Day 550 21st January 2018
57 miles ( Itabata to Sao Mateus)
I got up at 7.30 and had brekkie at 8 after another night of listening to the radio. I had toasted ham and cheese sarnies with coffee and cake and banana with grapefruit juice. Not feeling my best after a couple of drinks from the Brazilian top shelf last night. I left at ten and once again had to deal with some big climbs. It was another tough day.
I stopped after an hour for a drink at the edge of a forest and pushed on in the heat. I was buzzed by a light aircraft a few times before I crossed my first time zone by bike as I arrived in EspĂrito Santo which meant I lost an hour.
Then I stopped off for lunch in a petrol station and had two chicken kebab sticks and a bottle of guarana. I carried on and after being run off the road another couple of times by very fast cars I got to my hotel, but it was being rebuilt. Although I was tired I pushed on to the next petrol station but that too was closed. The next one was another 5 miles on so I headed there and thought about eating, showering and camping wild in the forest but as it was only another six miles to town and a bed for the night. I carried on up and down 3 more big climbs and arrived just before sunset. I checked the next hotel just up the road, but it too was closed, so I went back to the first one and checked in and parked the bike in the laundry room. I also checked the local area and realised I was only one mile from an area called Ayrton Senna. Once showered I went in search of food or a bar but there was absolutely nothing open on a Sunday, so I got the receptionist to order me pizza and beer which cost more than the room and took about an hour. It was worth the wait though.
The ongoing aroma in the room for the night was a mixture of tuna and onion with a heady combination of deep heat. It probably should have knocked me out, but I still managed to wake at 3am, probably due to the thirst from the pizza!
Hotel ipiranga 50 reais