Argentina to the US in search of healthcare access for Latin America

[salcar]

Lighten that load, are you hauling Inca Gold ?

the Inca gold was all stolen by the spaniards and other conquistadores

i have a lot of spare parts and tools, also carrying a bunch of stickers, books, winter cloth and other cloth that i??ve been using to go out and not to attend the medical conferene. i guess alot of stuff tha i could get rid off but is all i have left and has been with me this whole trip. leaving it behind i would feel naked and like i??m loosing the rest of the possesions that i have. i feel that the moment i leave behind the tools and parts i??ll end up needing them. also many of the things i??m carrying where gifts and leaving them behind feels like i don??t appreciate them.

i know alot of nonsense...

[salcar]

it is not the greates feeling being completely naked in the back yard of a brazilian police station and being accused of trafficking drugs.

i left rio de janeiro early afternoon with temperatures around 38C, in other words really hot and the traffic getting out of the city didn??t help. once i was out of the city i stopped to get a bottle of cold water and put on my ipod. once i got moving the wind cooled me down and the music made it a nice ride. after turning right into the road that was headed to cabo frio i passed a police check point. just another police check point like the many i have passed before. i slowed down and waved at the officials by lowering my head. little did i know that a few minutes later i would see a police car cashing me and pulling me over. after i stopped the police started mumbling stuff that i couldn??t understand because of the music in one ear and a ear plug in the other one.

he asked for the documents and i told him i had them in my metal case. he said to stepped down of the motorcycle that he needed to do a body search. the other cop had a hand on his gun. slowly he started padding my body and my private parts. made me take out everything that i had in my pockets. then he started searching my tank bags. every item was taken out, inspected carefully and smelled it. all my cards he would run them in his fore arm looking for a white powder once he was done he said to open my metal cases. by that time a good half hour had gone by and i was sure i??ll soon be on the road. but i was wrong!!!

he started to pull stuff out of the case again very meticulously and smelling it. they were looking for drugs and guns. the other cop asked a few questions about the trip. the younger copped after going through many things he found something. he claimed that he found something that smelled like marijuana. of course i laughed but that didn??t helped. he told me "if you have drugs you better tell us right now. there are two ways. one is that you tell us where you have it or the other one is that we take you into the police station. you know we are federal cops and if we find something your trip is over!!"

i couldn??t believe it!!!!! i was just in shock. he took my documents and told me to drive my bike to the police station. the distance between the motorcycle and the car was less than half a meter. just in case i decided to run away they could crash into me. once i got to the police station the accusation continued and demanded to tell him where i had the drugs. the first thing was to do a body search so he took me to the back yard of the police station. i had to take all my cloths one at the time until i was completely naked. he search each item very closely. for a moment i was sure he would put a finger up my ass but thank God that didn??t happen. then he said you can just put your pants and shirt because is going to be a while to search all your stuff.

he was right! like a mad man he started to pull out all my things, opening everything that he could open, smelling everything that he could put his nose on and every fifteen minutes acusing me of carrying drugs and demanding to tell him where the drug was if not it would be worse when he found it. by that time i was really annoyed and could not believe. after the first couple hours i saw his frustration growing since he couldn??t find anything. but once again he pulled a random grocery bag and said it smelled like marijuana. the other cops that were coming and going started looking at him like he was wasting time. his frustration grew and started throwing my belongings on the floor. for a while i panicked thinking that he would put some bag of drugs in my stuff just he could claim he found something. after going through my tank bags, my two metal cases, my black bag with camping gear he repeated the same thing "you better tell me where the drug is. this is a lot of work and if i find it myself it is going to be a lot wores" by that time i had enough and got pissed. I looked straight into his eyes and told him "i??ve been traveling for the past 9 months and been stopped hundreds of time by the cops and i know it will happen again. i??m not stupid to be carrying drugs so that some cop like you can ruin my trip" but that didn??t matter. he wanted for me to open the seat and started looking all the openings in the bike - even in the gas tank. night came he he wsa still looking. finally he gave in and told me to repack my stuff.

the whole ordeal took around 6 hours to inspect all my stuff and to get it repacked. i was finally back on the road and having to drive at night. never a dull moment!

