For the first time I left the car with air condition running for some hours during the night. I could not leave the windows open due to the heat and the mosquitos. It was nice cool for a change and after yesterday’s drive I was pretty tired and finally had some sleep. I woke up this morning but tried to cover my eyes and rest for another hour or so.

I drove to the border and still had to wait for a bit for the federal police to open the office for me to get my stamp in the passport. The drive to Boa Vista was short and about 2 hours later I arrived. The car was full of dust from outside and inside and needed an urgent clean and the motor needed the 30.000 km inspection. I crossed the bridge and after one kilometer the first car wash appeared. I took all my stuff out of the car and asked for a general clean.

I had a chat with the owner, a retired army sergeant, who was operating the car wash and I soon learned that the business was a good business because the work was executed in a very professional and detailed manner. I could see in the faces of the staff that they had not seen a car as dirty and dusty as mine and the amount of red water that was running off my car seemed endless. I spent until way after lunch before the car was released and I paid an extra R$ 10 for the extra work.

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Boa Vista is a small capital, is a small city and it was not too difficult to find the local Volkswagen dealer to schedule the appointment for the inspection. I took advantage of my status as customer right away and asked for the access code to the internet and spent the afternoon in the air conditioned waiting room of the Volkswagen dealer to catch up with the work on the site.

I scheduled for Wednesday morning and already there I decided to stay for a bit in Boa Vista. I had time to reflect on the journey so far and the future success of it. I realized that driving my own car would result in an enormous effort to acquire sufficient insurance for each of the countries and realized as well that this could be the reason for delay or even cancelation of the planned route. The anxiety due to this had left scars and I felt certain problems with my heart pressure.

My birthday was coming up, which I used to ignore so well for the last twenty or thirty years. I had always disconnected myself the day before up to the day after to avoid the telephone calls or even presents. I always had a small gift for myself, a small getaway or a small personal treat of different kind. I was very, very, very sure this time that I would want to see my baby Matilda and Morena. I looked up the flights for the next days for both to come and see me for a week and so I send a request for the best flight options to my travel agent to organize the tickets.

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