Pelotas in Southern Brazil is on the edge of a huge lake that is fresh water part of the year and salt water the other part. It has great beaches and is famous for it’s deserts (postres in Spanish – though it has a different name in Portuguese) which Beatriz my host kindly bought for me to take with me the next day of my journey. Thanks sweetie!

I swear that every car and truck driver in Brazil thinks they are trying out for the formula one. I had a 500 mile (800km) ride and it was horrible. It rained for the first 200 miles, drizzle for the next 200 miles and the road was in a really bad condition with too many cars and trucks trying to pass each other. I just kept on thinking it can’t last. Finally the last 100 miles were ok.

Florianópolis is a beautiful city on an island just off the coast of Southern Brazil. The island is 50 some kms long and has 40 some beaches. I stayed with Cristiano and his fiancée Alexandra which was really interesting as they also lived in Europe for a while. One night we went to a jazz club that was so cool it didn’t have it’s name on the door. Good luck to Cristiano and Alexandra on their dream of sailing around the world.

The next day we went sightseeing around Curitiba the only big city in Brazil to have been settled by the Portuguese and has a wire Opera house. Then we rode to a neighboring town to visit Mario (a Londoner who has just moved to Brazil with his Brazilian wife and daughter). I contacted Mario through Horizons Unlimited as he is also planning to ride to the bottom once his dislocated shoulder (from a motorbike accident) heals.

I rode down to Curitiba (population 2.5 million) to stay with Reginaldo who has ridden twice down to the bottom of Argentina on a DR650 (bike like mine). We took my bike to a mechanic that used to own a DR650 for him to ride my bike and make sure the suspension was ok (I had been told it wasn’t right). He was working on a BMW with faulty wiring (I am not a big bmw fan after the tractor, my previous bike).

Also we went to a Brazilian BBQ were they walk around with different cuts of meat until you say stop. Though my favourite is the Kilo restaurants where you fill up at a buffet and then they weigh your plate and charge you accordingly which I think is brilliant.

Evening soap operas or novellas as they are called here are really big in Brazil and apparently of such good quality they are exported all over the world. The story lines last 6-8 months and even the football (soccer) is scheduled to play after they finish at 10pm. I spent the next day recovering from my big Sunday, watching telly and sleeping.

Fun fact for you: Saó Paulo has a population of 20 million and rivals Mexico City for the largest city in Latin America and it is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere.

The people of Saó Paulo are called Paulistanos and I was staying with Fabio who is Japanese, German and Brazilian and combines the best of all three. He had my stay all scheduled so that I would experience how a typical Paulistano would spend the day. He met me at the bus stop at six am (I had been on an overnight bus), breakfast at one of the lovely bakeries, a walk through the main city park, visited Japan town for lunch, a walk along Avenida Paulista to look at all the Christmas lights and then clubbing.

The next day I was going to head south but Vitor and his friends convinced me to stay another day and they would take me to the beach. I had a great day even if they did make me eat fried shrimp with the shells still on. I liked that they had a sign showing all the decomposition times of things people litter on the beach.

ps. The photo of the tennis racket is this cool electric mosquito zapper that I got a lot of use from.

A few people had told me I needed to visit Búzios which was near Cabo Frio so I took the bus there. It was a very pretty little town but I realised that beaches are more fun when you are with friends. That night we went out to play pool which is played with only nine balls (red and yellow and the white) on the table. There are two of each colour around the two side and two end pockets. Then we went to see the live bands playing near the canal.

Peixe is the Portuguese name for fish of which there is many in Arraial do Cabo due to a food stream that comes on the cold current. Usually the water is crystal clear but they have had a lot of wind so I wasn’t so lucky but I still saw lots of fish and for the second dive asked that we stay at 3 meters so I could use my camera. Sorry about the plethora of photos but I like underwater photography.