Road to Rio do Rastro
Brazil is big. Today it is also cold. Really, really frost-on-grass-tips cold. Condensation on the bikes, which we left outside overnight, has turned to a coating of miniature stalagmites, crystallised by temperatures that have brought snow to parts of Santa Catarina. Touching down upstate in Florianopolis yesterday, the temperature was a balmy 25°C; this morning it is -2°C. The country’s size makes it a land of extremes.
To put ‘size’ into perspective, Brazil is the fifth-biggest country in the world, ranked only behind Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. Many are surprised to learn its even bigger than Oz – we’re sixth, for the record. Despite a population of 210 million, each inhabitant has an average of 40,000m2 to themselves. So not only does the country appear massive on a map, when you’re out here in rural Santa Catarina, away from the highly populous cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Brazil feels nigh-on deserted.
The only signs of human activity for kilometres at a time are the roads, and it’s one in particular we’ve come for: a 17km stretch that traverses the Serra do Rio do Rastro mountain
