[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kfwGdrjUcVI/VH4DNyfVJEI/AAAAAAAAjK4/FqZOhRyJkVo/s144-c-o/IMG_0694.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage20Brazil3SaoLuisToNatal#6088307281677853762″ caption=”oneof the four or five river bridges” type=”image” alt=”IMG_0694.JPG” ]

Highlights: 5 hrs offroad driving with 2-wheel drive…
Lowlights: Only 4-wheel drive between Barreinhas and Paulino Neves
Loc: Tutoia
Acc: Pousada Jagatá

I was leaving Sao Luis now for the fifth time, hope this will be the last! Thanks again, muitos obrigada, to Jadiel, Sandra and Lukas to look after me so well and to help me so much around here!

Jadiel drove me to the airport to pick the rental car. All seemed ok, they even upgraded me to a Volkswagen Voyager at no more charge, still I paid expensive 2500 Reals for two days rent including GPS and insurance, plus fuel for over 1800 km of driving. Maybe they guessed this Voyager would be the better car for this long distance trip? They were probably correct. I also rented a GPS, expecting it would guide me through the country as reliable as it does in other countries, hahaha…

I was asking Jadiel to escort me the first km to check if all was ok with the car, and noticed soon, the GPS did not talk English or another language than Portuguese, although we were able to put the written text easy to German or English, but this was not also changing the voice. You may expect at an airport at an international rental car agency people first speak English and second rent out a GPS which does also? Not in Brazil… We returned to the rental car place, but the girl at the counter had to direct us to the airport terminal where they had internet (or maybe a more skillful employee) to download the English voice.
It turned out that the guy was not skilful enough to do the job without the help of Jadiel, at least it eventually worked after I had to invest one hour of delay. He even not only downloaded the new English voice, but also the latest GPS maps. But I learned only later what that meant…. as the office opened only at 7 am, I was on the road by 8.20 am only. LATE!

At home, I check on Google maps the way, and it showed the direction to Tutoia on easy viewable main roads via Barreinhas and Paulino Neves to Tutoia, the same showed my car GPS now. And didn’t I drive easy with the coach from Tutoia to Sao Luis on good main roads?

I happily drove on, concentrated well on the new situation, got quickly out of Sao Luis’s traffic, got used to the many many speed bumps despite flying over two or three, passed a few smaller villages and on more or less good overland quite empty roads I was soon in Barreinnhas. I already noticed my GPS showed only the main road, and this one even not always on the correct position, if at all, despite the download of the new maps. Keep the general direction, use common sense, use the compass in my kayak GPS, and the car GPS map sooner or later caught up again. On passing villages there are no maps at all, no road signs, and mostly you have to pass criss cross through tiny rough pothole and sandy streets somehow, following your instinct, and just in case you have to ask which I had to do more than once.

In Barreinhas, I found the road going out of the city pointing to Paulino Neves on a rusty barely visible sign,at least a sign at all, but it was the first time I hit an unpaved road, and I guessed this cant be correct? I asked again, and from some motor bike taxi drivers I eventually understood this road is really not accessible for two wheel drive, only for 4-wheel drive, too many sand dunes grew on the street, and I should better ask at the tourist agency. I found a big one eventually, sure all private and commercial, and was already wondering about the many 4-wheel tucks ready to take a shedload of tourist into this desert, similar to the one our group used to bring me first time to my beach spot from Primeira Cruz.

There, a guide spoke some words English, and confirmed the dead end situation for a regular car here in Barreinhas. This short section to Paulino Neves was a no go for me and my Volkswagen Voyager car. SHIT! Why the heck did I not know about this problem? Jadiel has been to Paulino Neves just the weekend before to check the road situation, and said something about a very sandy road, but I was asking him only if he has taken the main road, as the Google maps showed such a big road, I came with the coach from Tutoia with no problem, and was driving until now on good roads? No more talk about the road situation after.

When Jadiel had eventually organized my originally planned (with 700 Reals quite expensive) pick up from Paulino Neves which I read on e-mail just the morning when I arrived in Tutoia, he explained the way how to get me from there: A friend´s 4-wheel truck comes from Barreinnhas to Paulino Neves and goes back with me to change to a regular car for the drive to Sao Luis. At that point I thought why the heck does he need a 4-wheel truck to Paulino Neves? There is a big road signed on the map? He probably has guessed I would have wanted to stop outside on the beach some where, instead of paddling into the river, this was my explanation. And I always assumed the coach has been driving just the regular signed route from Tutoia via Paulino Neves and Barreinhas, and just took that long due to the frequent long stops on the way. But no, the coach drove a wide wide detour south…which I didn`t notice while sleeping in the coach…all misunderstanding and assumptions. When I eventually made clear I’d like to drive the rental car myself, neither Jadiel nor Lukas realised the need to explain the no-go situation on the regular direct way from Barreinhas to Tutoia.

