I packed my gear up from my first night out in the bush and took my sweet time pedaling the last kilometers to Altamira. After 9 straight days of cycling I was tired, almost 15lbs lighter, and needed food and rest.
A steep long climb welcomed me back to the road the morning I left Anapu. After an hour or so I couldn´t believe my eyes…nearly flat road all the way to the horizon. I sat back and cruised at over 10mph for the first half of the day.
As I left Pacaja for Anapu I gave the bike a rinse, pumped the tires, oiled the chain, and realized my rear rack was cracked. I wasn´t surprised considering the weight I was carrying in water and supplies and the bone jarring washboard roads and viscious decents.
My first days on the real TransAm started in Novo Repartimento. Even though the official Transamazonica project was abandoned by the government the highway is definately still in use. Trucks speed by at break neck speeds on the average of 1 per minute on this section of the TransAm, and the hills nearly wipe me out.
After leaving the town of 50km I headed to Tucurui with about 1L of fluids…bad idea. I have found that my perception of the conditions I´d be facing in the Amazon have been quite off so far. This has truly been a desert journey to this point.
I started the day´s ride at 5:30am and left the pavement behind me. Even at this hour I was sweating like a madman as I negotiated the washboard dirt road with my 100+ lb rig. I was right to be nervous the night before.
The ride from Igarape-Miri to Cameta´ was fairly easy going. I started at dawn to beat the absolutely life zapping sun and made it to the river Tocantins where I recieved some daunting news.
Not only is it my birthday but also the day of the Acai Festival in Iagarpe-Miri. This was my first full day of cycling and the Amazon is HOT!
This is my first full day in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon river and at the edge of the jungle. So far I have assembled my bike (with some issues), figured out the land line (SAT phone is having issues) and took a quick ride around this huge city.
These next few days are all I have to iron out the kinks in my gear and pack it up. My mosquito netting needed some alteration to accommodate guy lines, the bike needed to be broken down and boxed, and the remaining gear divvied up into the appropriate weight bundles to minimize baggage fees.
