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Last night one of my fillings fell out whilst I was eating! We weren't going to drive all the way back to Dr Neufeld, our dentist in Asunción, so the first thing we needed to do was to find a dentist nearby. We didn't have internet but our GPS includes dentists. We programmed in one that was approx 3km away and tried following the route.
Normally we don't have problems following our GPS but the roads here criss cross each other and it's not easy to tell which road you need to get onto until the road you are following starts bending in the wrong direction! Oops! Also there is a very complicated road system on the outskirts where we were and we ended up driving around the houses and back to where we started!!
We did so many U turns and drove 7km for a journey that was only 3km!! Finally we got to the dentist and found a parking spot around the corner. Kirsten stayed with Winnietwo whilst I walked to the office. The door was locked but had a buzzer and speaker. I spoke Spanish to explain what the problem was and got buzzed in mid sentence. They don't speak Spanish but at least there was a dentist there who spoke English!
Dr Mariana was very good and had studied for a year in America. I got in straight away and 90 minutes later I had a new tooth coloured filling that was better than the previous one. In case you are interested, I learned that Amalgam used to be a very good material 30 years ago. It might last 20 years but it breaks the teeth. Now they use a composite resin that is far better for the teeth but only lasts 5 to 8 years. Oh well, at least I didn't need a crown which would have meant staying in the area for another week or so.
Whilst waiting for me Kirsten had done the washing up and then we set off on another driving odyssey, trying to get onto the main road and points south. After a coffee break where we finally managed to buy a road atlas for Brazil (yippee!!), we took the scenic route towards the coast.
Completed in 1873, the Estrada Da Graciosa is a cobblestone, switchback route that winds its way through the forbidding terrain of the Serra do Mar as it descends 800 metres. There are supposed to be spectacular views but we didn't see a thing because we were driving through fog and rain!! It certainly took a lot of concentration.
Estrada Da Graciosa
It was getting dark by the time we got to Morretes and the two possible parking places we had from iOverlander were under water! So we found a spot on one of the many cobblestone streets. It didn't stop raining all night!
The next morning was cloudy but dry for an hour whilst we wandered around. Morretes was founded in 1721 on the banks of the Rio Nhundiaquara. It's a small colonial town with several colourful buildings and cobblestone streets.
It started raining again so we set off and got a ferry across an inlet between Matinhos and Guaratuba. The ferry was a floating platform pulled/pushed by a small tugboat and cost 6-90 R$ ($2-10) for the ten minute ride.
Ferry to Guaratuba
We stopped at a beach in Guaratuba for the night. The seafront properties were all rentals and empty. We went for walks on the beach and decided to stay another night. Then we drove to the lovely little island village of São Francisco. Founded in 1504 it is the third oldest settlement in Brazil (only Bahia and São Vincente are older). It is also the gateway for the rest of the island - a popular destination for sun-worshippers and surfers.
We drove to a spot favoured by the locals at the Forte Marechal Luz next to a beach and ended up staying for a week! We enjoyed beach walks and even got to see some of the surfers. We could use the outdoor showers at the fort and get water from there so it was an ideal spot for us. We could also get free drinking water from a tiled sink with a pipe coming out of it in the village. There's obviously a well here and the locals were all filling up their water bottles. Water comes out of the pipe 24 hours a day - it can't be switched off ! So we got in the queue and filled up our bottles. Super!
On Thursday 29th March, the day before Good Friday, it was time to leave ... except our motorhome had other plans and obviously wanted to stay. I turned on the ignition ... nothing! No lights on the dashboard, no engine noises, nothing! We checked all the fuses, and measured the front battery - 12.5, which is fine.
We cleaned the battery contacts and tried again. Other than a noise where the radio is, there was nothing. We spoke to two Brazilians who have a Renault transporter van that looks just like our motorhome. Craia and her husband, whose name we didn't understand, were parked directly behind us. We spoke Spanish, they spoke Portuguese and somehow we managed to understand each other. He had a look under our bonnet but did the same things that we had already done - namely checked the battery and the contacts.
They said they would check the internet and see if they could find a mechanic for us. There was no WiFi that we could use. It was really nice of them to help us. They are from Curitiba and had just come down to spend the Easter weekend on the beach.
At 2pm they knocked on the side of our motorhome and told us they had found a car electrician who would drive out to us at the fort but it would be about 2 hours before he got there and it would cost us between 50 and 60 R$ ($17 to $20 US) for the call out fee. Fine!
Edgar from H&J Electronica arrived at 3-30pm and it only took him 15 minutes to tell us the problem was our battery and we would need a new one. Our neighbours acted as translators for us and Edgar said he could fetch a new battery for us and put it in for us this evening. The price would be 600 R$ ($200 US)for the battery and 100 R$ ($30 US) for his work.
He drove off and I walked to the local supermarket in the rain for some supplies. The next day was Good Friday and nothing would be open until Saturday so I picked up a few things in case we couldn't drive off that evening. The right decision because we had two visits from our helpful neighbours - the first to tell us that the electrician had encountered lots of traffic heading for the coast and it would take a lot longer; the second to tell us he had finally got a battery for us but it was too late to come over to us. He would bring it the following morning at around 10am.
So we had to stay another night. Not a bad place to stay but unfortunately it rained all night and was sometimes extremely loud monsoon style rain!! Kirsten had also done something to her right thumb and had a lot of pain. Oh boy! She's right handed and can't do anything with her left! What a pair of invalids we are!
