Day 170. Saturday 15th. February. At a Motel 20k’s from Belo Horizonte. Brasil. A significant day, but with some rest.

Dilemma.

As Jen reported in yesterday’s blog, we have a problem! Some of the night was spent thinking of a plan to overcome it. The main issues are, it’s the weekend and most businesses close down for the weekend, as they should. Where can we source new brake pads? When and if we find them, how will we get them delivered? How long will we have to wait for them to arrive?

There is a huge advantage to us, Anderson, the hotel owner, speaks reasonable English. Having scoured the internet for possible parts suppliers, we find 3. After phoning 2 and getting no answer, or an unsatisfactory one, Anderson says, “come with me, I’ll take you 5 min. down the road to a garage I know”. How generous. Walking into this huge workshop with cars everywhere in various stages of repair, is a Land Rover Defender with the engine out. The owner though, is less than enthusiastic about being involved saying, “come back Monday”. There is a little confusion but I try and get across that we only need the parts, I can fit them.

I would have been quite happy to buy this car’s brake pads.

We are just about to drive back to the motel when I got a brain wave and went back to the garage owner asking if we can buy the brake pads out of the Defender there. I offered to pay for new ones that he can fit later on. Anderson followed me back in and there was some discussion between them, the outcome was, the owner called a number and was told at 10.30am, tell them to get their Land Rover into town (20 k’s away) by 11.30am and we will fit the parts. Bingo!!!

The race is on.

Driving back to the motel in Anderson’s new Jeep, Jen decided to stay at the motel, rather than be squashed in the cab for two, or sit in the back of Poki, as Anderson knew how to find the parts supplier and garage.
The mechanic jacked the front up first and removed the wheels, to show that the front disc pads were fine. Now they were concerned as they said they would not have time to replace all pads. Forget the front, I said, the rear ones need replacing. In many ways, this visit was a blessing, they had great difficulty getting the wheel nuts off as they must have been tightened with a rattle gun! The last time the wheels were removed, was in South Africa and we were not present when they were replaced by the garage. I could not get the nuts undone with the supplied wrench! A long bar was required, which I would not have had if we had a puncture.

They have the parts.

As understood, the inside pad on the left rear was worn to the metal and has scored the rotor, but not deeply. They wanted to replace the rotor but did not have the parts. “Don’t worry about it, just replace the pads”, I told them. By 11.35am we drove away with spare pads and paid 472Reals or £65 or $143NZ. The parts were made in Brasil, and we could not have done it for anywhere near that cost, in the UK or NZ.

After having lunch in Poki I spent an hour cleaning and doing some basic maintenance. Why did we not have spare brake pads, I hear rightfully you ask? The simple answer to that is, I thought we had. We have just about everything else that might need replacing. Reflecting back to South Africa I told the garage to use the parts I had, and forgot to replace them. Did they use them?

From not knowing how long were were going to be holed up here, or even if we could get the parts, we are now free to travel on, but will stay here another night, in some form of recompense for Anderson’s amazing generosity. I think I have already said it a number of times, but the Brazilian people have been so wonderfully friendly and hospitable.

Anderson heading out for some relaxation therapy on his lovely Indian made motorbike.

A giant moth in it’s final throes.

Tomorrow we resume our journey. Things are hotting up politically in Brasil. A huge demonstration reflecting public disquiet about government corruption is to be staged on the 18th of next month. I hope we will be in Paraguay by then.

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