Intercity Premium Porto Alegre Hotel

6 December 2009

I made a mistake by uploading the entry of 24.11.09 into my travelpod titled 'The Longest Drive'. It is now installed in its rightful place in ‘North to Alaska’ with the correct date. I have also uploaded some extra photos to this entry.

Please see ‘I didn’t hit a cow today’ on 24.11.09

... that the correct jacket hadn’t arrived. I was very disappointed, as I knew Des was really looking forward to a light-weight jacket, his is very heavy, plus, we had some other plans for the day.

As it was, it took quite awhile to source another jacket for Des, which, Beto said, he would ship by express post at his cost, directly to the Palace Hotel in Frederico Westphalen, by Wednesday.

So, I paid for both jackets with cash (after ...

... of the two operators of the taxi, one I recognized was of the current driver. The trip from the hotel to the Hypomoto cost R$21.60. We gave the driver R$25 and everyone was happy.

We were met at the shop by the owner Beto Marshall, who is also an avid rider. Beto broke both his wrists on separate occasions within 3 months of each other, a year ago, just by "stop and drop" incidences, like mine. We selected 2 jackets, a yellow one for me and black for Des ...

The night bus from Blumenau to Porto Alegre was my longest one yet (about 9 hours), and I didn´t sleep much, so after arriving at my host Bayard´s place I took a nice long nap. The apartment is very small, but cozy, and we share a room.

Residents of Rio Grande do Sul (or Gauchos as they are called) are a (very) proud bunch and I was lucky to be able to experience their culture a bit over the next few days ...

Partindo para Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Foi um tempo muito bom que tive com Marcio e Viviane. Um casal muito abençoado que mora em Porto Alegre. Tive a oportunidade de conhacer um pouco Porto Alegre e a cidade de Farroupilhas.
Aproveitei para ir na unviersidade do Rio Grande do Sul encontrar com os estudantes do movimento Alfa e Omega (um ministério da Cruzada Estudantil e Profissional para ...

Well, I've officially left Porto Alegre, and it's definitely my favourite Brazilian city. I wish I'd taken pictures, but my camera is toast. I loved how integrated, with the modern city life, the Gaucho culture was. I went to a Gaucho rodeo/festival one day, completely by accident, but it turned out to be one of the coolest experiences. Guacho families come from all over, and set up this village of homes and shops, and people are welcome to wander the streets. There's meat cooking ...

... to back track. It would have been easy to assume we would get the exit stamp without a problem, but this day is not going to be as smooth as silk. The immigration official asked us for the entry ticket (ferry from Buenos Aires), for which I had to dig into my backpack to find as I wonder to myself about this stupid bureaucracy. After we got our exit stamp, then it is a 3km walk into town, fortunately we got a taxi ...

... but it was in English ... and so was a tradeoff. Didn't feel up for understanding only half of a movie. I had spotted a really good restaurant earlier today and went for a 9pm dinner. Had a couple of beers and a Bauru (hard to describe). Sooo good. Totally satisfied I headed in for the night. All in all a great day. Thinking of heading out tomorrow for my last stand in Santa Cruz Do Sul before I head ...

... sorta like a House of Blues connected to a high end shopping mall. Fernanda provided us some great hats that one of the sponsors donated and I promised for the rest of the trip I would wear my hat...check the photos. A dj warmed it up and after Pulse again played to a very happy audience that knew all the words and sang along and rode the rythem until the shows end. I ...

... Sao Paulo bus station to airport, moderate difficultly. I'm always skeptical about taking cabs since I feel like I'll be overcharged, so I felt good about there being a flat rate/prepaid cab to the airport. Forgot my Swiss army knife was in my carry on so I donated that to the attendant. boo. Aw well, saved muito muito dinheiro (very much money in my horrible Portuguese) by taking a bus instead of flying.

Frederico was waiting at the airport. It ...