The good news was that Edgar brought our new battery. He struggled to get our old one out because there is absolutely no space. It took a lot of effort and neither Kirsten, with her bad thumb, or I, with my bad back, could help out!!
He finally managed though and we could set off again. Kirsten went to search for our neighbours to say thank you. That took quite a while because the beach area is quite large and there are a lot of people here!
We drove out and stopped at the local well to fill up our water bottles and containers and then passed a huge amount of traffic heading towards the fort and the various beaches. Good job we were going in the opposite direction!
It turned into a beautiful sunny day which we used up driving inland and stopping for a few hours to use the internet. Our destination was a cloister in Corupá - the Seminario Sagrado Coracao de Jesus de Corupá. It was closed when we arrived but we could stay overnight on the car park outside the gates and visited the next day. It was opened in 1932 and has impressive grounds. We also took a look inside the courtyard with a fountain and pond that was being cleaned.
We also managed to get WiFi so we could watch our football team. They only drew - will one point be enough to stay in the top league? It's certainly not looking good and pointing towards relegation! We still have some nail biting to do until the end of the season - only 6 matches left to play.
At around 1pm we left to drive to the Rota Das Cachoeiras - the Waterfalls Route - to do a 3km trail. We had to turn off the main road and drive 5km along a narrow gravel road that was supposed to be good. Well it was, but only for the first 700m!! Then it got worse and worse! There were some very steep downhill stretches, we went through a river that was fortunately not very deep and found out that was just the first of three water crossings!! More steeper stretches and I was getting more and more concerned that we might have difficulty getting back!!
We carried on and had to go through a muddy stretch that would definitely be a bit hairy if it rained. After 35 minutes of full-on concentration and mostly on the brakes, we finally got to the car park at the entrance. It was 2pm and we quickly paid our fee of 20 R$ each ($7 each), packed a rucksack with drinks and snacks, put on long trousers (there's supposed to be poisonous snakes and spiders here) and set off.
It was really hot and humid and the steep path with lots of slippery stone steps meant we were drenched in sweat within minutes. The 3km trail (one-way) goes up 400m and passes a total of 14 waterfalls that are all different. The largest is right at the end, number 14.
We could have worn shorts because there were no snakes or spiders to be seen but less clothing wouldn't have made any difference in this heat and humidity. I was impressed that there were signs detailing distances between waterfalls, giving a grade for the difficulty of each stretch, and with signs every 100m saying how far you've come and how far to the end.
It was certainly not an easy trail and the path consisted of stone steps, wooden boardwalks, metal grating and several swing bridges across the River Novo. There were even open air showers en route! Kirsten was having difficulty taking photos because a) her right thumb was still painful and b) the camera did not like the 100% humidity. Then things got worse ...
Just past waterfall No. 12 with the name Surpresa (Surprise!) we heard a loud clap of thunder. We only had another 900m to go to get to the last and best waterfall (Salto Grande). Seconds later it started to rain. It got dark very suddenly and the first bolts of lightning shot through the sky! Oh boy, that is not Kirsten's favourite at all - she goes into panic mode!
No more waterfalls for us! We turned around immediately and started back down as fast as we could. Now we knew why others coming towards us on the path had been in a hurry. Normally they have to give way to people heading uphill but they all seemed to just barge by. We thought it might be a Brazilian thing but now we realised that they must have seen the storm coming!
We'd brought some plastic bags with us which we used to cover Kirsten's camera because we already knew what Brazilian showers are like - slow starts and then bath tubs of water come bucketing down like a monsoon rain!! It was no different that day as we struggled to go back down the path as quickly as possible without breaking our necks or spraining ankles!
BOOM! More thunder and lightning. By now our hiking boots were completely wet even from inside and we were squelching! Even though we had a lot of protection from the trees there was just too much water coming down. We stopped at a shelter to put our smartphone and money in plastic bags to try and protect them but our rucksack was already wet and we were soaked through to our knickers! At least our waterproof camera didn't mind the rain!
It took us only 45 minutes to get back down to the car park and fortunately Kirsten didn't go off like a headless chicken! The storm passed just as we got back and a park attendant was still waiting to check that everyone came down safely.
We found a sink to clean boots and hiking sticks and also discovered there were hot showers! Unbelievable that we had been so hot that we had sweated buckets but now we were cold and soaked through so the hot showers felt wonderful! Kirsten realised that her thumb was no longer troubling her. Was it the electrical storm, the concentration, the panic? Didn't matter we were just happy that it had suddenly got better!
After our hot showers we could have stayed overnight at a campground nearby but I was concerned that the three water crossings would be higher, the muddy stretch would be difficult and there would be a lot of cars coming the other way if we left in the morning. The road is too steep and narrow for us to keep moving over to let them pass.
It was 5-30pm and we still had enough light to get back up so we set off. The muddy stretch was easier to pass going uphill even though we were sliding a bit. The water crossings were all a lot higher and Winnietwo had a few problems gripping the wet gravel on some of the steeper stretches. But we managed to get back to the tarmac road in 25 minutes. Now we could breathe a lot easier!!
Rota Das Cachoeiras
We drove back to the same car park at the Cloister to spend another night there and try to dry out all our clothes and boots - not easy when it's still very humid!
