Battling The Heat

 I have never much minded the heat in the Florida Keys though the last time I went home I felt it a lot more than I used to so I guess I am no longer adapted to life in the tropics.

It was a warm damp night by the lake but we set up our fabs, opened the doors and windows only to be awoken at four in the morning but some horrendous deep grunting from the forest. Something had annoyed our primate neighbors and the monkeys started howling and grunting in the dark. I asked Layne what she thought it was and she just elbowed me and told me to go back to sleep as she couldn’t hear anything. Rosie, our Brazilian overlanding neighbor saved my sanity by confirming what I heard but Layne pretended not to hear. It was a lovely sunny morning promising much heat.

We decided it was a good time to swim and cool off while we consider whether or not to stay another night. We got in the water and sure enough some pink river dolphin showed up but they never got close. I went up to GANNET2 to try to get a picture with my telephoto from above but all I got was Layne swimming. There really was a pod of pink Amazon River dolphin out there. 

I worried about Rusty and the heat but just to prove me wrong he went out and started sunbathing under the blazing sun. Webb thinks I’m overly worried about him and now I find they are ganging up on me. 

The plan was to have lunch at the restaurant but they had no fish, they don’t allow dogs on the patio and Layne made ham and pickle sandwiches before we packed and said goodbye to our neighbors and cranked the air conditioning. 104 degrees and excessive humidity  was our portion. Rosie and Paolo planned to sorbs a couple more nights before going north to Venezuela.

It was a nice spot and with clean toilets and cold showers for free it was easy to hang out. It was just too hot and the shaded areas under the trees were wet and marshy and too soft for our vehicles to park.

The dam built in 1989 creating Lake Balbina. 

A bit exposed to the sun here:

We saw some brightly colored birds but the only familiar ones were the splendid red macaws flying across the lake. It was a great spot to hang out. 

The road back to the main highway 50 miles away seemed to vanish under our wheels a lot faster than it had driving out to the lake. There is a weird checkpoint near the dam where they took our license plate number and wrote down my name when we cave and went. Some sort of security precaution I suppose.

And then we were out in the wilderness driving back to Highway 174. The road to the dam needs maintenance but it is quite a sophisticated highway of its own. 

Brazil Rodavia (highway) 174 is a straight shot north through jungle and ranch land. 

We didn’t drive far  as Layne found a hotel in short order with a pool and a $40 air conditioned room and $10 fir Rusty so we stopped at three, unloaded GANNET2 and left Rusty sleeping on the tile in our room while we went for a swim.

It’s a family room with bunks for the kids, a large not air conditioned sitting area and a deck put back overlooking fruit orchard. After a swim and with the sun starting to set it’s a nice spot to put your feet up and read (or write a blog).

The individual parking spaces are a bit too small for a 21foot Promaster so we parked near the restaurant after unloading our overnight gear and of course Rusty’s bed. If he has his bed in a room he is much more relaxed  for some reason even if he wants to lie on the cold tiles. 

And dinner was fish and salad, lovely fresh greenery on our plates.

By The Lake

 We got off the couch, we shut down the a/c and left Manaus. But wait, we had delayed enough it was time for an early lunch, which meant fish. Check out this sign, it says they have a buffet on weekdays, the “second through sixth useful days (Féria).” 90 reals is about $16,50 per 2.2 pounds of food. 

We skipped the buffet thanks to our extra friendly helpful waiter. We got a medium sized grilled fish. We knew it would be plenty for two but in fact we took half of everything to go and had the rest for dinner.

He really went out of his way to communicate, to listen and to make us feel welcome, typically warm Brazilian kindness to foreigners.  He also knew how to fillet a fish, nice job.

Coconut ice cream with a not overly sweet brownie. 

And then back on the road, Highway 174, five hundred paved miles north to Boa Vista (beautiful view).

There were some potholes but we could hold about 45mph most of the time. There were lots of trucks and I slowed down to let them by when it was safe. We’re retired and they are working.  

I cannot imagine driving here without air conditioning as it’s hot in dry season. Yesterday was cooler than it has been at around 93 degrees but we had a novel on the radio and the windows tight shut.

I like listening to Detective Bosch who knows Los Angeles and nowhere else, as the narrative takes me out of Brazil and reminds me of the familiar. Michael Connelly’s novels are easy on the ear, for some reason I find the plot easy to follow without getting distracted. 

When we got to Figueiredo, two hours north of lunch in the suburbs of Manaus we turned right and took the paved road to the lake. The lake has been formed by a huge dam and iOverlander has a wild camp site located on the shore close to a restaurant. 

The road to the dam is heavily engineered which was probably required by the construction company. You don’t see roads like this to tourist attractions. 

There was one section that looked like an adapted air strip. Either that or someone figured they needed a four lane road half a mile long. 

Then it rained briefly but heavily, as it does around here even in dry season.

It was a fifty mile drive to the lake called Represa de Balbina, a lake created by the construction of the dam completed in 1989.

The road to the dam deployed some engineering talent but maintenance is not a priority here as happens so often in Latin America. 

It seemed unbelievable when we arrived to just park where we liked overlooking the lake opening the doors to the breeze. Until that is a shower blew through. 

There is a toilet block with two units, seats on the toilets, clean and a cold shower each and quite free. There is also a hose and an electrical plug looking a bit dubious but handy for someone wanting to charge phone. 

Balbina restsursnt closes at 6 and we were stuffed from lunch so it would wait until lunch Thursday before we leave. 

In accepting that we are off the beaten track we are resigned to not meeting overlanders traveling, no stories to tell so we were surprised to spot a camper truck already parked. 

Meet Rosie and Paolo from Salvador on the Atlantic Coast. Like us they are child free, retired and with no obligations at home. They’ve already driven to Ushuaia and are on their way to Alaska do keep an eye out. Their plan is to drive north to Venezuela and carry on to Colombia to cross to Panama. They have no visa problems entering Venezuela unlike us, but the country is such a basket case they have a back up plan to go back south and follow our route to the coast of Peru and go north that way if Venezuela is too hard. It’s a country not used to tourists, a dictatorship with few consumer supplies and uncertain supplies of fuel so it’s a tough place to travel. For us it’s impossible as our governments don’t get along so we can’t get permission to enter even if we wanted to. 

Paolo built their Chevy S10 diesel four wheel drive pickup using aluminum and fiberglass. They have a full kitchen, a toilet behind the white door with a hot water shower, 200 amps of electricity, and a diesel cabin heater and rooftop a/c. Pretty compact but you have to make the bed every day though the cabin can be used with the roof down. It’s a clever design. 

We shared our Starlink to save them

the bother of setting up theirs. And at night the air cools off and with fans we are all three quite comfortable.