[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-gfXxpBn9YrY/VGSjAIlPklI/AAAAAAAAins/m0Ssz_i7IT0/s144-c-o/IMG_0509.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage20Brazil3SaoLuisToRecife#6081164619556033106″ caption=”Back to Australia??? Only Recife in Brazil…” type=”image” alt=”IMG_0509.JPG” ]

I said once more good bye to Sandra and her apartment- muitos obrigada for hosting and looking after me all the time! And this time I know we will see each other one last time before I eventually go south after successfully having reached Humberto de Campo for the third time going from Recife north now….

We left at 1.30 pm on Thursday, planning to drive through the night with three drivers in shifts and one other person. One driver would be myself. Not that I am scared of driving in another country with a nice heavy pick up, but Brazilian country roads are not German motorways or North American highways where you put in the cruise control, one leg up the dashboard and start to read a book while rolling along…at least I do…

Here, the state of the always only one lane highway is very varied – from brand new with all compulsory lane markers in place, to under construction without any security markers for the road workers, to full of potholes, ripples or with worn out surface from the trucks that the bottom of a regular car almost hits the ground. And you have those big frequent speed bumps in the villages – probably the only things that work preventing people from racing. Plus – when you are lucky they are on the side lane – donkeys, cow, goats and whatever animals, children riding rusty bikes, small motorbikes with a whole family on it, probably without light at night, highly overloaded trucks in height and volume, still moving car wrecks, and surely all those vehicles are moving along at the highest speed you can imagine.

You are overtaken anywhere, side by side at the speed bumps, over single or double yellow lines, at hard to look over hills and curves, by racing trucks and buses as well as by motorbikes. If you are not doing the same, you will sink hopelessly. I think I gained the respect of my three male co-drivers once I also overtook on a double yellow line, at least they eventually all fell asleep one after the other when I had my first driving shift at night. Still I insisted not to driver faster than 100 km/h as my kayak was also co-driving on the roof, tied tight upside down to the max.  Will I paddle the next days with a heavy rocker and wonder why it is not going straight any more…?

Well, we all survived, changing shifts every two hours or so, the rest of the guys deeply sleeping. I have the ability to sleep any time in a car – when the conditions are trustworthy. You are getting used to everything…

We found the dentist friend of Sandra’s dentist relative in a not too trustworthy area, but her surgery work and office was all right. Much better than that rough bricklayer in Sao Luis who was working so badly that the filling fell out of my tooth again. Woman have just a lighter touch…

On trying to find the apartment of the relative in the heavy traffic maze, Jadiel found eventually that the key wasn’t left for us, and we had to find a reasonable posada for the night. Eventually, at 7.30 pm we made it to a shopping center to draw some money out of a bank machine to pay the posada, and to have some dinner in a quite horribly noisy food court. All said, I will be happy to be back tomorrow on my hopefully for now relative quiet water! But a big thanks to Jadiel and his friends to make such an effort to support my crazy trip!