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BroDrive

September 26, 2009 in Brazil by tom | 1 comment

We had to postpone the Brazilian brodrive a couple days while the friendly people at American Airlines tracked down Ted’s bag which had been re-routed the wrong way from Dallas. Kelsey’s younger brother didn’t seem too concerned though—he’d just travelled 18 hrs without any travel on: no book, no mp3 device, no toothbrush … the invincible years.

Highway 101 between Rio and São Paulo winds around a mountainous coastline and offers tantalizing glimpses of turquoise blue ocean lagoons and secret beaches lying seductively behind curtains of Atlantic rain forest. We drove to Itamambuca a small town just north of Ubatuba; honed our pool skills on a very unforgiving table, surfed and drank homemade caipirinhas.

The two T's Chilling

Paraty, further north, is one of those fairytale towns with cobbled streets, white-washed buildings and creeping bougainvillea. We stopped in here for their annual Pinga Festival which is a celebration of artesanal cachaça, the main ingredient in the national drink … some were better than others.

Tasting all the Pinga

The south of Brazil has a surprisingly large German population and we decided to brodrive 900 kilometers to Blumenau to see the German founded town and to sample some of their renown beers. We stayed at Hotel Gloria which has been awarded Joydrive’s best free breakfast buffet.

And then on to Florianópolis to hang on the beach for a few days. We saw Ted off with some beer champagne from Blumenau, two 40 ounce bottles of cachaça from Itamambuca and four bottles of hot sauce from Florianópolis.

Beautiful Floripa

Update Brazil

September 4, 2009 in Brazil by tom | No comments

The thing about driving to South America is that you’re not always guaranteed quality roads. Here’s a quick update of how Marlin, our Volkswagen Golf, is doing after driving the Pan-American Highway for over 35,000 kms.

update-brazil

Salar de Uyuni: A Sea of Salt

August 21, 2009 in Bolivia by tom | No comments

The largest salt flat in the world, the Salar de Uyuni in the southwest of Bolivia, stretches 10,000 square kilometers across the Altiplano to form one of the flattest areas on our planet. 12,000 feet above sea level the massive salt desert was created by the uplift and evaporation of the giant prehistoric Lake Minchin. In Bolivian mythology the Salar is actually a collection of evaporated tears from nearby Mount Tunupa forever mourning the loss of her kidnapped son.

A vastness of salt, blindingly white and bloody cold at night the Salar de Uyuni is a formidable place and after hearing horror stories about drivers getting lost and people dying we decided to hire a local guide to show us around… apparently some of the minerals make compass readings unreliable.

Roberto was a sprightly, gap toothed ex-minor from Potosi and claimed to speak 7 languages, our tour was in Spanish. He told us that the Salar is believed to hold half of the world’s reserves of lithium but the only thing it yields right now is salt, about 25 thousand tonnes annually. He gave us a pretty good tour condensing a three day trip into a comfortable days drive. We ended the day giving Roberto an impromptu driving lesson …his first time driving and up to 80, not bad.

We had both been looking forward to driving into the Salar and after battling some of the worst roads so far, Bolivia finally offered up a salty smooth tarmac twenty five times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats. See below for Kels’ celebratory kung fu rock kick.

Salty Kung Fu

Joyful Find: Clos

July 21, 2009 in Joyful Finds, Peru by tom | 2 comments

al-and-tom

Clos … I like to give it a slightly Germanic drawl so it sounds like house. We first heard about Concha Y Toro wines from Luisa, a retired dancer from New York, who put us up in Mexico City – ‘you can get a decent bottle of red for six bucks’.

Living by the beach and watching our budget at Bob’s place in Costa Rica we found the Concha Y Toro line again, this time as Clos de Pirque and in a one-litre tetra pack … travel friendly! Clos also made a solid showing in Mancora, Peru when we hung out with Al for a few days waiting for the swell.

Al did get in touch with us after we left Mancora… “By the way I met a German guy who told me Clos in German is slang for toilet (bog, shitter, dunnie) you get the picture. Still enjoying the odd glass though.” And while it’s not winning any wine awards it has to be said that Clos is a real backpacker favorite, this resealable, nonbreakable and fairly drinkable gem will only set you back about 3 dollars.

Joyful Find: A decent mechanic in Panama City

June 22, 2009 in Joyful Finds, Panama by tom | 7 comments

His name is Carlos Daviz but everyone calls him Lito, he’s a mechanic in Panama City and he knows six English words; Working, Today, Tomorrow, Bucks, Drinking, and Racing. He also knows and loves his VW’s.

We had a broken front shock and we were driving a punishing goat track in the forgotten back blocks of Panama’s Pacific coast – cringing and swearing as a multitude of unavoidable potholes battered our suspension. Sweating over some of the steeper inclines that demanded a preemptive reckless speed, there was no way back, we had to keep going.

That ‘road’ finally exited us onto a well paved, rolling country lane and we glided into Santa Catalina an hour and a half later, which softened the nightmare detour and gave us some hope of reaching Panama City where we could replace the part.

By chance, in Panama City, we ran into Slim Ferguson – an automatic transmission guy, who said he could replace our shock but that he knew a guy who would really enjoy working on our little VW … his name was Lito.

A slight man with a ready smile, Lito walked out of his shop, lifted the hood and whistled through his teeth. Shaking his head with an adoptive pride he looked at the dusty tangle of aging parts and smiled broadly… ‘What a warrior’ he said ‘what a warrior!’ which set Slim into fits of laughter.

lito_signature

Lito worked on our Volkswagen Golf for two days, only accepting payment for parts, ‘thirty-five bucks’. When he was finished he signed the engine and put a Panama flag next to his signature, then he took us on a guided tour of Panama City with his wife.

Cheers Lito, you’re a legend!

lito_salute