BRAZIL PART 1 - THE COUNTRY IS BIG!
Here we are in the AMAZON.
Unbelievable! Sometimes I wake up and go outside to hear the noise of the rain forest. It is quiet is these aerea, and I guess every part of the Amazon is different. It is sooooo immense.
It is not easy to take good pictures from the air, first because it is out of a cockpit, second it is ALWAYS misti, third I would need a huge wide angle to get all the Amazonas on the picture.
First stop should have been Macapa, but we encountered bad weather on the way. So back to the nearest airport, which was one hour away: OIAPOQUE. The airport is just visited by airtaxis and military helicopters.
It was a very low flight flying, having heavy rain showers on the right and on the left and we making slalom through these cumulus. We are between 1000 and 1500 feet.
We made it! We are worried, since Comandante Carlao is waiting for us in Macapa and oh surprise!!! He is here! What a coincidence. That makes everything easier. Our portugese is not the best, but one of the guys speaks english.
Some formalities have to be done, like checking the airplane for drugs and going to the police station for the stamp. This was just an emergency landing, the official landing will be in Macapa, the international airport and airport of entry.
Our intention in going to the town with the bicycles was aborted. The police gave us a ride: too dangerous. Ok, but we took our bikes anyway. If Miss Universe would be walking down the street, she would have had half of the admirers we had with our bicycles. Everybody twisted their head around and asked, where the bikes came from, if they are for sale, how beautiful, can I try it ( at this last question our answer was "NO WAY!".
We are drinking now a beer looking at the Amazon river , and holding on to our bikes... The river has a chocolate look. The weather is humid and hot. After a while it starts raining. No real sunshine comes out, but it gets more humid. The soil is here reddish, and so is the color of the town and the color of our little plane.
Back to the airport. We sleep in the abandoned airport lobby on a bench, since it is forbidden to put up our tent. Somehow better, the night was more that wet. The next morning a nice surprise: we were invited to breakfast.
But first we need a shower. We have a mixture of moskito repellent with sweat on our skin, we feel sticky. We are in malaria, dengue and yellow fever region. We hate this stuff! We have moskito nets with us, but to put it up, we would need a drill, some hooks and a bunch of different sockets. Why on earth does every country have different sockets???!!!
MACAPA. Airport of Entry. No one speaks english. Paper work takes THREE HOURS. We cannot complain, everybody is very helpful and kind. Comandante Carloa helped us in every sense. Oh yes, the tower boys spoke english. The following day was just a matter of paying the landing fee, a quick small paper work that only took TWO HOURS!!
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