BRAZIL PART I - OUR WAY NORTH
- rouletout608
- Feb 16
- 11 min read
Having previously visited the wetlands of the Pantanal and the thunderous cascades of Foz do Iguaçu, this was not our first visit to Brazil. This time however, we returned with a bolder ambition: to trace most of the vast contours of a country that spans nearly half the South American continent, or so we thought.
Brazil, the fifth-largest country on Earth unfolds across immense distances. Yet for overlanders, the true barriers lie not only in miles but in bureaucracy. Most Schengen-area citizens receive 90 days upon arrival, after which reciprocity rules demand an equal time abroad—a reflection of Brazil's own experiences with visa policies elsewhere. While this is not really an issue for Berna, Turkish citizens can easily extend their stay to 6 months, it is a problem for Ulf and our home on wheels, Rouletout which is linked to Ulf. 90 days is simply not enough to explore that huge country with its mind boggling distances and - with the exception of the southern corner - far away and difficult to reach borders to other countries. Next to the fact that Brazil is not crossed by the famous panamericana this is probably the main reason that you encounter very few overlanders once you start heading north.
For us it was clear, we had to find a solution to the problem. Our style of travel with extended stays in climbing areas and kite spots simply requires more time for such a vast country and it was our plan to reach the famous kite spots in the northeast for the beginning of the wind season, which alone was more than three months away.
Luckily, Brazil had recently introduced a digital nomad visa that allows you to stay one year with the option to extend for a second one if you meet the criteria. As it was new, there was not a lot of good information about it out there, especially in the context of overlanding. But at least we had a plan in mind and with this we headed east from Foz de Iguaçu towards Curitiba and north to Sao Paolo. Sao Paolo is a massive city with its 12 million inhabitants and lots of industry but we found a nice spot just outside the city at a small climbing area that became our home for a couple of days while we were waiting for the arrival of Berna’s sister, Beyza.
With Beyza in tow we toured Sao Paolo, enjoyed the local market and its food and then decided to head south, towards Florianopolis. We stopped at beautiful and lost places along the coast and got a first taste of the importance of the beaches as roadways in Brazil. At low tide they are often used as short cuts (or the only way) to reach remote places and even the school bus collects kids along the beach every morning.
After a couple of days on partially very busy roads we reached the island of Florianopolis. Florianopolis offers a lot of activities: just above town is a small climbing area, multiple kite spots allow riding with any wind direction, kayaking, surfing, hiking, you name it. On top of that the island has excellent restaurants that carter to the crowds of Brazilians and foreigners visiting the island.
Not lucky with the wind we kited just a bit, kayaked to Ilha do Campeche (not without having Beyza and Ulf capsizing their kayak a few times in the waves), made extensive hikes to remote beaches and waterfalls and enjoyed samba nights and the excellent food, mostly from the sea and especially excellent oysters. Sooner than anticipated we had to say good bye again to Beyza and we continued our journey alone - but first we celebrated our 10 year on the road anniversary.
Further south, especially in Rio Grande do Sul, the whole country was flooded due to heavy rains and so we decided to move north. We passed again through Curitiba where we stopped in a work shop to install some of the parts that Beyza brought and then on to Sao Paolo where we climbed a bit more before continuing along the coast to Rio de Janeiro. Our plan was to meet with our friend Martin from Austria and the rest of the crew of the Mamivata, the sail boat on which they had just crossed the Atlantic. As the crew had just rented a house in the mountains near Petropolis far above Rio we met there and spent a couple of days hiking, cooking and exchanging travel stories till late. Back in Rio we met up again to enjoy a famous rodízio - a typical Brazilian restaurant where waiters bring a variety of different barbecued meats - and way too much wine.
As the reader of these pages already knows, we are not big fans of big cities but Rio de Janeiro is special. We had found a nice place on the southern outskirts near the beach and explored the town with our motorbike. Riding a motorbike through the intense traffic of Rio is quite something. It is common practice to pass between standing or moving lanes of traffic at high speed and if you are not fast enough, the bikes behind you will horn. At each traffic light is a special waiting area in front of and across all lanes that provides space for all the bikes that passed in front and when the lights turn green it feels like a race start of a Moto GP race as all the bikes leave at high speed, just to repeat the spectacle again at the next traffic light. Well it’s not as crazy as riding in Bangkok but it took as a moment to get used to it.
