The little border town sitting on the river of the same name has played a larger part in our journey than we ever expected, until our second alternator stopped generating. The mechanic’s shop is back in there and we’d never have found Jonah without our hotel owner’s help:
We have yet to get GANNET2 repaired after the second alternator refuses to charge. We have had our laundry done, we’ve bought food fuel and water and were ready to drive to the Amazon River 350 miles south of here. The repair cost US$50 to send the alternator by bus to the city to be bench tested and fixed and we were charged $100 for the work done here including repairing and reshaping the skid plate to prevent a repeat of the damage to the alternator. Unfortunately the alternator which charges our house batteries has decided it needs more attention so Jonah is taking it to Macapá himself to get it fixed or to replace it with something else that will fit.
Not too painful at all, all things considered, as we are snug in air conditioning and Rusty is happy hanging out with the hotel staff outside. He is such a quiet unassuming dog everyone pets him and he has made himself at home here.
And so we say we hope to say goodbye in a week to the little village next to France. We expected to be on our way after one night but here we are practicing our zen meditation.
The next obstacle south of here is how to cross the mighty Amazon River to get to Belem (“Bethlehem”) from where we plan to drive south to Brasilia and see the coast at Rio de Janeiro. We are in touch with a ferry that leaves every Tuesday so we have postponed our planned sailing Tuesday for one week. That should be quite the boat ride across the Amazon.
The road south from here is BR156 and including about 70 miles of dirt is about 360 miles to the ferry. We anticipate one overnight stop on the way to meet our ship at the port of Santana near Macapá. Then it’s about 32 hours across the mouth of the Amazon to Belem.
Once south of the Amazon we will finally be on our way to more populated areas and we hope less heat and humidity.
It is Spring in the southern hemisphere and we are debating how soon we can reach the cool open spaces of Patagonia for a second summer in Argentina and Chile.
This part of the continent has been fascinating but it’s hard work and quite isolating as not many overlanders come here.
The Brazilian bakery and its offerings. Bread isn’t as crisp here as in France and tends to be sweeter.
The fruits have been outstanding, crisp apples juicy sweet oranges and the best papaya we’ve had.
And we never even noticed yesterday’s holiday. Oops. I like that the coup was “largely” bloodless. Got to scramble a few eggs I suppose from time to time.
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