Curitiba, Brazil

Curitiba was indeed the high light for me in Brazil. Taken care of by the Madalosso brothers, which seemed to know everybody in town, visiting my old colleagues and seeing some heavy machinery and equipment at the Aker Solutions factory in town, eating the best food in ages, looking at old junk and driving bulldozer. It hardly get any better than this.

Thanks a lot to everybody that we spent time with us, helped us and entertained us. Please drop me an email all of you as I miss a lot of your email addresses.


Tormod
tormod.amlien@gmail.com

Isadora, the sister of the infamous Madalosso brothers. Isadora is very pretty, and even better she’s a doctor. If I could find a wife this pretty and with this well paid profession I could retire immediately and focus on the things I’m good at, like driving motorcycles, drinking beer and being useless

Isadora suddenly recalled that she had not brushed her teeth in an hour or so, she got a bit shy and covered her mouth for the picture

Klaus, me, Lorenzo and a friend that runs a factory coating mirrors and glass, when he’s not collecting junk like us

Coating big glass plates. Factory visits is always more interesting to me than tourist destinations. Makes you remember that you’re a working class hero yourself

Our friend and factory owner

“Plata faar seg sugetur”. Not translatable to English

Klaus with a Chevrolet 1,5 Ton truck

The guys also had a small bulldozer I got to take for a spin. To test different machines is some the best way I can spend time, and the heavier, the better

Aker Solutions, my old employer also got a factory in Curitiba. I dropped by to visit some old friends. Here’s the Operations Manager that is checking out the first bike that has come over from Aker Solutions in Norway to visit them

Me, the Ops Mgr, Luiz Albuquerque and a couple of Scottish technicians from Controls in Aberdeen. I used to deal a bit with Luiz back in my working days, and Luiz received me and was the most helpful and pleasant guy you could imagine, just like I’ve know him from the first time we met in 2007

One for All MC in Curitiba invited us for a party one of the nights, great gang and a lot of fun

In their clubhouse

Another club in Curitiba, Sete Pelez (Seven Skins), which I got in touch with while meeting one of their members on the road in Paraguay

One of Sete Pelez members

Nelson, the guy I met in Paraguay that invited us for BBQ and any assistance we needed in Curitiba

This dude runs a comic shop in Curitiba, interesting guy to talk to as I love comics myself

Who can resist a smoothie with nice toppings? Friends of the Madalosso´s

Lorenzo is just like me, only hangs out with good looking people

Rainbow shaped horse, pulling the trash cart

Lorenzo takes the machine for a spin. Couldn’t understand how the f*** we bother to use these old pieces of shit around the world

Arrival in Brazil

****While Klaus and I have come to Durban, South Africa, it´s time to update the blog with the last installments from South America. As per today we´re in Durban with the local classic bike club and Ken Sink and his wife, that takes good care of us. The bad news though is that my bike costed 1500 USD to release, and they had stolen all my tools and leathers. Anyhow, details on the arrival in South Africa in a few days time, first some installments from Brazil. Retards, Tormod. *****

To enter Brazil meant it was time again to catch up with Klaus which had taken a plane from Peru. I´d been on my own since Lima, Peru, and I´d been driving without a first and third gear since La Paz.

In Paraguay the temperature rose with the tropical climate, and all the start and stops through the border town took its toll on the clutch. By the time I reached Brazilian customs the clutch were sending heavy smoke signals out the vent, explaining its suffering.

When I was finally through, late in the night and had a found a place to sleep I got in touch with Klaus by mail. Klaus were in Foz Iguaco, and I was in Foz Iguaco, but we sort of could not find each other. After a while it came clear that Klaus was in Argentinean Foz Iguaco, while I was in the Brazilian Foz Iguaco. Next day we united, got the bike fixed and saw the touristy things before we headed west on my bike, to great despair for the motorcycle.

Tormod

Arrival in Brazil. The border rossing and customs into Brazil was very civilized, opposed to when the bike leave the country by ship

When Klaus arrived the part I was missing we celebrated with repairing the gear box. In fact, the bike is actually beet to drive with 4 speeds rather than 2

Foz Iguaco is located a few kilometers outside Foz Iguaco. A nice spectacle, and of course a honey jar for tourists that the government know how to exploit to the fullest

Foz Iguaco in the background

It´s not a few thousand bad pictures that is shot here every year

Klaus

More Foz Iguaco

More Foz Iguaco

The Itaipu Dam is a cooperation project between Paraguay and Brazil. It´s so huge that Paraguay can´t use their share of the electricity, and use the surplus energy to pay down their debt on it by selling to Brazil

The white tubes seen on the dam is xx meters wide and feeds the turbines

Some heavy duty isolators required

More Dam

Top of the dam

The grid from the dam

In Cascavel on the way to Curitiba, we were invited by Sandro Fandanelli and stayed over for a night. Sandro helped us get the bike washed and got us some bits and pieces that we needed. Thanks a lot buddy!

Departure from Cascavel, Sandro to the very left