Around the Block 2007

When I say "rolling", I am referring to Luke´s wheels.  A new friend (from JUCUM or Youth w/ a Mission, who also gave Luke his rear rack and hard saddlebag)  took us downtown (Porto Velho) to a good shop that respoked BOTH Luke´s wheels (he bent the rear rim and broke 6 spokes on Saturday night (tho we did not notice it in the dark except that it ¨hopped¨ more going down the road).  Took much longer than expected, so again we are not off until noon.

Found our way out of Porto Velho and the road to Cuiaba and headed off.  Lunch at 2:30pm and into Ji Parana by 7pm (360km, fighting with trucks and busses all the way).  Not much different except that we now begin to see hills.  More and more cattle (and Cowboys (pix)) 

There is this strange phenomenum of these big volcanic boulders laying around all over the cleared jungle.  They are black and nothing grows on them, so they seem to have just dropped out of the sky...  Can you say UFO?

     We roll into Ji Parana and stop at the first hotel we find (a nice little 2 **).  Good, we are very tired and we can put it on the Visa........ 

NEXT DAY:day17jiparanatovilhena.htm

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