[salcar]

I??m in a beach town close to Fortaleza - North of Brasil
today was the first day in over a month that i drove most of the ride heading West. I should be in Belem by this weekend where I??ll be taking to the boat to Macapa and then 300km of bad dirt into the Guyanas. The Guayanas have been ridden by very few motorcyclist less than 10 i bet. They are know to be expensive, dangerous and not much to see - i hope they are wrong.
i??m still waiting for customs to realease my motorcycle part and i hope i don??t have to wait in Belem for it. the bike so far is holding and the engine is still going strong. i think it adjusted to the bad fuel.
it has been raining a lot which makes it for very long days and by the end i??m exahusted. the rain, the bad roads, animals on the streets and crazy truck drivers are just a few of the things that i have to put up while ridding.. nonetheless i??m loving it

[salcar]

I’m currently in Belem where I??ll take the boat to Manaus next tuesday. Tomorrow and Saturday I??ll visiting a boat hospital that operates here in the amazon delta. Here is extremely hot and humid!!!

here a few pictures of this past few days that have involved some challenging rides.

Jericoacoara is another brasilian paradise. All the roads in the city are made of sand some of which are deep (see more pic in my smugmug account). The town is really lay back with friendly people





In Jeri there are also many motorcyclist and a lot of sand trails for those that want some fun...


some of the sand is deep and with a bold tire like I had was very hard. I just manage to crash one which i think was a great improvement from the: "4 bikes left, 2 returned. The Anza "figure it out" tour http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130601


it did help to have locals giving me tips on sand riding. this guys are pros in sand.


the town next to Jeri is still underdeveloped and poor. the people still come to the main square at 6pm to watch television that is kept secure in the green box in the pic


nothing beats a cold beer after a long day riding in the sand with some local friends at the beach


i think this picture captures the essence of being an adventure riding. never in my life i imagined i would be here


one of the main attraction here are the dunes.. yes you can ride in some of them.. if you look closely you can see a black dot in one of them – it is a motorcycle


coming in and out of Jericoacoara can be tricky. you need to pay attention to the tide if not you cannot ride on the shore since ther is a huge dune that blocks the way. also it can be very hard if you have to much luggage riding in some sections that have deep sand. i left most of my stuff with Avila in Jijoca. If you ever come this way make sure to contact him everyone knows him and he has a Churrasqueria.


there is also a small dune that you have to cross coming in and out of town. i saw the funniest accident here luckily nobody got hurt. there was a small bike with a seat for one person and foot pegs only for one person. but of course there where two guys on the bike with no protective gear. from the shore to the next section of harder sand you need to cross 100 meters or more of really soft sand and this dune. the guys got a lot of velocity on the shore and headed out. I followed them since I didn’t know the road both bikes squirreling a lot. once i reached the top of the dune the guy sitting on the back had fallen face down and his face was buried in the sand. i couldn’t stop laughing and the other guy driving the other bike either.

[salcar]

There are two ways to go from Jijoca to Barrerinhas - the longer way with the better road or the shorter way with a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. i picked the dirt road in the middle of nowhere because it was shorter and more adventurous but with a fully loaded bike and bold tire it made it for a 'fun' solo ride.

first the weather didn??t help. as soon i headed out it started raining.


then huge water ponds started forming and no way of going around. no idea how deep they where and to many of them to stop and check the deepness. the thought of falling in one of them with no one around to help me pick up the bike in the muddy floor was scary. so i didn??t think about it and decided to stay focus on riding.


then the dirt road became a river and i started worrying when it would stop raining.




then the dirt turned into sand which made the ride more challenging.


finally the sun came out and i reach firm ground. i decided i could off the bike and pee


but i was wrong. there was more fun to come. DEEP SAND with a loaded bike and bold tire = NO FUN. i took as much air as possible from the rear tire and left it around 9lbs. and left the front one around 16lbs. slowly and pushing i made it out.


unfortunately the asphalt was not much better. so it made it for a long day. at the end of the day i felt like a true adventure rider.


once in Barrerinhas i signed up to go see the Brasilian dessert known as Len?ºois Maranhenses. it was fun ride on a 4x4 Toyota Bandierante




the views where incredible


and because it was the rainy season you could swim in the fresh water lagoons. cristal clear water with no vegetation in them. (in most of them. the larger ones have some algae and some fish that lay eggs that stay intact when the lagoon dries during the summer)


the best sunset i have ever seen was in Jericoacoara but here was aslo beautiful.



i have another 1GB memory card full but i think it was a virus. i can??t get the pictures!!!! hopefully i will be able to save some of them and be able to share some more stories...


i decided to skip the guyanas due to the lack of funds.. heading to venezuela next

[salcar]

i??m off to Manaus tomorrow on a 6 day boat trip up the amazon river. I spent the past couple of day meeting, learning and going out with the hospital boat that operates here in the amazon. i??ll have a report with pictures when i touch land again.

i see people are visiting this thread but no one has left any comment in a long time. i feel that it is not appreciated the time and money spent keeping this thread updated. if you haven??t notice i write unique things here that you won??t find on my blog or other threads. now i don??t see any point in keep updating it....