We visited the famous beaches, went climbing on the sparsely bolted granite slabs of the city, and of course we made it up to world famous Christ the Redeemer with its crowds but also with its breathtaking views. Having spent more time than planned in the city we got ready for our next destination, heading in land to the state of Minas Gerais and the climbing hot spot of Brazil, Serra do Cipó.
On the way we visited Ouro Preto, the picturesque colonial mining town with its countless churches and steep cobblestone roads before reaching Belo Horizonte (called BH by locals - pronounced as “b aga”), the vibrant capital of Minas Gerais. The clock was ticking and we still hadn’t resolved our visa situation. Berna had her visa extended in Rio but Ulf and Rouletout were slowly approaching the end of their legal time in Brazil. A visit to the Receita Federal (customs) in BH brought some clarity but no final resolution. We were still positive and so we started our extensive stay in Serra do Cipó where we also met up with Adam & Rosella again, the Mexican-Australian climbing couple we had met so many times since Mexico.
Serra do Cipó is not only a climbing area, it is a huge national park full of water falls, trails, mountains and wilderness. The climate in spring is perfect and we had a beautiful spot for our home under ancient trees visited by Tucans and all sorts of birds and monkeys. We climbed, we hiked, we relaxed and so the weeks passed. Ulf slowly got clarity on his visa situation and it looked like we (and Rouletout) were the lucky ones to obtain a year on top of our time already spent in Brazil to continue visiting this amazing country full of friendly and welcoming people. This meant that we could follow our initial plans, make the most of the climbing in Serra do Cipó before the heat arrives and then head further north for the kite season.
After almost two months on the rock it was time to say good bye to our friends and the amazing rock and landscapes of Serra do Cipó and to hit the long road north. There were so many options to drive north but we decided to continue inland and to hit the coast in Salvador. Salvador was Brazil’s first capital and is very distinct from the rest of the country. It is a pretty colonial town but for us the most interesting part is its African heritage. Salvador is “black” and so is its culture and its food, of which we enjoyed a lot. Moquequa, acarajé, vatapá and so many more exotic dishes waited for us and we enjoyed all of them. Many of them are served in tiny restaurants or even on the street and for us with European taste buds it was impossible to identify what the dishes were made of.
Having filled our stomachs and saturated our senses we continued further north, first following the coast with endless white beaches and coco palms and then again inland to reach Quixadá - a small town full of granite monoliths nestled between lakes. It should be our last contact with rock for a while but the heat made it almost impossible to climb. Still we enjoyed the slabs in the early mornings or just before sunset but soon we embarked on the last leg to the coast near Fortaleza, the town initially founded by the Dutch in the mid 17th century.
We were early in the kite season which meant less crowds but the wind was already good. We stopped at some of the famous kite spots northwest of Fortaleza and slowly continued our way along the coast until we hit “gold”. We don’t really remember who told us but we went to the tiny village of Patos with its amazing lagoon and fell in love with the place. A great lagoon, easy access to the ocean, a river mouth further upwind and even a small sweet water lagoon behind the dunes are the options for kiting. We stayed near Olivier’s posada where we could get water and use the infrastructure and became friends with João, the owner of the only restaurant near the lagoon, short it was like paradise. João delivered coconuts to the truck, we ate lobsters and fish and we kited, kited and kited.
We explored a few more kite spots nearby but we always came back to Patos. Our friends Rafa and Corina (whom we first met in Colombia) came to visit us and we spent a couple of nights with barbecues and caipirinhas under the stars.
We finally received our visa, went to Fortaleza to got the extended temporary import permit for Rouletout, did one or the other repair for our home and continued kiting. We met lots of interesting people, among them we made friends with Thibaud and Anne from French Guyana (also travelling with a van but more on them in a later blog entry) and David and Chrissy with whom we slowly moved further northwest along the coast to explore more kite spots.
We spent some time in Barrinha, downwinded to the famous village of Jericoacoara with its sandy pedestrian streets, nice restaurants and party locations and then continued on to Maceió and Macapa. Together with David and Chrissy we discovered our love for longer downwind trips along the coast, kiting 30 to 60km downwind to reach another location is something very special and the coast of northeastern Brazil with its constant winds is probably the world’s best spot to do it.
