Life on the Road

Life on the road turned out to be very different than I had expected it to be. First of all, I was surprised by the comfort level of the trip. Our big yellow truck, Bob Esponja, is very spacy with more than enough seats to accommodate everyone, for now. The seats lift up to make room for everyone’s large packs so the ails are cleared for walking and stretching out your legs.

In Brazil and I believe the rest of South America, they don’t have adequate plumbing to flush down toilet paper. As a result, you throw your used toilet paper into a basket next to the toilets. Furthermore, most rest stop stations aren’t very sanitary forcing you to kinda squat while going. You can imagine what it looks like; I won’t give you the full details.

I also expected to eat a lot worse for the duration of the trip while not in Churrascarias (Brazilian steak houses) or restaurants. Surprisingly, we have fantastic meals all the time! We have a rotational cook and clean up groups where you plan a meal and go shopping on a budget. Camping food has never tasted so fine!

I would just like to say that Brazil is probably the most beautiful country I have ever been travelling through. Gustavo and Patrick there you go :) and any other Brazilians reading this. During our occasional full day drives we drive through the land of the gauchos with vast open green pastures adjacent to the great dark green forests. The blazing sun bakes the tarmac until its scorching hot. You could easy fry an egg on it!

On the way to Parati we meandered along the stunning coast line. On one side you see the sparkeling sapphire blue sea creeping up on the white sandy beaches with every wave and on the other thick jungle forest covering mountains along which we drive.

Brazil is big, I’m taking huge, I’m talking massive no its enormous, its gigantic!!! We spent 2 and a half full days driving to get to the Pantanal region from Parati. We would leave at 7:30 and stop driving at around 18:00 with a small 30 minutes lunch break to stretch the legs. However, with the spectacular scenery, welcoming people, tasty food it makes the drives worth it.