44
edits
Changes
→Maps
== Border Crossings ==
=== To [[Paraguay ]] ===
User [[User:MOAH|MOAH]] hitchhiked over the Guaíra/Salto del Guaíra border to Paraguay, but as it is a major shopping area for Brazilians to buy cheap Chinese products in the noman's land, you won't get a stamp at the actual border. Instead, you have to go to the office of the Brazilian Policia Federal in Guaíra town, at the roundabout (Address: Praça Castelo Branco, s/n - Centro, Guaíra - PR, 85980-000, Brazil. Telephone: +55 44 3642-9100), which has super irregular opening times. If you press the bell, someone might open the gate and you can start the check-out process. The people here speak good English (!!!). From there it's a short walk to the 3600m bridge crossing from Paraná state to Mato Grosso state, where there's a semi-functional police control from where one can hitch the 12km to the actual Paraguayan border. A sign saying "PY" will do the trick. The noman's land is about 6km long, but you can catch a ride in between with friendly Paraguayans to Salto del Guaíra, where you again have to find some office to get your check-in stamp. This is a tiny shitty office with a well-hidden "Migracion" sign located on Avenida Bernardino Caballero c/ La Paz, Ciudad de Salto del Guairá (Telephone: (595) 046 - 243 536) with a permanently bored employee who will ask you how long you'll stay. Again, there's very irregular opening times, so you might have to stay the night to get your stamp. Don't cross this border on a Sunday. Enjoy the amazing kebab-like streetfood (about €0.90) on the Paraguayan side!
===To/From [[Bolivia]]===
* Cobija – Brasileia
Hitchhiking in Bolivia to the border is quite easy. Just be careful from muddy roads.
If it gets rainy many vehicles will struggle to cross the way.
Hitchhiking in Brazil to the border is a bit more difficult but possible.
If you came from Peru hitchhiking usually takes a very short time.
But if you coming from other places it can be a bit more challenging,
but certainly possible.
The crossing between this two cities is very easy.
They are separated by a river that have many bridge crossings.
You will almost never be asked anything when you cross.
You can go from Brazil to Bolivia with barely anybody talking to you.
As the rumors say, You can spend the day in the other side for the day,
But at the evening legally you should go back to the side where you are stamped.
Usually nobody will check either way.
If you wish to cross the border and get stamped you should search for the Immigration on both side.
There are set in Brazil at -11.029337,-68.740088 (Google Maps) and in Bolivia at -11.026769,-68.752186 (Google Maps).
It’s important to get stamped also in the country that you are leaving in order to avoid fines in case you ever come back. Theoretically if you leave a country without getting stamped they consider it like you never left. And when you wish to enter again the country in the future they will charge you for any other day pass your visa time until the date you re-entered.
The fine in Bolivia for example is 28 Bolivianos (about 4 US Dollars 2022) a day of over staying.
If you came back to the country before your visa expired you shouldn’t have any problem.
* Guaraja-mirim – Guayaramerin
Hitchhiking in Bolivia to the border is quite easy. Just be careful from muddy roads.
If it gets rainy many vehicles will struggle to cross the way.
Hitchhiking in Brazil to the border is a bit more difficult but possible.
You can freely cross between the two cities, Guaraja mirim and Guayaramerin.
The crossing costs 13 Brazilian reals or 20 Bolivian Bolivianos (true for July 2022).
It takes only few short minutes to cross when the boat leaves.
People say that there is some boats on the river that will charge even less.
If you wish to continue your travels legally beyond the city in the other country you crossed to you should get your passport stamped.
For exiting Brazil you should go to the immigration office which is located not so close to the port, In "Justiça Federal Subsecção De Guajará Mirim" (-10.783061,-65.317563 Google maps).
They are open from 8:00 -18:00 but not every day.
I came on a sunday and had to wait for another day. I'm not sure if it's every sunday or that I just had bad luck.
The proccess over there was quite easy.
No papers or documents were asked beside my passport.
In about 15 minutes got my exit stamp and continued.
For entering Brazil I'm assuming you'll have to go the same place, but maybe good you ask the people in the Brazilian port. The taxi drivers usually know.
