Leaving Brazil
We had about five days remaining on our three-month visa and around ten hours of driving still to go. We don’t like to push it right until the last day in case something goes wrong, so we were now in a position where we needed to keep moving and do a couple of hours a day to avoid any kind of panic.
We identified a few nice-looking places to stay along the way and set off the next morning for the first one, Cachoeira do Maringá. It was a nice-looking waterfall, which seemed like the best option around for an overnight stop. In the middle of the countryside, it’s often hard to find anywhere to stay that isn’t a petrol station, and for us, that will always be a last resort. It was a few hours' drive and another hot day. We loaded all the cool mats for the cats into the fridge and set off. Everything went pretty smoothly until the last half an hour.
We turned off down a dirt track. That should have been the first warning.
I distinctly remember someone saying how the way to the waterfall was paved until the last few hundred metres, so I probably should have stopped then and checked what Google was making us do. But the road was decent, and with only around 15 km remaining, we carried on. The roads slowly thinned out, and we turned here and there, always seeming to end up on a more and more minor route. Then eventually, we reached something Google Maps optimistically described as a junction. I pulled up abruptly outside someone's house.
In front of us, the road continued. Google told me to take the road to the left: a grassy farm track that ran down the side of a field. Vague outlines of where tyres might have driven before were apparent in the thick grass, but that was about it. I wasn’t convinced. We both pondered the route, while a few metres to our right, sitting in their garden enjoying lunch, the family we had just interrupted stared at us in bewilderment. One of the men came over to us.
"¿Cachoeira?" I asked, in my very limited Portuguese, while gesturing vaguely down the field.
He nodded and replied with enough key words for me to understand. Yes, it was that way. Only a kilometre or so. Take a right at the bottom. And then came the words I didn’t want to hear:
"Feio," he told me while shaking his head and pointing at the road. "Muito feio!"
We debated a bit more. The way back was kind of a long way round. Just how ugly would the so-called ugly road be? We squinted down the track, feeling increasingly awkward as five pairs of eyes chewed through their asado and continued to stare at us. Then we committed and drove onwards. The first part wasn’t too bad — it was loose and rocky, but dry and level. Ruby ambled along easily. The track got more overgrown as we continued, and I started getting somewhat stressed. Lee told me it was fine and to calm down. While he was right so far, it was more the thought of what would happen if we hit a section that wasn’t fine and I was forced to reverse all the way back out. As we rounded a particularly bushy corner, the track started to go downhill. It was rough, steep, and slippery. I stopped and made Lee walk ahead. If we went down there, we wouldn’t be able to come back up, especially in reverse.
He rolled his eyes, but disappeared off around the bend for a moment before reappearing and waving me down. I crawled slowly down the slipping rocks. The road really didn’t look that bad, but it was loose and a bit rough. That meant we needed to crawl very slowly. Fine on the level, but on the downhill, it was impossible to make it down without strongly applying the brakes constantly. You don’t get much time driving like that in Ruby. I inched down, rounded the bend, and surveyed the continued amounts of "down". We were only a few hundred metres from the end, where we would meet the main access road. The last section was even rougher than the first, and I slowly crept over the final boulders, quite relieved to see that after the last washed-out section, it ended. Just in time, as well — we made it onto the flat ground and began along the hard-packed road we should have been on all along. I gave the brakes a quick test and, unsurprisingly, found that the pedal sank to the floor while doing nothing whatsoever. We had made it down just in time.
It was a Sunday, which meant that any waterfall, lake, or park was busy. Even though it was already mid-afternoon, a steady stream of cars was heading in. I hung back in first gear, using the engine to brake and letting our actual brakes cool down. Fortunately, the road was completely level, so it was a lot easier to control. As we approached the end, the way became lined with cars down both sides of the road. We pulled over in the first spot we could fit into. It wasn’t the best, but as the cars cleared out later, we thought it would be fine. In the meantime, we wandered down to have a look at the falls.
When this spot had been added as a place to camp, things had clearly been different. Before, you could have continued driving to the end of the track, which stopped directly at the river in a large open area. Now, the road was blocked off further back. It seemed they were doing some kind of building work and renovation here. Just before the gates, the road was a lot more level, and we hoped to move the van up here a bit later. Down at the waterfall, it was busy. Families grilled food between the rocks, while kids jumped into the pool or stood under the waterfall itself. We didn’t stay too long, as the cats couldn’t be left in the hot car.
