On the bus back towards Bolivia
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
175
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Cuiaba,
Brazil
Thursday, August 16, 2007
There are supposedly tours to the northern Pantanal from Cuiaba, so off we went early. Barb refused to cough up another 12 reals for a taxi, so after a decent breakfast we hiked the 2 or 3km to the bus station (uphill, with packs). A bus was just leaving for Rondonopolis (pronounced Hondonopolis) and the guy said there was no direct bus to Cuiaba till 10am, which would get us there in the dark again. The road was boring. The BRazilians have cleared whatever vegetation there might have been and replaced it with kilometre after kilometre of crops. not even a fence in sight. Very occasionally there were small woodlots with serried rows of eucalypts. In Rondonopolis bus station, where it was 36 degrees, and from where we could see the city kilometres away, lots of tall white buildings, we had 10 minutes till a bus left for Cuiaba. No lunch.
It was another 4 hours or so of cropped land and dead boring, except for the occasional rheas, which look just like emus at a distance. Cuiaba is a huge place with a vast bus station miles from the centre. Pete managed to persuade the phone to work and contacted a hostel in Lonely Planet. The guy wasn't sure if he had a room or not, but said to come and he'd fix us up something. The taxi was 12 reals, the local bus 2 each, so we had a very long trip to the centre, taking every left and right turn there was. From there it was 5 minutes to the hostel. It was full, lovely place too, with trees, hammocks, book exchange. Dammit. The owner consoled us with a beer, then paid for a taxi for us and an Italian guy to Hotel Mato Grosso. Oh dear, was this a dump.For 72 reals (nearly $50) was got a dismal room in the dungeons, 3 marrow single beds, TV that had lots of white streaks
