4 days in Florianopolis and we were off to meet Mark and Jessica freshly back from Miami. We first spent the first night in Curitiba where we found a Irish Bar to catch up and plan our next few days in Rio De Janeiro. The next day we caught a flight and after 3 hours in the airport we found then rented a rad condo front and centre on the beach right smack dab in the middle of Copacabana. We figured we would rent a car, that turned into a huge pain in the ass as Brazil can sometimes be plagued by bureaucracy and confusing paper work. A few frustrating hours later we put our feet up and soaked up the area.
We turned 2 nights into 4 nights as we kept meeting cool people at the Panorama Eco Hostel in Florianopolis. Yaniv and Olya (the Canadian girl and Israeli guy) left as well as Ashlee from Ireland. So as we said our goodbyes to them we said hello to 3 new friends. In the picture above we have left to right; Paula, Deborah (Cuban), Lucy and Charles (English) and me. We all took Mark’s car to the beach for a surf session, it was a beautiful day and the waves were great. We all pretty much got our asses handed to us as you’ll see by the pics but fun none the less. A cold beer on the beach followed by a family size chicken salad ended a rough day at the office.
Good Peeps
After 5 perfect days in Ilha Do Mel, we were off to our next destination, the world famous “Florianopolis.” After 2 hours, a hacksaw and a can a coke we finally got Mark’s Jetta out of the broken down parking garage we had kept his car for the last 5 days. We were rolling, a mere 350km to Florianopolis, this travelling was a cake walk compared to the old days on the bike (miss you Maria, I hope your Paraguayan daddy is good to you.)
Multiple hostel stops later, we came across a quaint little place called “Panorama Eco Hostel” a super small little family hostel. It was perfect, quiet, friendly and helpful, this was a great place to call home for the next 4 nights while in and around Florianopolis. There was never more than 5 people staying here and everyone became friends and hung out daily. Run by the cool ass “Eugene” and his Brazilian wife we had lots of help planning a hike, a surf day, a nothing day and day day (I know that makes no sense). We met a Canadian, a Israeli, a English couple, a Irish girl and a Cuban girl, he’s photo’s of them and us…..
The first full day we went on a terrific hike with some of the friends we met to a remote beach. 3 hours, 5km of rough tracks, a lot of water and a cup of “Mate” later we arrived at the remote beach. We didn’t start the treck until about 1:30pm, so we only had time for quick swim before we turned around and started back (dark is bad when you have no light and need to decend down steep rocks)
More pics from Ilha Do Mel…
One of the days we were on the island we decided to hike from one side of the island “Encantadas” to the other side where there was an old Brazilian fortress from the 17th century that was built to protect Brazil from the Spanish….(Dam Spaniards) We are not in the best shape anymore, mostly because of the bread and cheese diet we’ve been on, but we managed the 11km hike….We stopped at a lighthouse halfway, it was a lighthouse…
There are no roads on “Ilha Do Mel” just walking pathways, beaches and boats to get around. Here are some more pics of the Island…….
No more wheels….:(
We stayed another night in Foz Do Iguassu at Alex’s place (many more thanks to Alex and Rodolfo, you guys rule… ) Now that we were Marialess we took a night bus 900km east, where we arrived early in the morning in the city of Curitiba. We are pretty lucky backpackers, it’s only been about 30 hours since we lost our wheels and now we had a new set. Living in the city of Curitiba is my friend “Mark” (expat Canadian living in Brazil for 6 years) and his longtime Brazilian girlfriend “Jessica.” Being that Paula and I are terrible planners, Mark and Jessica were in Miami when we arrived. Lucky for us, they were so very generous and left us their 2010 pimped out Jetta to roll around in for the next 9 days until they returned from Miami. It was pretty sweet to have a GPS and nice car again, seriously “backpackers” is a world we shouldn’t be able to use.
We decided we would first go to the Island known as “Ilha Do Mel” (that’s “Honey Island” in gringo) It was a bit of effort getting all the ferries to our final destination of “Encantadas” a remote beach on Ilha Do Mel. That’s our friend from England “Wayne” he’s good a drinking beer. Check out the view we had for 5 days, that’s my desk for doing the blog!!!!
Monday morning,
We woke up early and refreshed after spending our previous day cleaning the bike and peeling stickers from the panniers. We were to be in Paraguay at 8:30 to meet up with Pablo (the middleman) at a gas station. Nervous we were, but after our meeting on Saturday I felt ok about the deal. Eventually Pablo arrived and we followed him to another gas station where we sat for a while and drank coffee, apparently waiting for Julio who was running a little late. Alas he showed and we proceeded in parade to a local Notary that Julio had clearly used multiple times. Everything was on the up and up and finally after a couple hours of paper work we were off to the bank to get the money. The bank was very high end, so there no doubts about the “quality” of the $100 bills, but walking around Ciudad del Este with a pocket full of $100’s was not ideal.With the paper work complete and money in hand it was time to drop the bike off in their little bike compound (this was the most nerve racking part, I had lots of cash in my pocket, I was in a strangers house in Paragauy, the paperwork declared the bike was now the property of Julio and I was handing the key over to Pablo :(
Everything went as advertised and we even ended up spending a few hours with Pablo. After leaving the bike in the compound he drove us to his business and introduced us to his wife and mother. Pablo owned a photocopy company that had a contract with local schools to photocopy their only “real book” so the kids had a photocopied version for the school year. Much different than Canada, it actually makes more sense. We even picked up his two kids from elementary school and went out for lunch at a local restaurant. It goes to show, these people may be much poorer than you or I and live in a much different society but they’re no different than us.