Back at Ruby, we let the girls out on their leads for some air while we waited for a better spot to open up. We didn’t have to wait too long before the car parked in the middle of the road right at the end left. This was the perfect spot: being in the middle meant it was the flattest part. We quickly drove down and nabbed the spot before someone else did, as people were still arriving even now.
With a flat place to stay, we unpacked the van. Now that the roof was up and the windows open, it was cool enough to shut the cats in while we headed off for a swim in the last of the sun. After a sweaty, stressful drive, a cool dip in a pool was just what I needed.
The following morning, we were up early. We weren’t sure if workers would be coming to continue the building works, and we were currently parked half on top of their sand pile. At around 7:30 am, we heard an ATV pull up next to us. We packed up rapidly, getting ready to move out of the way, but it turned out he was just there to collect rubbish after the weekend. With him, he brought a long hose which he left behind at the site. We assumed this meant the builders were indeed on their way, so we used it to grab some water for our empty tanks before we left.
The next spot was a kind of rest area on the side of the road. We drove through the hilly region — it seemed we were always going up or down a hill. At points, the altitude dropped right back down near sea level before, once again, we were climbing. The roads were not as dramatic as those back near the coast, however, so we were able to drive along continuously until we once again found ourselves driving next to the Uruguay River.
This river is not even in the top five biggest rivers on the continent, even though it’s 1,142 miles long. That fact seemed even crazier to me when I thought of how many times we had been on it. The first time was back after leaving Buenos Aires, because this river forms the entire border between Uruguay and Argentina. It ends up in the Río de la Plata alongside the Río Paraná, forming the widest river in the world between the two capital cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. We had crossed it twice back then: once to enter Uruguay at Fray Bentos, and then once to leave it 300 km further north in Salto. Now, we would be camping alongside it once again, this time near its source way further north in Brazil. I found it quite amazing that in two years of travel around this continent, across three different countries, we had still managed to end up camping on the exact same river.
Not only that, but our little spot was surprisingly great. Even though it was close to the road, it was far enough away not to bother us. We had a small palapa to ourselves, so we could enjoy some easy shade on the riverbank. The place had toilets and a water tap, and on this roasting hot day, it was the perfect time to tackle the pile of laundry after removing the car from it. We enjoyed it so much that we gave ourselves one more day off driving and spent the following night there as well.
Our final stop in the country was a little out of the way. We had a bit of time, so we thought we would spend our final night in Brazil at "mini Iguaçu". On average, we drove two to three hours a day, and while we could have actually driven straight from our river spot to the border, these falls looked worth the detour and we had the time. Once again, we found ourselves in the final hours of daylight bouncing down a rough dirt road in the middle of nowhere towards Cataratas do Salto Saudades.
As is often the way in these slightly out-of-the-way spots, no one had posted reviews or updates for a while, so we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. When we arrived, we found that once again we’d be sleeping in a building site. The builders were about to leave as it was nearing 5:00 pm, so we plonked ourselves right in the middle of the chaos. There was an alternative car park, but it was on quite a steep hill that was absolutely no good for sleeping on. We decided we’d head down to the falls for a bit and see if there was anyone left afterwards.
It was instantly clear why these falls were nicknamed "mini Iguaçu". The formation was remarkably similar, and the fact that this enormous, rushing torrent was the miniature version just shows you the incredible power of the real thing. These may have been smaller, but they were still impressive. The nice thing about these falls is that not only are they free, but they also have lights that they turn on at night.
Back at the van, we asked a man on the other side of the car park if we could stay. He told us it was nothing to do with him and that no one would be back until tomorrow. So we figured we’d just sleep where we were and get ready to leave early again. It was for the best anyway, as tomorrow would be border day.
With the camper set up, we tried to let the girls out for a run around. Unfortunately for them, their outing was cut short by the resident tomcat, who was very territorial and had no problem climbing all over Ruby while howling and screaming. So we herded them back inside and left them to scream at each other through the windows while we headed back down to see the falls in the dark.
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