WEATHER: Hot and 35C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: My home coming on Rosita
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Uncertainty of where to sit-hot seats
WORD OF THE DAY: Countdown
DISTANCE TRAVELLED:
We had a long way to travel today, up to 12 hours, so Mark and Gray wanted to get an early start with a departure at 7am. Anything before 7am and the alarm has to be set for a 5.45am wakeup, so it makes for an extremely long day for all. My only issue this morning was where to sit. The truck has been on the move for over 30 days, people have ‘their’ seats and I don’t want to upset people before I’ve had a chance to meet them. There are 26 of us on a 36 seat truck, so I needed to work out where those 10 seats were. I was counting on one of the backward facing table chairs would be free, as people usually don’t like travelling backwards so that was my first call, asking Chris if that seat was taken and he said actually no, it’s not, so first seat and I get it! I figured there are only around 5 truck days left till we get to Caracas and people leave and then I can take one of their seats. I have blog entries to catch up on, so the table will also come in handy. SOLD. I have a new seat.
So back on Rosita and I hate to say I’m excited. I’ve had a hiatus away from the group and the truck and my batteries have now been recharged for the final 35 day push through the last 2 days in Brazil, 10 days in Venezuela, 10 days in Colombia and the remaining time in Ecuador and finishing the tour in Quito where the trip started back on the 12th November. There are only 3 original people from that start and then I joined 14 days later on the 29th November, but we literally have been on the road for over 5 months. That’s a long time in anyone’s book.
I added a countdown app to my IPod when I was in Manaus, initially to count down the days for me till I saw Zeme again, but then I started adding in how long I had been away, the last time I had a haircut, how long till I see certain friends in the States and it has now been a great little app I have been checking every day. But as we were driving along today it dawned on me that I need to not focus on how many days till I’m home or how many days till I see Zeme. I am still travelling on the trip of a lifetime and I need to make the most of the time I have left. I miss Zeme, he knows that, I know that and the days will roll along quicker if I’m not so hung up on the counting of them. For goodness sake I am in South America, on a BIG yellow truck, living the dream. There will be plenty of time to spend with Zeme in 121 days. But just for the books the things I am counting down are:
I’ve been travelling for 366 days
My South America tour started 119 days ago
I’ve been on the South American continent for 144 days
There are 34 days of this section left to travel
I will be home in 99 days-that’s sounds weird and I’m in double digits
Only 121 days till Zeme and I are reunited in Brisbane in July
It has been 102 days since my last haircut (this needs to be rectified)
It’s been 40 days since I last saw Rosita-missed ya pal
….and finally there are 156 days till I arrive in Ethiopia and start my new exciting life in Addis Ababa.
So you can see I have been busy using my new app, but I am not going to be so absorbed in the counting of the days. I am sure there are a million people that would love to swap places with me, so I am going to enjoy my last days on my last group tour and finish what I started with the same enthusiasm that I brought on day 1. Yep, I’m back on track.
Day 366 means that I have finished my diary that I bought in Brisbane before I left home. It was actually pretty cool and it was a 365 day diary and each day was numbered in the top right hand corner of each page. That’s how I always knew where I was at in my days. Needless to say I haven’t seen anything like that since, so I have made my own by buying a notebook and just copying the same format. I bought in Buenos Aires a leather notebook cover, so I’m using that for my new diary and the pages get me up to arriving home and then hopefully I will be able to get another 365 day diary to start my Ethiopian adventures in. I am thinking about blogging my trials and tribulations once I get there and I think I will start a new blog address for that. I’ll need to think of a name for the domain, so if anyone has any ideas send them through to me. When I was in Addis Zeme had bought me arrival roses and then on my second last day he bought me goodbye roses. So what I have done was picked all the petals off the 10 roses and I have dried and flattened them in my diary and we worked out that it was going to be 131 days till we saw each other, so I had 131 rose petals and I have now stuck one in my diary on each day till we see each other again. Awwwwwww I hear you say, I know sweet right! So I did this today to fill in some time and I know that Chris and Heather were whispering about it, but what do I care, it is something that Z and I came up with together and I think it’s nice.
I left 2 bags and a postage bag, things I was going to post home from Brazil and just didn’t get a chance, so it will be interesting to see what is in those bags after 7 weeks. Obviously it is stuff I don’t need if I haven’t used it in the last 2 months, but I will need to go through it and decide what I will keep, toss and post. I need to keep an eye in the crap I am buying and spreading on the truck as the tour comes to an end. It is weird now that I can have the thought of being able to keep stuff on me till “I get home”. I’ve never been able to say that till now. On my round world ticket I am allowed to have 2 pieces of checked luggage and I think I will finally be able to use the allowance. After this, Easter Island and Barbados I will be visiting friends till home, so having an extra bag to lug won’t be an issue and I won’t care that I look like I have over packed. This is pretty exciting now that I think about it and as we head further north and leave Brazil things will hopefully become cheaper again and I can start to have a little spending spree before leaving the continent!
We were meant to have lunch at the Equator today, but the weather was quite crappy and raining and when we pulled over at 2pm, Mark said they didn’t see the sign for it and 2 people piped up that they saw the monument and the sign and they didn’t say anything? Are you serious? So there were a few upset people, which I can understand as it is a pretty cool meridian. I’ve seen it a few times in Africa and I have also seen it in Ecuador, but it would have been cool to see the Brazil one as well. Some people are dopey areses sometimes.
We arrived into Boa Vista for our last night in Brail at 7.30pm, 12.5 hours after leaving Manaus. There are a lot of people happy to leave Brazil. They have been here for over 55 days and it is an expensive country and think people just need a change of scenery, country and currency and spirits will be lifted again. Once again I am lucky, I only spent 34 days here, but I have a bitter taste in my mouth with them not giving Zeme a visa. He seriously went back and forth from the Brazil Consulate in Addis over 15 times in one week. They were really giving him the run around, the bastards and I can now say that as I am now out of their country and I won’t be coming back for a long time.
Mark and Gray hadn’t used this hotel in Boa Vista before so we had a little scenic drive around the city for about 10 minutes, which at the end of a 13 hour day, what’s another 10 minutes, but the city must have the world’s largest round-a-bout, it was massive, and we did 2 complete circles before breaking off and getting a quick toilet stop in for 2 people and then this really nice guy came up to the truck and asked if we needed help, well actually yes, so when we got everyone back on board, he lead us to the hotel in his car! What a nice person, see there are still nice people in this world!!!
Boa Vista is the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima. Situated on the western bank of the River Branco, the city lies 220 km (136 mi) away from Brazil's border with Venezuela. It is the only Brazilian capital located entirely north of the Equator. Boa Vista has an equatorial climate, with high temperatures throughout the year and a very narrow range of temperatures, with an average temperature of about 30 °C. It also lies within a very wet climate with annual precipitation often more than 2000 mm. These hot and wet conditions are ideal for the growth of plants, so the vegetation found in the city is both dense and varied.
As a modern city, Boa Vista stands out among the other capitals of the North Region of Brazil as it is a planned city with a radial plan. It was planned by the architect Darci Aleixo Derenusson who based his design for the city on one that is similar to that of Paris, France. The main avenues converge at Civic Center Plaza, where the headquarters of three governmental branches (legislative, judiciary, and executive) reside.
It was a quick dinner at Bobs. A Hungry Jacks equivalent with a burger, chips and a drink and then in bed by 10pm. We have a border crossing tomorrow but hopefully that won’t take too long and not such a long day as we had today. Goodnight to Brazil for the last time. We have had our ups and we have had our downs, but it time to leave……Tucan.
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