Florianopolis (and the long way to get there)

We covered the first 500 kms on the ruta 277 from Foz de Iguazu toward Curitiba with barely any issues.

The only problem was that we could not get Brazilian Reals from the ATMs in Foz de Iguazu, after the border, but luckily all the petrol stations on the way accepted credit cards.

The ruta 277 is a toll road and even though bikes pay a fairly little amount each time, cash is still eventually required.

Therefore we exchanged what was left of our Argentinean pesos at one of the petrol stations for an excellent rate........for them!

On a stretch of 500 kms we counted probably 10 toll stations and we were bleeding our little cash fast.

150 kms from Curitiba we were left with only few Reals in our pocket, wondering if they would be enough to make it to town.

In the meantime dark clouds were looming ahead of us in the sky.

It appears that all the rain that we didn’t get during our trip in South America was waiting for us on Ruta 277.

As we reached Irati the skies opened and we found ourselves in the middle of a huge hail storm.

Branches from the trees were falling in the middle of the road and the visibility got close to zero while we were hit by marbles of ice.

I asked Elena if she was happy to carry on and she said yes.

We tried. One km later we spotted a nice hotel looking like a castle and we pulled over.

Unfortunately the hotel was full but they said that 500 meters further there was another “establishment”.

What they were referring to was in fact one of those “sex motels” where you pay for a room by the hour.

At that point nothing really mattered and to be fair the establishment didn’t look that bad: as we were completely soaked and since our bones were aching from the hail, we rung the bell.

However it wasn’t written in our destiny to spend a night in a sex motel. Unfortunately for us they only accepted payment in cash!

The owner however pointed us to the hotel at the other side of the road called the Rotta 277.

This is where eventually we found shelter for the night.

Since the hotel didn’t have a credit card facility, the following morning I was escorted to the petrol station nearby where I was able, not only to pay for the night but also to get some cash back for a reasonable fee of 5%.

Everyone was happy: the owner of the hotel got her payment, we finally got some cash and the owner of the petrol station charged us a fee for the service. We will go down in history as the people who introduced the concept of cash back in Brazil.

We left very early as we wanted to reach Florianopolis by 1pm and we still had to cover 500 kms.

The sun was out and the level of humidity probably at 300%, and yet the good weather wasn’t meant to last.

After Curitiba the sky got darker again and another monumental storm hit us.

For the Italian bikers out there I can say that the road resembled exactly as the “Serravalle” from Milano to Genova, only with tropical plants at the side of the road.

As the drainage system of the motorway was overwhelmed by the quantity of water, big ponds were forming in the middle of the road.

Often the incoming lorries at the other side of the road would lift big waves of water that would suddenly hit us in the face making it fairly dangerous to stay on the fast lane.

For this reason I decided to drive on the slow lane for awhile.

This strategy was certainly safer but probably wetter.

Big lorries at our side of the road were now overtaking us lifting once again waves of water as tall as 2M that would hit us like tsunamis.

Water was coming down on us even through the vents of the helmets.

Eventually even this storm passed and we reached Florianopolis as scheduled at around 1pm.

At the Rotta 277 the night before there was no internet facility which meant we were not able to study the road to get to our hotel.

On top of that I wasn’t able to access mapdroyd as my mobile too was no longer working, probably due to the amount of water that soaked our clothes.

This is also the reason why we do not have any pictures to upload for this leg of the trip

To reach our destination all we could remembered was Santinho hotel at Santinho beach.

Florianopolis is a very modern city split in 2 parts.

Half of the town is on the continent facing the sea, the other half is on Santa Caterina Island.

The 2 parts of the town are linked by a long bridge.

Most importantly SC island is 50 kms long with plenty of beautiful beaches scattered around its perimeter.

Santinho beach is one of those, in the northern side of the island, 35 kms from Floripa town.

A Brazilian biker flanked us asking if we needed any help and pointed us in the right direction.

As we reached Santinho village we learnt immediately that anything in Santinho’s beach is called Santinho: Santinho market, Santinho petrol station, Santinho pharmacy and of course at least 3 Santinho hotels.

We almost checked in at the wrong establishment. (posada do Santinho)

As they could not find us in their list of clients we checked our reservation on the net and discovered our true destination: the solar do Santinho.

There is no much to say about this place except that we have a beautiful apartment over 2 floors, big garden, swimming pool, lounge room with pool table overlooking the sea.

A spectacular 2 km beach is only 100 meters away where mostly Brazilian tourists practice all sort of sports, including running, Yoga and surf.

No need to say that they are all mega fit.
Enchanted by this place we immediately extended our stay by an extra 4 days to top up our “builder’s tan” and get back into shape.

Iguazu falls

From Santa Fe to Iguazu is well over 1100 kms that we covered in 2 days.

The first 800 kms once again are on a straight road with 40 degrees and no sign of shade.

The ruta 127 is full of bumps and holes for a good 50 kms after Federal, then around 3pm we find some road works for the construction of a bridge and we get redirected into the ruta 119.

We realise that we are off track as we reach the small town of Curuzu where we make a quick u turn and head back to the ruta 127.

