BACK TO ROSITA

WEATHER: Flaming hot and 38C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting back into the truck

BUMMER OF THE DAY: It’s HOT and I want my old sear back

WORD OF THE DAY:  Rustic

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 761KM

We get to see the old girl today.  It has been nearly 2 weeks since we have taken our pews on the big yellow truck aka Rosita.  As there were 3 groups leaving this morning, we staggered ours to leave after the other 2 at 7.30am.  We had a pretty big day head with just an enroute stop, to break the journey before heading into Paraguay tomorrow.  We literally have 3 more ‘main stops of Paraguay, Iguassu Falls and Parati with 4 enroute days thrown in to get us to Rio.  Everything is a countdown to Rio now, as it means a new group, Carnival and the arrival of my boyfriend Zeme.  The good thing also about the next section leaving Rio is that there are only 9 nights of camping out of 25 nights up to Manaus and the Amazon cruise.  I am looking at upgrading to a cabin on the cruise if it is air-conditioned.  Otherwise the sleeping arrangements are in hammocks on deck.  Not really a hammock person myself, always worrying if it will hold my weight, I like the sound of the cabin, if only they are airconed.  The weather as we head further north is only going to get warmer, so I must remember to ask mark about that. 

We really are just hauling arse to get as far as we can today, so we are closer to the border tomorrow and the camp site in Paraguay as it has a pool, so we are trying to get there early in the afternoon to make sure we get some use of that.  With an hour for lunch Mark and Gray decided to just keep driving as far as we could and pass the original place where we had intended to stop.  We were all okay with this with the image of the pool in our heads, we were all more than happy to just keep on going.  The weather today has been insanely hot.  My temperature gauge said 38C and it felt even hotter than that. 

At 7.30pm and 12 hours later we pulled into a truck side stop for the night.  With some controlled fires going on around us and a massive storm making it our way, we put the tents up quick smart before the heavens opened and the tent up for the food prep area.  There was a toilet at the site where we had stopped, but apparently it was ‘rustic’ and no shower facilities.  We were lucky enough to have a service station 200m away on the same side of the road, so we were able to use their toilet facilities and PM found out for .71 cents you could use their showers.  They had Wi-Fi at the service station as well as a large range of drinks and nibbles for purchase.  It wasn’t a bad roadside camp after all. 

The storm blew over but we were lucky it cooled us all down for a short time.  After dinner I headed to bed, it was 10.30pm, as the others played cards for a little while.  Sleeping in the tent after 10 nights was okay, I have to say I don’t mind camping.  I also have my new mini pillow to try out tonight, but man it is hot in the tent.  I am in a little bit of an unorganized mess at the moment, as I don’t have all my ‘camping’ things together, but I will be able to get this sorted in the next few days and back into the swing of things again pretty easily. 

Not much too really report today, but welcome back to Rosita, we have missed you gal and goodbye to Argentina.  Its not the last time as we do have one more visit when we get to Iguassu Falls.  We view then from both the Brazil and Argentinian sides, but Adios for now....