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Killing a dog, turning 40 and more...

We left Sao Thome the 28th. I killed a dog that day! 

As we left the village, riding a smooth, twisty country road, a dog came out of nowhere. We saw it at the last minute. Alistair, ahead, narrowly avoided it. The dog then went on the left side, before changing course abruptly and coming into my lane. He suddenly stopped in front of my wheel. By then I was braking like mad but there was no way to avoid it. I think I hit it in the head. It was a medium size dog, the bike felt like it went flying, I hold on the grips for dear life. My thought was ''this is going to hurt''. I was still going fairly fast and going down meant risk of serious injury! The front wheel went all over the place but somewhow I managed to remain in control. Maybe all those 100s of miles of dirt road have taught me something! We stopped about 100m after the accident. Looking in my mirrors I could see that the dog was not moving. I must have killed it outright. I guess after 10,000 miles of avoiding suicidal dogs and all sorts of animal farm playing with the traffic and jumping in front of us at the last minute it was just a matter of time for this to happen.

2 women had been walking by the side of the road, one was now running toward the dog. We both thought the same thing: ''there is nothing we can do for the dog, let's go''. If you think about it, the way the locals perceive us is 2 rich gringos on very expensive motorbikes, a bag of dollars. Also we are riding without insurance. If the police get involved, we would be in trouble. So we fled the scene of the killing! If that woman was the owner, there are enough dead dogs by the side of the road to know the outcome if you let your dog play with the traffic!

Since enterring Brazil I had been thinking about trying to buy 3rd party insurance but this is not easy to find! I thought maybe in Rio, but no luck.  

After the road kill we arrived early afternoon at Sao Jao del Rei, a beautiful colonial city, in the inland state of Minas Gerais (I love all those names!!!). As usual we stopped in a quiet plaza and Alistair went to check for accommodation. While I was waiting with the bikes, a couple passed by, taking their daughter to school. They started talking to me, as it happens so often in Brazil. They were actually french canadians (by their accent). They tried to think of a place to stay in town with parking for the bikes but they told me all would be too expensive, we were better off going to the pretty touristic nearby village Tiradentes. They gave me their telephone number in case of need and left me. On their way back from school they stopped again. I had mentioned that we would be going to Rio and asked me if we knew where to stay. As I said we had no idea yet, they gave me the name of a hotel with safe parking and reasonably priced. The hotel was in my guide so it would be easy to find.

We couldn't find a hotel with parking in town so we went to Tiradentes. The village was really pretty but  felt like a museum, very touristic! We eventually found an affordable Pousada and unloaded the bikes. The following day we took a bike and rode the 100 kms to the village of Congonhas. Our guide described that on the terrace of the church stand 12 prophets, scupted by Aleijadinho, around 1805. ''Carved in soapstone with a dramatic sense of movement, they constitute one of the finest work of art of their period in the world''. With such a description we had to see it! Aleijadinho is after all one the most important artist of South America, certainly  of Brazil, for that period. A genius, who continued to work even when he was so severely disabled that the hammer and chisel had to be tied to his hands. It was truly impresssive.

On the way back we stopped for a late lunch at a little restaurant by the side of the road. As usual in that sort of place, they served excellent food at a very decent price. Cheaper than touristy Tiradentes!

In the evening I went out on my own to buy Alistair a surprise. The 30th was his birthday and I spotted a chocolate shop! They had all sort of chocolates in big jars and I bought him a big selection. They put that in a nice box. The next day we were going to Rio. I was a bit concerned that the chocolate would melt during the ride, but that day was actually quite cool and we had a lot of rain.

