Day 153. Wednesday, 29th January, 2025. From Camping Don Ari on the outskirts of Santana do Livramento to a free camp in Rosario do Sul, Brazil. 120 Miles or 193 Kms.

Morning Tasks

It was a shame to leave Don Ari Camping. It was a restful place with lovely people in charge. When we left I received kisses on both cheeks from the couple running it. Brazilians are super friendly people.

As Dennis explained yesterday, it was such an odd border, with no formal entry point, we were in Brazil before we even knew it. We made our way straight to the campsite I had picked, so this morning being in a new country, without wifi, currency or fuel, we had to attend to obtaining these vital things.

Driving back into Santano do Livramento, we first found a fuel station. Dennis managed to attract 3 young ladies to fill Poki with diesel. Poki’s map and our lack of Portuguese provoked a lot of interest. After much hilarity and photos and a windscreen cleaned by throwing a watercan full of water at it to wash the soap away, we progressed to our next task to find a Cambio (money changer). Poki didn’t take kindly to the swamping, though as the vents were open, and promptly leaked water all over my feet.

The young ladies at the fuel station had given us some sort of directions to a Cambio and we found one without too much difficulty. In fact there were 4 located close together in the same street. I changed US$300 at a rate of 5.5 to the Brazilian Real. Hopefully, this will keep us going for a while.

Finally the dreaded SIM card. We stopped and asked a 3 gentlemen who were standing at a market stall chatting, if they could tell us where we could purchase a SIM. The youngest member of the group spoke English and kindly offered to show me where and to go with me to act as translator. It was a pharmacy that sold the Claro SIM, which with my translator, was an easy purchase. However, when I wanted to put data on the card I learned we were unexpectedly back in Uruguay! I would need to go Brazil to do this.

Setting off a few hundred yards back into Brazil we found another pharmacy. They were very apologetic that they could not help me, as I had to be registered first before they could top up my SIM. I needed to go to the Claro office. It wasn’t far away, but the girls were singularly unhelpful, telling me I couldn’t register without some sort of Brazilian document.

They said another provider, Vivo, 2 doors away maybe able to help me. To cut a long story short, a very helpful young man at Vivo, did help me. He said it would be a lengthy process, and it was. Over an hour. Laura’s suggestion of an e-SIM was seeming very attractive, but we seem to be okay now.

Heading to Rosario do Sul

Driving a short distance, we pulled over for some lunch. We hadn’t gone much further before it started to rain. We hoped it was just a shower and by the time we arrived in Rosario do Sul it was fine again. It is a free campsite beside a river. Obviously a popular place, with a wide expanse of yellow sand, making it almost seem like a beach. There were several campers and many families picnicking.

Recently while in the very north of Argentina, in Urugauy and particularly since we have come into Brazil, there is a crop growing extensively, which we don’t recognise. When Dennis was reading about Uruguay he learned soybeans were their second biggest export. Brazil is the world’s largest producer, though, harvesting 162 million tons in the 2022/2023 season. So, this crop we are seeing everywhere is soybeans.

Gisela and Daniel

After we had dined, we were sitting in Poki attending to correspondence, when a lady came to the window. She was very excited to talk to us as she saw we were from New Zealand. An enjoyable evening conversing with Gisela and her partner, Daniel, followed.

Gisela and Daniel are from Argentina and are on holiday in Brazil. They have a beautifully fitted out Fiat Ducato camper van. Daniel, being a carpenter, had done all the joinery and Gisela had varnished and stained all the wood. The reason Gisela was so excited to talk to Kiwis was because her daughter lives in Ohakune (in the centre of the North Island) and is working for DOC (Department of Conservation). Gisela is going out to stay with her in March for a month. She has been to visit her before, so is familiar with parts of New Zealand.

Gisela speaks excellent English having been to an English school in Bariloche and having worked as a translator. We sat talking until 9.30, when we thought we should get our bedding organized. Gisela and Daniel hadn’t even had their dinner, so we left them to cook, while we retired to Poki.

As we were so engaged in conversation, the blog didn’t get written, so apologies for the delay.

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