Depands on conditions and rider
Discusions on Brazilian roads are very depended on the conditions. A great gravel road can turn bad after rain. Also the kind of bike and weight are importent. Not to mention the offraod experiance of the driver
My experiance
1 BR 319
4 days of mud and bad bridges. But we took the road in the rainy season and it rained for most of the 4 days. We drove on to mud prepared xt600. This road has not been serviced since 70's It is a wild experiance, every 50 km's there are unmand telegraph towers which send telefone signals to eachother and keep Manaus connected to the rest of Brazil. These make save shelters to sling a hamock in. ( thats what we did ) Even local s dont take this road no more. Note that the road is a 100 km longer than on most maps. Great for wildlife spotting in early morning. Climb the telegraph towers an see the sun come up over the green amazone jungle. To my opinion this road should not be travelled alone as when you brake down there is really nothing and nobody out there. From Manaus you cross the Amazone to Castahno you cross at the meeting of the waters(a phenominon where the black water of the rio Negro and brown of the rio Amamzone Mix) It is about 60 kkm to Castahno the last town where you can get fuel (but bring fuel from manaus, where you can get better quality) Town has a nice hotel. From here there are about three/four ferry crossings in 100 km and than the remaning 630 to Humaita
2 BR 230 to Labrea
Good dirt road when dry
3 BR 317 from Labrea west to Rio Branco
From Humaita to Porto Vehlo paved with holes. From Ferry across the Rio madiera to Porto Vehlo. Paved with holes all the way to Rio Branco
4 BR 364 from Rio Branco northwest to Cruzeiro do Sul and on into
Peru.
BR364 is Paved all the way to the bolivian border to a town called Brasilea, from a paved road runs to Assis Brasil on the pruvian border. Here you must put your bike in a canoe (unless the new bridge is build, hoppefully not because this will make a route to peru possible for trucks and will further destroy the rainforest, oke besides the point) Once on the other side there immigration and a good road with same muddy parts to Peurto Maldanado, from where a stunning trach takes you (800km, fuel half way) to Urcus near Cusco. This road has some deep rivers to cross, in my case 1 meter deep water. But a beautifull road.
The road from Rio Branco to Cruzerio do Sul is compleetly gravel(bad when wet) Cruzerio is end of the line. There is a smuggling path that runs into peru towards the border and crossing to Pulcappa involves a weeks travelling on jungle tracks and canoes only possible in the wet season when the road to Curuzerio is inpossible. This last road. I have not traveled but this is the latest info I got. A biker recently done this trip ( http://www.transamazon.de)
I have always been interested doing this last track but to my information it is not possible get a bike across these small smuggle tracks and across to a road in Peru(prove me wrong!)
Other option are crossing into Bolivia at assis brasil or at guayarmerin.
wil edited this message when I check the facts from my journal www.trans-amerika.nl
Longest stretch would be Humaita Manaus 730 km no fuel
Good luck and you find any info on Cruzerio to peru let me know
Last edited by MillsRoadsurfer; 29 Dec 2006 at 20:00.
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