We Have Officially Crossed Another Continent

From coast to coast: Chile, Vina del mar to Itanhaém, Brazil.

You might’ve noticed that we’ve not logged into socials much since we left Argentina.

Well, there’s a reason for that: Brazil is kicking our butts!!

In many ways, it’s a welcome change from Argentina, we are happier with the diet here and our bodies are happier for that.

It’s been getting cooler since Argentina, too. Although it’s summer here, the skies are grey and it’s very manageable to ride the bike again.

The temperature in Argentina confuses me even more now, though! It’s just next level there! I expected it would get hotter, but thank goodness, it hasn’t.

Between the sky and the greenery, sometimes Brazil looks a bit like home!

But, oh man, the route.

Sometimes on a circumnavigation of the world by bicycle you have to take the less scenic route, the efficient route, and it’s not the best.

To be fair, we have only had a sucky route through three countries:

– Italy

– A smidge through Thailand, on route to Bangkok

– Brazil so far

We’ve been along the main road, in the hard shoulder, which feels safe, but, day after day after day, of roaring trucks takes it’s toll; it just feels and sounds stressful.

The elevation is not high because there aren’t mountains, but we go up and down all day long, 50 metres up, 50 metres down, 100 metres up, 100 metres down over and over again for 30-60 miles a day.

When we were along the flats we wished for this 😅😂

It wears us out.

Stew described the cycling as “unrewarding,” and that’s how it is. We work hard but for not much reward, no peace and only occasional views.

We were unwell recently and because we’re on a deadline, (Rio by the 26th March to meet my brother 🥰) we had to just get on the bike, exhausted.

Some days, we get in, lay on a bed and say hardly anything to each other 🫠😴🥱 not even enough energy to watch a show.

It’s been a grind!

Because of the route, we’re not really seeing Brazil’s best, I know that.

I feel a bit like I’ve been to Brazil, but I haven’t really understood the culture here. I’m hoping for more of this now we’re on the coast.

Don’t get me wrong, people are nice.

There’s joy in the day.

Today, we stopped at a small shop for a drink and we had a chat (as best we could) with the shopkeeper, in Portuguese/English.

People are warm and happy to see us and we are happy to chat.

A couple cyclists on bikes fit for the bin in England, passed us today. Then we passed them. Each time we exchanged a friendly “ola!”

When we came to Brazil we thought we’d get by with Spanish because Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but we’ve learned that Portuguese and Spanish may be similar, but only if you’re a fluent/native speaker. We don’t have much transferable from Spanish at all.

Even more embarrassing, if we tell someone we speak a little Spanish, their Spanish is better than ours so we are useless in that language, too 🫣.

Still, I have a fondness for “conversations” in two languages, messily communicated. I think there’s something quite special about conversations that require that level of effort from both sides.

I took some videos a week or so ago, I was going to post them alongside Stew’s pics, but his phone has finally given up after being dropped and ran over twice (😂) so we lost our pics for now. The screen won’t work so you can’t do anything with it, but it does turn on. Stew ordered a USB-C mouse which is coming from London to Rio with my brother so we are hopeful we will get the pictures and I’ll share them.

Today, we turned off the busy road with the trucks, and now we are at the coast!!

We are making our way to Rio.

8 days of cycling.

371 miles to go.

We can do this! 🚴‍♂️❤️🚴‍♀️