Team Lost Ravages Southern Brazil

The staff at the museum in in Witmarsum warned us that if we decided to spend the night in their back lot we should know that school buses start to show up early. In the photo below you can see one parked before 6:30. 

We bugged out between the parents and buses all dropping off kids. By seven we were three miles up the road waiting for a coffee shop to open to sell us caffeine and bread. And that was where we got swamped by curious Brazilians anxious to see our home on wheels.

We got our coffee, “the fuel that moves you” and got on the road to Rio Negro toward the Atlantic, all day under gray skies. 

It was a smooth state highway amid rolling fields and forests. It was lovely, even before eight  of a Monday morning.

The plan was a slow drive through the rain toward the coast. Our idea was to split a five hour drive down through the mountains to sea level, then we would arrive in Tuesday at the coast and have two days to hope sunshine would appear to recharge our house batteries.

The weather is not conducive to beach time at the moment and this has made life a bit annoying this week. And yes I know it’s not the end of the world but we are trying to figure out a better strategy than just sitting aboard GANNET2 listening to the rain. Take a look: 

So we decided to stop in Rio Negro, home to Teutonic Architecture…

…and do a couple of loads of laundry. 

We love Brazils do-it-yourself laundries. This one had no signs prohibiting dogs (only prohibiting the washing of dog related laundry for some reason), Rusty got to enjoy some air conditioning.

Small washers were $3:50 while big one was $7:00 so it wasn’t cheap but it got the rugs clean and our clothes clean and cheered us up. Good deal.

We drove across a bridge out of Rio Negro in the state of Paraná into the city of Mafra in the state of Santa Catarina home to a giant Condor supermarket. How big is it? Have you ever seen this many Easter eggs over your head? 

I am learning to use Google Chrome’s translate feature. Check it out:

Apparently you can add cinnamon and sugar and make it sweet or make it savory. But we will never know because Layne was shopping from a list. And we still failed to remember the milk. It’s cold enough here, less than 80 by day and mid 60s by night, that I’m back to drinking tea but I have run out at last of Yorkshire Gold. Brazilian tea is feeble even double bagged.

Being productive is second nature to us so I got Rusty walked and found a trash can before the rain came back and we got in the road with milk and all.

More rolling fields and a narrow bridge.

A very narrow bridge but we fit fine. Surprising really. 

And we stopped to give Mr Precocious some downtime.  I’m doing a lot more Rusty lifting these days to get him into the van and onto our bed. He’s learning to accept he needs the help. I love my dog. 

We drove some more and it turns out Santa Catarina State has crappy roads. 

And fog. This suddenly was getting hard and the downhills were steep making it even harder. 

Oh and trucks barreling along finding a tentative slow moving gringo in their way. 

But American metal is the best picape (“pee-cah-pay”pickup) there is:

And so we drove thinking we needed to find somewhere to spend the night. A campground we checked down a side road…

However the place was closed with a for sale sign. We made a note in the iOverlander app for others, if there are any, driving through here. Then we got back on the torn up highway.

And we drove on down the mountains seeing things as we went. 

They do a really shitty job of patching the gouges caused by overloaded trucks. 

Around 4:30 we stopped here and asked the ladybug the house if we could stop for the night. She said yes then her husband (I think) appeared and nixed the plan. Oh well, on we went. 

But before we left a clutch of Brazilians approached us but instead of threatening us free loading van lifers they wanted to know where we were from and how we lived. More lovely people.

But we still had to keep going. 

Second gear manual to get down the hill without burning the brakes. I told you it was a tough day. 

I’ve never heard of any of these cities. I have no idea where we were. Team Lost in action. 

We didn’t even try to stop for the night here. 

We found a gas station but they said no overnight parking. Sigh. However at our second gas station we struck gold. 

Free and the view isn’t bad.