The guides in the commercial tourist agency said that there is a possibility to go with a regular car through the Passagem do Canto and via Cardosa, starting a bit south of Barreinhas. It is a rough sandy and rocky path, but one would be able to make it with a 2-wheel drive only. But I’d need a guide with a small motor bike driving ahead, charging me 200 Reals…hmmmm, do they only want to make money from me? Are they trustworthy and reliable with this explanation? Couldn’t I just check my satellite maps and GPS and try to find the way myself? I could try, the guide said, and looked at me with some pity…

It was already 12.30h, they said it would take 5-6 hrs to get to Tutoia via this way, and I made a quick gut feeling decision. Yes, I will do this…the way retour and via good roads would be endless, and the risk not to find this other offroad path or to get stuck was too high. I felt time pressure, my car rental was only for 2 days, and I would spend a lot of money more anyway going back on the long way.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-QoITbOrXuio/VH4DNJbQlRI/AAAAAAAAjK4/KCEj_5FTp7U/s144-c-o/IMG_0692.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage20Brazil3SaoLuisToNatal#6088307270654924050″ caption=”My guide Martin having a break at a small river” type=”image” alt=”IMG_0692.JPG” ]

My guide looked strong and quite qualified with his official shirt and tour guide tag clipped to it, and I decided to trust the locals and to pay the fee they asked for. We both filled up at a gas station, and I already felt a bit strange to pay the motor bike’s fuel just now as a pre-payment on the 200 Reals, but eventually accepted and trusted he wouldn’t just drive away now…

The truth is, without the guide I wouldn’t have made it so quickly, if at all. I got stuck 3 times in the sand, where either he helped me or waited for more guys to eventually drive up to organize a mutual digging and pushing. There were many side roads where it was not obvious which one to take, and taking the wrong one I may have been stuck in the bush somewhere without anyone passing along for days, if at all. In the small villages along the way I’d have to ask many times, even my guide had to do it occasionally. Martin Wagner, my guide, did a great job, was friendly and helpful and my paranoia about all my valuables getting robbed and myself raped and murdered somewhere in the bush were gone 🙂

The drive itself was crazy with a regular car, thank goodness I didn’t yet have my kayak on the roof! It would have been shaken to the bones and with my planned improvised roof rack of foam and ropes it would have been a big problem They already said it will be sandy and very rocky and rough, and the stress I put on the poor rental car was immense. Not to talk about the stress on myself, but this eventually turned into fun, this unexpected rally drive! I was actually surprised they were accepting to take me along, being a woman and having no idea about my driving skills, but a look at my person must have made them think I’d be able to do it… 🙂

[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-rx6lIRqe8aI/VH4DCWKIYVI/AAAAAAAAjK4/RTXBgaPXjy0/s144-c-o/IMG_0698.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage20Brazil3SaoLuisToNatal#6088307085094183250″ caption=”another bridge” type=”image” alt=”IMG_0698.JPG” ]

Martin was driving very fast ahead, as it was reasonable to do so on the mostly sandy soft ground. And he still would have to go back the same way afterwards! After the first time I got stuck on a small mountain, we released some air out of my tires, which we probably should have already done at the beginning. The sounds coming from my poor car when I hit either rocks or high sand with the wheels in deep ridges were horrible, and I really prayed the car would hold up and I’d not do too much of a wrong move… I was driving really like a 4-wheel rally driver, fast, very concentrated and was flying over the very mixed rocky and/ or soft or hard sandy path, trying to avoid the highest bumps,rock sand deepest ridges 🙂 It didn’t prevent me to get stuck two more times, for once, a load of about 20 guys on a big 4-wheel truck came up and were all pushing! Glad there is not NO traffic on this traversia…

The landscape changed from sand dunes to bush to rocks and all mixtures, all desert-like dry. Only when we were crossing small rivers, here crystal clear as springs and not muddy, it was a really beautiful place to be! These were the tourist destinations to go to. Unfortunately, we were passing those lovely spots so quickly, besides on one small wooden bridge over an idyllic small crystal clear river in the middle of nowhere Martin´s motorbike stopped working. What comes now, a wish of more money or not going on, some robbers jumping out of the bush …? Nothing scary…he had to push the lightweight bike uphill, and ran down in the 2nd gear to get it starting again. All good!

On the small villages we passed I was asking myself again what people are living on here? Huts of the simplest style, mostly made of wood and clay with palm leave roofs, all dry and dusty land, a few cows, goats and sheep, many kids, not much agriculture to see, and they can’t even just go fishing like people at the sea. I mostly saw the inhabitants sitting in the shade in front of their houses on the ever-present plastic chairs, or lying in a hammock. But as they had electricity even in the most remote village, most of them also had a sat dish with TV. What kind of jobs do they work here that pay so well?

Eventually we hit the paved road from Paulino Neves a few kilometers to the left, somewhere around Vista Allegre. leaving about 15 km to Tutoia on a good road. Thank goodness! I thanked Martin for his great job, gave him the agreed 200 Reals not minus the already paid fuel. This was really worth it – and actually fun! Some highly concentrated, very risky for the car, but fun driving for 5 hrs. Now on the calm road, I noticed scarily my car made strange vibrating noises? What is that? Something broken? The noise went away when I accelerated to the third and higher gear, maybe I broke the second one using it mostly for the last five hours? I had no idea, listened carefully, but on higher speed all sounded ok.

It has taken me until the next day and many more hours of worry to eventually find out it was only the air condition ventilator playing up occasionally, then frequently and all the time, later again less. But the a/c all the time was working, thank goodness.

I arrived in Tutoia much later than planned at 6 pm, and Marcos was happy to see me, admiring I made it via the Passagem do Canto with this car! I dared to ask about a discounted room, having spent already so much money on this leg and he instantly gave me free one for tonight, thanks very much! No way I could reach Fortaleza tonight as planned, I’d have simply to invest a third day on driving and renting the car.

I relaxed in my friendly a/c room, washed the road dust off in the shower, and fell asleep quite soon.If you ever think about having a holiday in this area, go and sign up in the Pousada Jagata! It a a beautiful, friendly and very well maintained to European standard place.