In Bolivia the immigration office is just where the boat drops you.
They ask for photo copies of your passport and the stamp of leaving Brazil.
They also want your covid vaccination passport two dosages or a negative Covid test from the last days in paper (on your phone does not count).
You need just one of the two. (Again true for July 2022)
There is a photo copy in the coffee place next by. It costs 1 Boliviano per page. But they don't have a printer, in case you want to print some documents from your phone.
I paid a motor taxi to take me to a place with a printer.
Passed them the Covid passport with Bluetooth and came back.
Cost me 11 Bolivianos in total, 10 for the taxi 1 for the paper.
Later they asked me for my phone and where do i go.
Told "La Paz" and my number and got 30 days visa which i can extend in other migration offices when time comes.
* important: it is recommended to check the entering process to Bolivia in the [[Bolivia]] page
===To/From [[Peru]]===
* Puerto Maldonado – Assis Brazil
Hitchhiking in this area towards Brazil is very easy. Many people offer rides and try to help even if you don’t ask.
Of course there is always the chance to fall on a bad spot where nobody stops. But in general it is easy to hitchhike.
The Peruvian side is a classical jungle. Tends to be hot and humid. Many parts of the road is not shaded so you should be prepared in case of a hot day.
Many people come to work in the mines here, which some times brings shady people that came just for finding gold. The locals warn [[User:SonOfaHitch|SonOfaHitch]] from the town Pampas, which is on the way.
Puerto Maldonado is quite a big city, but once you are close to the exist points of it it is quite easy to get rides, But also inside the city sometimes people offer rides if they see you walking.
On the Brazilian side you should know that there is barely any jungle left next to the road.
It is all flat grass. It is also less populated and there are big distances between villages, with some houses along side the road.
The crossing itself is kind of weird. The two cities Iñapari and Asiss are kind of a buffer zone between Peru and Brazil. You can move between those little towns like you are not really crossing a border. In the entrance to both towns from both sides there is immigration police.
But they are not the official Immigration offices.
They might check you to see if you are legal, but also many times they don’t.
The immigration office in Iñapari is open 24 hours they told me, but I wouldn’t recommend coming really late or early. It is located inside the town (-10.955238,-69.577738 Google Maps).
If you don’t manage to find it ask the mototaxis, most of them know where it is. You will probably won’t notice it if you just walk through the town.
The process is kind of normal. They ask you questions if you want to leave or enter Peru, And if you are vaccinated to which they only want to see some papers but barely check them.
Not very friendly and speaks mainly Spanish but in general not too difficult.
On the Brazilian side the immigration office is on the road towards the rest of Brazil.
It is the first window to your left when you try to walk towards Brazil crossing the big gate.
They are open from 8:00 – 12:00 and from 14:00 – 18:00 but maybe better not coming towards the end or begging of shifts.
Also kind of normal crossing process, They were really kind and gave 90 days like nothing.
They might even give you access to Brazil before you officially left Peru.
So if you don’t want to have a fine when you come back don’t forget to visit the Peruvian office first. They didn’t ask for any Covid papers.
== Roadways ==
== Maps ==
[[File:Brazil highways.jpg|thumb|300px]]
[http://www.br.map24.com/ map24] was a useful online route planner for Brazil and the rest of South America. [http://www.guiamais.com.br/ruas GuiaMais] is another great website with maps and route planning for Brazil only. As of 2012 Google maps is pretty decent for Brazil.(One should know that many things that marked on Google maps in Brazilsimply don’t exist. From parks, restaurants to even gas station that are simple not anywhere close to where there are marked)
Guia Quatro Rodas publishes a great road map of Brazil. Available at some gas stations for R$13.
* ''[https://warmroads.de/en/hitchhiking-in-7-brazil/ Short anlyses of hitchhiking in Brazil - warmroads.]
