Day 42 - Ride the Cane Fields to Bonito

 This was the second transit day from the town of Presidente Epitacio to Bonito in far west Brazil. 

We are progressively heading west and then south to skirt the southern border of Paraguay, rather than cutting directly across it to the west and entering Bolivia. The roads in Paraguay are mostly dirt, and the transit of El Chaco is considered to be "inpenetrable" hence our long detour. They are apparently either very dusty or buried in a mire of mud and clay depending on the season! We will eventually return to Foz Igazcu on the border with Argentina, then pass through the border, to head further west. 

As it happens the small town of Bonito is a tourist mecca for Brazilians and a few foreigners, with specialised water activities as the primary attraction. Our road west passed through endless fields of sugar cane for nearly 600km so I stopped to take photographs of the amazing sight. Brazil has been the largest producer of cane in the world for decades, but has recently been overtaken by India for the last two years. We tend to think of Queensland as a very large producer, but it only ranks tenth in the world! 

The riding today was actually very enjoyable, as it was on mostly good single lane roads, and the quantity of trucks dropped to a very few, making consistent 130km/hour travel easy and safer. As normal, we stopped to fill up the bikes at regular distances, the first being at 140km. The smaller bikes can make about 300km maximum distance, but mine can achieve over 500, so it never worries me where we stop! Our second stop was at 227 km further on, and some of the other bike riders were worried about being on "reserve".

Our hotel for three nights was on the outskirts of town and is a small resort with a pool and bar, called Hotel (Pousada) Aguas de Bonito. Sheryle and I walked to town on the first evening and had dinner at a wonderful local restaurant called Juanita's, which was packed with local families. We ate various types of fish, especially the much vaunted Pacu, which is a large fat river fish and is delicious. All the team had a good night out, despite Paul finding that he had left his NZ driving license back in the hotel two days ago, a small problem for the Compass team to solve!