Finally, after 1 hr we are back at the bridge under construction where a nice man this time points us in the right direction to ruta 14.

It is still a long way to Posadas, where we get well after dark.

In the meantime the rear light has stopped working and we drive the last 25 kms in the dark using the BMW blinkers to signal our presence in the night.

The following morning we change the rear light and leave Posadas heading to Iguazu on the ruta 12.

Finally the scenery around us changes.

The ground is red, bright red like a brick.

There is a weird but nice mix of trees from pines to palms

It feels like being at the tropics again, and in fact the tropic of Capricorn is only 500 kms north as the bird flies.

Thanks to the shade produced by these tall trees it no longer feels so hot.

This area has been originally colonised by the Jesuit missionaries.

If we had time we would have loved to visit a couple of missions on the road, but unfortunately today we are on a very tight schedule.

We get to Puerto Iguazu around lunch time but we don’t really feel like eating.

We are so excited to be here that we drop our luggage at the hotel and head immediately to the Iguazu National Park entrance.

The entrance costs around £15 per person per day, but you can get a 50% discount on the price of the entrance for the following day.

That is quite useful as 1 day is certainly not enough to visit this beautiful park.

The waterfalls are of course the central piece of the park

The falls can be divided almost in 2 parts.

The first section on the right side of the Isla San Martin can be visited via the “circuito superiore” which takes you right above the falls

and the “circuito inferiore” . (below the falls)

The second section is the “garganta del Diablo”

that can be reached by a short train ride.

Once again in this circumstance words are not good enough to describe what we see. Luckily we took well over 400 pictures.

As you walk around the park you can only fall in admiration of flora and fauna that surrounds you.

Among others we were able to spot monkeys,parrots, toucans and the coati (of the raccoon family)

Colourful butterflies are not afraid to land on your hand and walk around with you for minutes.

Something that in our opinion should not be missed is certainly the ride on the boat under the falls.

Unfortunately it only lasts 15 minutes but that is more than enough to get a monumental shower.

Don’t even think to keep your camera out when they tell you to put it away in the waterproof bags provided.

If you want some pictures or a video to remind you of this amazing boat ride you can always buy the DVD at the end. They will deliver it to your hotel in the evening.

We truly loved every second we spent in the park.

The facilities are excellent and the suspended catwalks take you safely right to the edge of the falls.

The only negative comment we can make is about the ugly Sheraton hotel placed right in the middle of the park.

We seriously wonder how many politicians they must have greased back in the years to obtain the permission to build the hotel right in the middle of this national park.

And if they really had to do it at least they could have built it in a style a bit less offensive to the eye.

Santa Fe

We spent almost one week in Santa Fe enjoying the unbeatable hospitality of the Ponce family.

Pic 1: Norma and Jorge Ponce
They own a beautiful house in Sauce Viejo, 15 kms south of Santa Fe.

Pic 2: In Sauce Viejo even cats and dog (Pancho) live in harmony
Since the sun was always out and the temperature was close to 40 degrees we took full advantage of the pool in the garden.

Pic 3: The pool
Jorge Ponce is an excellent cook. He has built a huge barbecue at the back of the house where day after day he cooked for us the famous Argentinean meat.

Pic 4: Jorge and his big barbecue behind him.
On the 30^th, our friend Paola took us out clubbing with some of her friends.

You need to know that in Argentina (like in Spain) people don’t go out clubbing until 2/3am in the morning!

Pic 5: Paola Fernanda and Hernan
At 5 am we were still dancing in a club full of people, waiting for the sun to rise.

Nothing would have stopped us, except the fact of course that poor Paola stepped on a broken glass and cut her foot.

Pic 6: First Aid
Initially her friend Hernan stopped the bleeding with some bandages, operating  like a professional doctor, then we took her to the near hospital where they took care of her in no time.
That was the end of our first night out in Santa Fe.

On NYE we had the honour to be invited at the gathering of the whole Ponce family for the celebration of the New Year.

When we asked what should we bring to the party we were told ONLY FIREWORKS!!!.

Argentineans are quite keen on fireworks. On the 31^st of December you might not be able to find bread on the streets of Santa Fe, but certainly there was no shortage of stalls selling all sorts of weaponry,  from ordinary fireworks to the most advanced bombs, rockets, intercontinental missiles.....you get it.
We stocked up and went to the Ponce party.

Once again we truly felt at home.

At midnight we launched some balloons in the air with attached our wish for the New Year, then joined the war in the streets with our artillery.

Pic 7: Baloons
I only burnt my right thumb in the occasion which, given my inexperience on the matter was certainly good news.

Pic 8: Fireworks
Back in the house we joined 85 years old grandma and the rest of the family on the dance floor until 4am.

Pic 9: Dancing
All Argentineans are of course excellent dancers, so this time, instead of giving them a lesson on the “chicken steps” I thought I would step it up a notch to the more skilful “limbo step”.

Pic 10: The limbo step
When we thought it was all over Paola told us that she would meet her friends at 5am to go clubbing!

Since she was in good company and since we were feeling quite tired from the night before and our trip from Bariloche we decided it would be safer for us to stay with her parents......well, not exactly safe: at 6am they were still up, including grandma!

