Quick trip report BsAs-Paraguay-Brazil

[mekongfrank]

Here is a summary of my experience after 10 weeks and 7000km in South America:

Good news: Zero problems so far!

1. Trip across the Atlantic with Grimaldi: see here

2. Insurance in Buenos Aires for Arg/Ur/Cl/Py/Bra/Bol: see here

3. Border crossings and paperwork at the land borders:

a) Arg/Py (Encarnacion): less than 1/2 hour

b) Py/Brazil (Ponta Pora): more than 1 hour. No prober border check point in Brazil. Federal Police downtown stamps your passport, customs is not far from the highway and is very busy with Brazilian shoppers. After waiting in line it takes a while till they have all the forms and copies of passport and bike papers made.

c) Brazil/Py (Foz do Iguacu/CDE): Extremely busy border. Chaos on the Brazilian side, they are just not prepared for overseas licence plates. After waiting 1 hour in vain for an officer to look at my bike and stamp it out of the country I just dropped my customs documents on some customs receptionist's desk and left :-) not sure if I will have problems if I ever reenter Brazil. Getting into Paraguay was no problem, less than 1/2 hour.

4. Police: I got stopped in Argentina and Paraguay about 15 times at roadblocks. Never had to pay anything at these regular checkpoints. Officers wantend to see bike papers, drivers licence (only showed the European one, was never asked for intl. dl) and - in Arg. only - bike insurance green card. The officers generally seemed to be more interested in my bike and a chat about my trip, than in the papers ;-)
Once, in Paraguay I was stopped for crossing a yellow line while passing some trucks. The fine was payed on the spot without reciept - less than US$ 10. That I was definitely much faster than the 80 km/h allowed was not an issue.

5. Roads in all three countries are better than expected. All highways paved and in acceptable, if not very good condition. Speeds of more than 150 km/h were often safely possible, even on the Trans-Chaco-Highway in Paraguay between Asuncion and Filadelfia.

6. Most fun so far: Riding in southern Brazil, the mountain roads around Blumenau and around Sao Joaquim National Park. And of course beaches in Florianopolis.

7. Safety: No problem so far. Always found a hotel to park the bike safely and the big BMW seems to attract positive attention only. No problems walking the streets at night in the cities.

8. Found new tires in Asuncion, Paraguay, see here

I'll head to Cordoba next, then to Uruguay, should be in Viedma for the HU-Meeting in December. Hope to see you there!

Cheers, Frank