So we arrived at Rio de Janeiro under pouring rain! Not what I had imagined! To make things worse, one of my BMW boots (allegedly Gore-Tex!) is leaking so much water that every time it rains it's like a swimming pool in my boot! And then it takes days for the boot to dry! To be frank, all the BMW motorcycling gear we bought for the trip has been really disappointing! The boots leaking, the suits zips breaking, stitches coming off, seams bursting... Considering how much we paid for that we expected top notch quality! We are sending a complaint email to BMW Vines of Guildford and asking at least to get the boots replaced. I can't ride in Patagonia with a leaking boot, I would freeze to death!   Considering that they commpletely ignored our previous email from Bolivia, when we complained that they sold us the wrong spark plugs (if you remember) I have not much hope of a response, but this time we will escalate, we are not dropping this!  

Anyway, we found the hotel we were recommended without too many problems and without doing too many U-turns! The next day was hot and sunny at last! It was Alistair's 40th birthday and Rio is certainly a great place to turn 40! We went to visit Sugar Loaf mountain and had a walk by the sea side. It was Sunday, so many people were on the beach. We even saw Capoeira dancers there!

In the evening we celebrated the birthday boy with a bottle of (Brazilian) champagne (drunk out of all we had available - enamel mugs!) and then went out for a very nice meal in a local restaurant, Alistair had a huge steak and I had a huge fish, all washed down with a nice Brazilian wine!

The next day was dedicated to visit Copacabana beach and various others places of interest in Rio! We have such a hard life!! Honest! We were expecting a plethora of body beautifuls on Copacabana beach after watching the crappy Brazilian soap opera set there, but the reality is slightly different.  Mostly saggy bodies, but to be fair it was a Monday morning and most of the people there were retired I'd say.

We had planned to spend 3 nights in Rio, so the next day we packed up, paid the hotel, loaded the bikes and... My bike refused to start! Damn!   Very embarrassing as we had to troop all our stuff back into the hotel again.  Still, Rio isn't such a bad place to be stuck!

Our 1st thought was that the starter button had finally broken or given up, as I had problems with it for a long time. Alistair decided to pull it open and check. When opening it, it exploded in his hands and lots of tiny bits got lost in the ground of the car park! Not a good start! The metallic parts were badly corroded.I needed a starter button and we thought about using my horn button for that. If you remember my horn button broke in Colombia and I had an alternative button fitted in the handle bars to action the horn, in Medellin. Using that button as starter could do the fix for the time being. When opening that button, it also exploded in Alistair's hands and we had to retrieve all bits on the ground! Unfortunately the button was no good to be used as a starter button due to the short distance to go from off to On, if you see what I mean!

We went back to the hotel and asked if there was a motorcycle workshop around. Alistair went there and bought a button there but we could not use it as it was not evident what position was on or off! Anyway by then we went back to the hotel and got a room. It was evident that we would not leave town that day!

Alistair cleaned all corroded part of the original start button and put all the buttons back together after searching for about an hour to find all the bits on the floor and taking the Dakar's started button apart (carefully this time) to see how it fitted together. The bike would still not start! It was time to try the jump cables! We connected both bikes' batteries together and YES! My bike finally started! We removed all the side panels to get to the battery. It was not good. A couple of cells were completely empty! We filled the battery with distilled water and took it to the workshop to get checked and charged.

We decided to check Alistair's battery as well but it was fine. This is really strange! We also don't know what drained my battery as we rode a long way to get to Rio. It could be a problem with the charging system.

Discussing by email this problem with Chuck, another biker who we met in Cochabamba, he told us he had a problem with the charging system twice in 14 months of travel. As he ride the same model than us it is interesting to know! Anyway, late afternoon we went to pick up the battery, recharged, and fitted all back in my bike! This time it started ok!

The next day we checked both bikes would start before packing up our stuff and were finally able to leave Rio! We only rode 300 kms to the beautiful colonial village of Paraty. We spent 3 nights there as the village was gorgeous, the hostal was really nice and had good facilities (laundry: I managed to wash my bike suit, a big kitchen and cable TV!). As the village was very touristic, restaurants were very expensive, so we went by the beach a couple of time and bought giant king prawns and fish from the fishermen market, freshly caught the same day! It was superb, just fried with a bit of garlic.... I tell you we are having such a hard life!  

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