* ''If you are friendly and avoid drunk drives, along with avoid showing that you have valuable things you will be fine. Once it got dark with me on the roadside with nothing close by, and people took some time to give me a ride. When the car stopped it was with 4 somewhat drunk guys with loud music. I felt it was going to be okay so I went with them (keep in mind it is a tiny city!) and nothing happened, not even sex proposals. In a couple of occasions there was unauthorized groping, but a firm yet polite response kept them from trying anything else. In some days there was a lot of sex proposals, some even offering money. They insist once or twice but when they see there is no chance they will (at least in my experience) respect you. Twice truck drivers that kept insisting heard from me a "so let me get down anywhere, I am not hitchhiking for that". Well, they said "ok, sorry, no need to get down, I am not going to insist anymore". With one of them we even changed subject and got quite a nice conversation. Most, a least for Portuguese speakers, just start talking about themselves and their personal life. One of them even let me sleep on his truck while he went home. They often offer to buy meals at barbecue diners in roadsites, with rice, bean, meat, salad and possible other options (I often just drink an orange juice, since I am a raw foodist and take food with me all the time, like nuts and specially bananas - this one is a good idea for cheap energetic food, which often you can get for free in small markets if they are overripe, if you ask the price it will often be half or free. I lived on bananas and avocados for several days once before I was raw, not very fun but with a stronger kick than fast food...).'' -A personal story of a Brazilian 20 year old girl hitchhiking alone
* ''I was hitchhiking during 3 months in Brazil both alone and with friends, it was easy in the tourist states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, in Parana I never waited more than 15 min...the only time I got stuck was 40 km from Sao Paulo in not so nice area with prostitutes, it was gettting dark and the drivers scared so close to the city but finally one car brought me to the bus station in few km from where I took the bus. The people are quite friendly and helpful despite the paranoia around and the main difficulty in the beginning was my poor Portuguese and being guided many times towards the bus station instead the road I needed to hh :)'' - Nadita, March 2014
* ''Something I learned as a woman hitchhiking through Brazil alone is that certain highways (I heard it was mostly on the BR 116, Rio-Salvador, for example) have women that are highway prostitutes that wait to be picked up on the side of the road. Traveling with truck drivers alone I also learned that many of them pick up hitchhikers that also become lovers, mostly locals from smaller towns who wait on the highways to leave town and go on an adventure. But it is usually easier to tell the difference between hitchhikers and women wanting rides for sex, and of course communication is important. I think it's important to know that these incidents are common because you understand where people are coming from when the subject arises. I never had problems with males drivers and truck drivers but I have definitely had them ask for sex, the program ("not even with a condom?" yuck...), what not. I think being clear with drivers before is important and making sure you feel safe is important too. But again, I hitched almost 5000 km alone in Brazil, no problem, it is incredibly liberating and easy! Go adventure! :)'' -[[User:Yayael|Yaya]]
* User "[[User:Miriam|Miriam]] hitched around the south of Brazil for several weeks on her own in 2017 without running into major problems, met only super nice and friendly people, got rides easily and was never confused for a prostitute or treated without respect, as the above contributors sadly experienced. Two minor problems were: 1.) People automatically assuming hitchhikers are Argentinian and staying clear because of the rivalry between both countries (sadly). If you're a non-argentinian foreigner, consider carrying your country's flag! 2.) Lots and lots of traffic on giant, unstoppable highways. If possible, stick to nice and cozy interior roads which makes for amazing experiences on it's own! :)"
* “I was hitchhiking for a month in Brazil July 2022. I had a problem to enter from Peru to Bolivia and managed to solve it by entering Brazil. I had a plan to do a route in Brazil around Bolivia and enter it from the east. In general the experience was quite rough and I decided to cut the route shorter and enter Bolivia from the east. Although I had many good experiences with people in Brazil, The overall feeling in many places I was in The regions of Rodonia and Acre was quite tense. A lot of people warned me from robbers and hitmans. Hitchhiking was also very slow. Which eventually made me make my decision to cut the trip short. I would also like to mention that although it was hard, many times people offered me places to stay, free food, and were very friendly. Once a guy saw me hitchhiking for many hours in the same spot, so he went with his motorbike and got me a meal and a cold coke. I still plan to check other regions of Brazil in the future.” - [[User:SonOfaHitch|SonOfaHitch]]
==Links==