Day 181. Wednesday, 26th February, 2025. From Hotel Turis in Campo Grande to Hotel Pousada Calliandra in Bonito. 191 Miles or 307 Kms.

This morning’s hotel breakfast was identical to Dennis’s description in yesterday’s blog. Except for the first time there was hot water and tea bags. Everywhere else it has been coffee only.

The car park was full of large puddles so we presumed it must have rained again overnight. However, we had forgotten to close the roof vents in Poki and it was dry inside. The puddles must still have been from the downpour late yesterday afternoon.

Campo Grande seemed a large city and quite affluent. It took a long time to be out into the countryside. Today’s roads were smaller with much less traffic. For a short period along the roadside were some pretty miserable looking, makeshift dwellings.

Stopped by the Police

Everywhere there are road blocks where the Policia Rodoviaria Federal have offices. In most places they are unmanned, everyone just slows down and drives through. Today, though, there were two policeman standing in the road and one of them waived us down. We pulled over and when he came to the window and spoke fluent English, I suspected he just wanted to chat and practice his English.

He was very polite and wanted to know how long we had been in Brazil, where we had been and if we liked Brazil. He asked where we were from and said he would much rather be in NZ than Brazil, as Brazil is too hot. I didn’t think he would ask for our documents, but he did. He wanted to see our passports and our Temporary Import Permit.

He said he was going to check them with the computer and took them to the office. I was afraid he would find out we had unpaid electronic tolls. However, he came back all smiles, returned the documents, thanked us and asked if he could take a picture of Poki’s map. He wished us a good journey and off we went.

It was a very overcast day. The weather forecast we checked last weekend, which said it would rain everyday this week, has so far proved accurate. It is slightly cooler, though.

Ethanol plant.

More Soybeans

This morning we were once again driving through fields of soybeans in different stages of development. Acres and acres as far as you could see. I expect you’re getting fed up with reading about soybeans. They have even been planted on the wide verges between the road and fences bordering the fields. A ripe strip next to us was being harvested. I wanted to see close up what the beans look like, as from a distance you can’t see bean pods at all. The pods are tiny and hold about 3 round, yellow beans, more the size of peas.

Aftel lunch we did see maize, timber and sugar cane for a while and then pasture land with large herds of cattle.

Bonito

We are now in Bonito. It is a tourist town with lots of hotels, restaurants and agencies selling tours. We decided we need a break from driving and so are going on a full day tour tomorrow. We leave at 7. It includes breakfast and lunch. We drive 60 kms away and hike 4 kms, climb over 800 steps and visit 7 waterfalls. There are 4 locations, apparently, where we can swim. Bonito is famous for its natural beauty. Crystal clear rivers, waterfalls, caves etc. As the forecast for tomorrow is for rain, we have been told the water may be muddy, not crystal clear.

Hopefully, we can get some decent shots to show you what we experience.

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