We had to head back to Fortaleza for a last time to finish our business with Policia Federal where we also had one of our remaining spare tires fixed. Our tires were really getting old but our dimensions and profile were not available in Brazil so we had to treat them well. This was also the time to say good bye to David and Chrissy with whom we spent so many fun days and who taught us so many things kiting…
Again we followed the coast back northwest. We had heard of a new “secret kite spot” in the state of Maranhão called Arpoador. On our way we visited the famous delta of the Parnaiba, the 3rd largest delta in the world with its even more famous Scarlet Ibis - a shiny red bird that so far, we only had seen from far. They have the habit of landing in the hundreds at the same spot just before sunset and one of these spots is on a tiny island in the delta.
Arpoador is a tiny village about 15 kilometres from Tutóia that can only be reached by following the beach, preferably at lower tides. When we arrived there, we directly fell in love. A huge lagoon, beautiful ocean spots for kiting, dunes and wilderness. Contrary to most kite spots further south, the wind was still blowing and so we kited through Christmas and New Year with only very few other kiters around. The posada Amor do Arpoador located directly in front of the lagoon adopted us and we stayed near their premises for almost four weeks before it was time to continue. The winds got softer and the occasional rains started as we left the dry and desert like section of the coast that stretches from Fortaleza to Atins for more than 500 kilometres. However, we were sure to come back. Our next destinations were São Luís and ultimately Belém from where we had planned to take a ferry through the Amazon delta to Macapá.
The countryside and the vegetation change dramatically shortly after Barreirinhas. Lush green replaces the white and yellow of the dunes and the street sellers offer fruits we had never seen before, we were slowly approaching the Amazon. We reached Belém and as we had to wait for our ferry we took the opportunity to kite in the Baía do Guajará - a side arm of the Amazon - on its brown waters with all sorts of floating stuff. Still an interesting experience.
The harbour of Belém is a spectacle in itself. Many of the towns along the Amazon are only reachable by boat and are thus supplied by boat. It is also the only way to connect to the northeastern most state of Brazil, Amapá. Few people take their cars for these journeys, the ferries mostly load materials and supplies. Everything from pipes to sheet metal, thousands of eggs and all sorts of staples. We were the only foreigners on our ferry and of course the only truck and it was quite a challenge to get it onto the ferry.
Once the ferry left Belém the wilderness started and this journey of about 36 hours to Macapá is really an experience as it takes you through narrow channels and side branches of the Amazon across its whole delta. Individual houses, small villages, locals on small colourful boats that collect “presents” that people throw off the ferries for them, supply ships of all sizes, people that jump off the ferry onto small taxi boats that shortly after disappear in the lush green of the forest to reach their homes… it is an endless feast for the eyes. Many locals on the ferry spend the time and the night in hammocks, the preferred way of sleeping in northern Brazil while we were allowed to stay in our truck. Time passed quickly and soon we arrived in Macapá, the capital and only real town of the state of Amapá, located directly on the equator (the city soccer field is actually divided into two halves by the equator). We visited the few sights of the city, the old fort, the equator monument, had some repairs done on or motorbike and, unfortunately had another flat tire which meant we were out of spares. Obviously it was not a good plan to embark on the journey towards French Guyana - which is 600km of mostly dirt road through absolute wilderness - without a spare. After some searching we found a vulcaniser that was able to repair this rather big cut on the flank but as it was Friday it meant waiting for next week, more time to explore Macapá and its surroundings.
Monday arrived and finally we were ready to embark on our last stretch of Brazilian road towards “Europe” - at least politically - as French Guyana is part of France and thus the European Union. But more on that - as always - in our next blog entry.
For now it was time to say good bye to Brazil, this huge country that stretches endlessly, with all its different landscapes and cultures, its incredible tolerance and its incredible variety. From Rio de Janeiro a city that pulses like a Hollywood dream beneath dramatic mountains and its crowded beaches to the desert like Northeast with hundreds of kilometres of empty sandy beaches, from the mountains and cascades of Minas Gerais with its refreshing creeks to the heat of the wild and lush green Amazon. We had only seen a small part of it so far but we are sure to come back.
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