Boa Vista is Brasil’s northern-most capital (and almost its northernmost town - of any size). It lies around 900km north of Manaus, in the state of Roraima. Part of Mount Roraima (up which I have been – thanks Mr Churchill) lies within the state, and it borders the southernmost state of Mr Chavez’ personal oil field, Venezuela.
I have two friends up there – Emerson, a lawyer, and Martin, who’s just, well, Martin. And I decided to visit them. It’s expensive to get there by plane, so the only other course of action is car/bike (not recommended because of the state of the roads), or omnibus. At R$90 one-way, this seemed like a good idea, and off I went. The original scheduled time is 12 hours bus station to bus station, and after 12 hours you’re generally ready to get off just wherever you happen to be at the time. In our case, unfortunately, it ended up taking 14 hours 20 mins. Joy.
And on the way back we didn’t fare (pardon pun) too well either, making it in a pretty poor 14 hours. Having stayed up there for just less than 24 hours, I conclude that the 28 hours 20mins on the bus isn’t really worth it (sorry lads). Of course it ought to be quite interesting, since the bus passes through the Waimiri-Atroari indigenous reserve (no stopping, no photographing, thank you very much) – but since we passed through it in the dark on the way up, and I was asleep on the way back, I’m sorry to say that all I can tell you about it is that the road is awful and the indigenous folk don’t have street lights.
Never mind – herewith a photo from the garden, of the lesser spotted banana thief, and one of Naice enjoying a caipirinha at our local. None of you would of course be so tasteless as to ask which one is which...
I have two friends up there – Emerson, a lawyer, and Martin, who’s just, well, Martin. And I decided to visit them. It’s expensive to get there by plane, so the only other course of action is car/bike (not recommended because of the state of the roads), or omnibus. At R$90 one-way, this seemed like a good idea, and off I went. The original scheduled time is 12 hours bus station to bus station, and after 12 hours you’re generally ready to get off just wherever you happen to be at the time. In our case, unfortunately, it ended up taking 14 hours 20 mins. Joy.
And on the way back we didn’t fare (pardon pun) too well either, making it in a pretty poor 14 hours. Having stayed up there for just less than 24 hours, I conclude that the 28 hours 20mins on the bus isn’t really worth it (sorry lads). Of course it ought to be quite interesting, since the bus passes through the Waimiri-Atroari indigenous reserve (no stopping, no photographing, thank you very much) – but since we passed through it in the dark on the way up, and I was asleep on the way back, I’m sorry to say that all I can tell you about it is that the road is awful and the indigenous folk don’t have street lights.Never mind – herewith a photo from the garden, of the lesser spotted banana thief, and one of Naice enjoying a caipirinha at our local. None of you would of course be so tasteless as to ask which one is which...
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