I’m glad Pablo (left) will be riding this bike with the financial help of Julio (middle), they were both real bikers that will show Maria the roads and TLC she deserves.
So long Maria, you were a faithful companion for us…..We’ll miss ya….
The plan was made. Rodolfo had helped a few other bikers in the past attempt to sell their bikes over the border in Paraguay, so his plan was good. Why Paraguay you ask? Well basically it’s the only country in South America where you can LEGALLY sell your bike.
Here was how we got to this point. Our options.
- Option 1: Ship the bike back to Canada (pros: Have the bike that took us on an unforgettable trip. cons: very expensive, tons of bureaucracy, last minute planning and realistically I wouldn’t ride a KLR that much in Canada.)
- Option 2: Sell it for cash illegally to a friend or stranger as a parts bike as they will never be able to register or drive it illegally. (pros: drive it all the way to Rio. cons: get very little money for the bike, stress of finding a buyer, not closing temp vehicle document with Brazil causing potential issues in the future with entry or if it turns into a parts bike, have the guilt of watching your loyal companion get torn apart.)
- Option 3: Go to Paraguay and attempt to sell the bike. (pros: potentially get a reasonable price for the bike and not have any more stress with what to do with it. cons: sell the bike a little earlier than I would have liked and the risk of something going sideways in the fast paced and sometimes dangerous city know as Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.
Our first step was to get over the border, which if you’ve been here you’ll know is different than any other border in the world. You simply swerve in and out of traffic following other bikers, blow past the Brazilian side over a bridge then through the Paraguay side looking forward and hoping nobody stops you. It’s really weird, but that’s how it works. Ciudad del Este is basically a shopping area for Brazilians who want to avoid the incredibly high taxes and duties of Brazil. The market area goes from Chinese knock-off Rolex’s and other garbage to high end malls selling real Rolex’s and expensive perfumes. Everyone has cash in their pockets and every corner has men with shotguns and bullet-proof vests. The advice from Brazilian’s be very careful and don’t stray too far from the border.
Step 2, drive around to bike shops and try and drum some interest from potential buyers. We did this three different times, crossing the border and approaching people at bike shops. We had some interest but with our poor Spanish it was difficult to gauge how serious the buyers were.
Step 3, return on Saturday, two days later with Rodolfo and try some more. Rodolfo had made some contacts in the previous day with a man who had bought another bike with Rodolfo’s assistance a few months earlier. We went to see these gentleman at a restaurant with another man who represented himself as a middleman. We arrived at the restaurant to 3 big-ass Harley’s and a group of guys having lunch. We were a little nervous at this point but they seemed like all right guys and Rodolfo didn’t seem too worried. We met some of the guys who were here to see a CCR concert that had been in town the night before. We met a man named “Julio” who spoke English and apparently was the money behind the meeting. These guys knew everything there was to know about bikes and had no misconceptions on the worth. The one hitch, where’s the panniers? They weren’t interested in the bike without the shiny aluminium boxes that had stored our valuables for the last two and a half months. Apparently panniers are the key to a quick sale down in these parts because every biker we met from this area wanted them. We agreed on a price that worked for both of us and arranged to meet on Monday morning to complete the transaction.
See you Monday………..
Sad truths had come to fruition…After the beauty of Iguassu Falls it was time to face the music and other reason we had come to this area, to sell the bike. You see this area is geographically unique, there are 3 borders within 5 km of each other; Argentina, Brazil and of coarse the wild west of Paraguay. 300km before we came into Puerto Iguassu (that’s the Argentina side of the falls) I had contacted a man through horizonsunlimited.com. Those of you who are new to the biker world may not know this but the HUBB (horizons unlimited Bulletin Board) is the number one information source for bikers traveling the world. One day while trying to figure out how to deal with the bike when the time came, I came across an article written about a fellow bikers experience selling in Paraguay. In the article was the name “Rodolfo” a site member who had offered his assistance in the sale process. Thinking I would not likely receive a reply, I took chance and emailed “Rodolfo” to see if he could offer some tips on the selling in Paraguay. Within hours I had a reply and an offer to meet for lunch, an offer I am so very thankful for. “Rodolfo” will inspire you if you’ve ever had any doubts about the biker community. Within hours he had arranged accommodation, a sales plan and any other help we may need strictly out of the goodness of his heart. I must really try and paint this picture a little better. Rodolfo has a schedule that would kill the average man, he runs a muti-national toy company 6 days a week, goes to school 5 days a week in the evenings, takes care of his family who have recently faced some very serious illness and tries to spend any remaining time with his girlfriend “Mariane.” He has an unrelenting schedule, yet he made every attempt in whatever time he had to help us though our travels. He is really a true class act and we can’t thank him enough. Rodolfo you are the definition of “biker community,” we couldn’t have done it without you.
This place you see in the Photos is the weekend home of Rodolfo’s cousin “Alexandre” another biker with a big heart. Alex met up with us and gave us the keys to this little haven at a price that was way beyond fare. It would be home for the next 5 days, a place to swim, tan, eat, relax and prepare my sweet “Maria” for sale in Paraguay. Other bikers have been to this place before and can attest to how sweet it is, if you go to Foz Do Iguassu get a hold of Rodolfo….
More shots of Iguassu Falls taken from the Argentinian side of the Falls. You can go to either Brazil or Argentina or both to view this magnificent sight, we only did Argentina as everyone will tell to get up close and personal go there. We even spend a bunch of money to take a zodiac boat out to the base of the falls. A little wet? No you get fire hosed!!!!!!!!I couldn’t stop giggling, what a terrific sight and day….Another must see before you die.
