ended up in a dark back-street, and we were slightly concerned when a couple of guys suddenly crossed the road and appeared next to us. They turned out to be young motorcycle mechanics who were crazy about bikes and simply wanted to see our bike and to ask if we needed help. They jumped on a motorcycle and we followed them around town while they took us to one hotel after another to find a vacancy. We were even invited to have lunch with their families the following day but we were due to catch the ferry in the morning.

Scarlet Macaw.

No matter what we'd read or heard about the size of the Amazon river, nothing quite prepared us for the reality. The Amazon delta is 240 km wide, and the main stream (which we crossed) is 80 km wide. The navigable route is longer, and it took us 40 hours to cross the river in the ferry, which wound its way though the channels between islands and across broad open stretches of water.

Amazon River boats.

The bike tied down on the ferry.

River channel between islands.

Accommodation on the ferry is a matter of finding a space to hang your hammock on the open deck.

During the night a storm caught us when we were out in an open stretch of water and the water became rough (waves!) – most people on the boat became sea-sick, including Carmen and myself. Our hammocks were swinging so much they were banging hard against other peoples' hammocks and also against the side of the boat – so Carmen and I tied our hammocks together and to the side of the boat – and we were able to get some sleep.

Riverside houses were common on the banks.

In the middle of the river, the north and south banks are not visible (the land in the photo are islands in the delta).

Boats often pull up to the ferry and sell food such as fish, prawns, local rum from palm nuts etc.

On the second day of the river crossing, Carmen was sitting next to the rail on the lower deck (which is almost at water level) when a pair of Pink River Dolphins surfaced a few metres away from her – she could see their eyes clearly, and they were looking back at her. It was a very special moment for her.


 South bank of the Amazon at Belem.


Belem - the Portuguese influence is apparent from these windows and the tile mosaics.

Our tyres that we had sent to Belem were waiting for us at the post office. The old dirt tyres that had served us so well were retired (we swapped them for a taxi fare!). After a few days in Belem we were ready to head off down though Brazil to Rio de Janeiro.