[RIDERR1150GSADV]

Personally I have been following your adventures on Advrider.
I think the folks here are too much preoccupied with pimping their bikes rather than riding them actually.
You are doing a great ride for a good cause and I hope you keep posting at least on Advrider!!

[Holly]

Sorry, I have been enjoying your postings. Just didn't have anything intelligent to add to the thread. Your postings are appreciated.

Holly

[salcar]

From Belem to Manaus: Loading the bike on a boat is always a scary moment for me. For some reason I fell that I can loose all that I own in a matter of a second


Once is finally secure i can finally relax


So I went to see the market which is always an interesting experience. This time no frog smoothies just some herbal potions


Also had some time to go check out the favellas. As you see the there is no sewage system and all the **** runs underneath the houses. You can only imagine the smell during a hot and humid day


I was glad that i didnÔÇÖt have to sleep on a hammock. A couple that was sleeping on the hammock got all their stuff stolen. Many people felt stomac sick on the boat ride and sharing bathroom was not pleasant. Also people that were in hammocks didnÔÇÖt get served any fruits.


The boat ride gave me lots of time to brainstorm. Here are a few of the note I jotted down on my notebook..


It is hard not to be motivated to make this world a better place when you see so many children begging for a better tomorrow


And is even harder not to think about healthcare and education when you see an albine children completely sun burned and the mother doing nothing about protecting her skin!!!


So little to do and so much to think


Alter three days on the boat we got a chance to get off the boat in Santarem. So I hired a mototaxi to take to see the most beautiful river beach in town part of the road was dirt and scary.


We road in the middle of the jungle


But is was the wrong season to go and everthing was floaded. Nonetheless very nice!



And it cannot be an adventure without the bike breaking down and being late to catch the boat for manaus..

More coming

[salcar]

There was a total of 10 foreigners on the boat except for me they were all backpackers from the EU and USA. This made the trip much better because we had lot of stories to share.


Then there were the characters like this guy that never took off his leather jacket even when it was midday and very hot. It turned out to be a pretty nice guy ÔÇô just a bit weird.
Then the other character was a guy that spend the 7 days on the boat completely drunk. We tried to speak a few times but we never could understand each other. I just got that he was going to Guyana for work and that his bubby had sent him the money to go there.


Then there was El Artesano. He had been traveling around south America for 35 years never being in one place for more than a month and a half. Just one time he stayed in one place for three years when he got married. You had to meet him to appreciate his life.


Manaus was my last port and a clear view that the Amazon forest wonÔÇÖt last much longer. The towns are getting bigger and the logging industry is making sure the tree are cut down while the soybean farmers push their bloody farms deeper and deeper into the jungle.


The boat did a quick stop to let some passenger off and I barely made it to take my belonging off of it.


The next day I tracked down all the foreigners that where with me on the boat and organized the first SalCar Adventure. I rented out a boat to do a 12 hour tour of the amazon river/rio negro river, went fishing piranhas, eate the piranhas, went sight seeing for dolphins, alligators monkeys etc, went to see the typical plants etc. we left early in the morning and came back late. Even people that I had never met heard about my tour that where in different hotels and came along. All in a matter of less than 24 hours I sold all the spaces available.

Swimming in the amazon


Giant water lilies (?)


Fixing the flat tire from Boa Vista to the border.

[OUTBACKUFO]

As you know adventurers under 30 years old no one takes them seriously. You have suffered the same frustrations as those that went before you. Everyone interested in your ride report, pictures, and stories the norm. Others have assisting as they can but regardless it was your journey, and your journey only.

Hey S....

I have to agree with D... I have dealt with the problem of being very young under 30 until this year... :arg in the adventure relm... I have had a lot of ideas for different rides from rough dirt to a major fundraiser... i got some great comments on my ideas and plans and then no assistance or help or belief in me to succeed for the reason only that i was young (except a couple of people D and G)... if i had been 40-50 with the same ideas i know the funding would have come through... getting funding for anything as a person under 30-35 is tough to say the least... but if you stick to a central idea and goal and dont get too distracted with other ideas the main idea will blossom before you know and take you on one hell of a ride..

later
X

[BeerTeam]

Great adventure . . .
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