On the 2nd, after recovering from the NYE party we went out at the Santa Fe Brewery to taste the local beer.

Pic 11: Beer directions
We truly enjoyed the local production

Pic 12: Paolo, Paola and Eric

and the atmosphere

Pic 13: Santa Fe brewery
Then we moved to another bar, where already partially plastered Elena finished us off by ordering some Chandon.

Pic 14: Elena only drinks champagne
In our last day in Santa Fe we hit the river Parana for some fishing on the boat.

Pic 15: Elena on the boat
This time we were more successful than our previous attempts on the Chilean rivers.

First, somehow, I managed to catch a CRAB! How do you manage to catch a crab with a fishing line is still a mystery. Did it get stuck with a claw or was it stubbornly trying to steal some chicken from the hook?

Pic 16: Hooking a crab?
Then Elena caught several Palomitas, a fish of the Piranha family.

Pic 17: palomita
Late in the morning we successfully filled our lunch box with some reasonably sized fish.

Pic 18: Big catch and (thanks to Jorge cooking) big belly!!
We then stopped to a little shack on the island to cook

Pic 19: Cooking in the shack

and eat our catch of the day.

Pic 20: Proudly eating the catch of the day
Back at the villa it was time to pack the bike for the following day departure, only after taking Norma for a ride around the neighbourhood.

Pic 21: Norma on the BMW
We don’t have enough words to say thank you to Paola and her family for the amazing time we had in Sauce Viejo.
We felt so relaxed that somehow we had the feeling that in Sauce Viejo our trip to South America ended and our Holiday in South America began.

The road to Santa Fe

This is where our new plan of travel begins.

In our original plans, after Antarctica we would have spent Xmas and NYE in southern Patagonia visiting the Perito Moreno glacier and the Torres del Paine NP, then we would have driven north on the ruta 3, stopped at Punta Tombo and Peninsula Valdes to reach Buenos Ayres around the 15^th of January.

However, after reshuffling things around we find ourselves 2000 kms up north with 2 extra weeks to spare.

As the bike is working fine we have decided to cover an extra 5000 kms, and drive all the way to the Iguazu falls, then enter Brasil and reach Florianopolis and finally drive down to Montevideo in Uruguay, where we can catch a ferry to Buenos Ayres around the 20^th of January.

But first, ahead of us is 2000 kms of “Pampas Argentina” that we need to cover in 2 days to reach our friend Paola and her family in Santa Fe.

When we look at the road on the map what strikes us immediately is the fact that there are sections, as long as 250 kms, with not a single pueblo in sight The problem for us is the usual one: no pueblo, no petrol.

If you draw a line between Bariloche and Santa Fe, half way through you can see a town called Santa Rosa.

We decide that Santa Rosa is going to be the place where we sleep tonight, no matter what!

The first 100 kms, after leaving Bariloche on the Ruta 40 are very pleasant, with gentle bends, a fast road, forests rivers and lakes.

We wish it was all like that.

Then the landscape dries up, the road becomes straight and the heat is kind of unbearable.

We can now understand why there are no pueblos around here and why the lonely planet does not say a word about this area. There is TRULY NOTHING TO REPORT. Just a straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes at both sides of the road

...........after 4 hrs, straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes

........finally, wait.......a corner!

Then another 4 hrs, straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes.

As the sun comes down we finally enter the Santa Rosa region.

After all that desert land this is what we can call “fertile pampa”. The grass is green and cows roam freely.

To be perfectly honest this place is so famous for its meat that we expected to see millions of cows, migrating from one field to another, a bit like the buffaloes in the Serengeti.

Not quite like it. In fairness it was a bit of a disappointment. It was just like being back in the “pianura padana” south of Milan, only 40 times bigger.

....................................................................................................................

It is day 2 and we still have another 1000 kms to cover.

The lower back is aching a bit due to the effort of the previous day.

We try to hydrate as often as we can.

On a positive note the number of pueblos on the road has increased and therefore it is no longer a concern of ours to fill up the bike.

The road, I am afraid, is still very straight and it is still very hot, just a bit greener dotted with cows.

The news is that there is plenty of dragonflies whizzing around.

We are ever so grateful to them as they feed of mosquitoes.

However I must confess they can hurt a bit when they hit you as bullets while you travel at 120 kms/hr
When we finally get to Rosario we see something that we haven’t seen in a while: road traffic.
This one is the heavy traffic made of lorries stuck in a long line.
The road is quite dangerous as the passage of these lorries have created parallel depressions in the asphalt where the wheels of the bike often get trapped.
When we finally make it to the motorway it’s 8 pm.

We call Paola and agree to meet at 9pm at Santa Fe airport.

As they get off their car, in summer clothes, with hair combed and thoroughly perfumed they approach us to give us a hug.

Initially we feel a bit embarrassed, all sweaty, smelly fully geared in our gore tex clothes completely covered in dead insects.

The embarrassment only lasts few seconds: deep in our hearts we know that we are really going to enjoy 6 days of Argentinean hospitality.