Boa Vista is a planned city but because of its geographical location, far away from the country’s major urban centers, it has a small population. Thanks to town planning in the 1960s, it is a modern, level city, designed in the form of a fan, with the broad spokes of its avenues converging on the Civic Centre square.
We get our breakfast with some kicking somehow on time (meaning 15 minutes late) and are able to leave the hotel on time. It takes us again about an hour to drive to the airport. Here 3 ladies do the handling and everything is pretty smooth – when women are doing it, things work here! Well – it‘s actually like home too.
We are flying westwards now and gain another hour due to time change. A lady handler is here again and things are pretty smooth; except that the Federal Police Officer seems to flirt with her while checking our passports. This extends things a little bit in Brazil.
Our friends pick us up, drive us to the hotel and we go for a very nice lunch to a local Churrascaria. What a delight after the last three days. Good meat, drinks and food! Since they are involved in the real estate and farming business, they give us an extensive overview at their local headquarter and afterwards we drive around for two hours to see the places. We visit the sites and also one of the farms. A very interesting concept.
Back at the hotel, we have a Caipi, jump quickly into the pool and take a rest before dinner. A great Portuguese restaurant followed by a good night beer in one of the local restaurants. Our hosts treat us royally. And the stories Walter is telling us are just amazing; spending more than half your life in South America – that‘s what you can do!
3rd of June
Situated on the western bank of the River Branco, 220 km from Brazil’s border with Venezuela, Boa Vista is the capital of Roraima. It is the furthest state from the Federal Government being 4,275 km from Brasília. This means it is closer to Miami than to the capital of Brazil.
After late breakfast we meet Michael who will show us more of the projects and farms. First we drive to some river banks where a new bridge will be built in order to give quick access from the other side of the river to the city center. The land there is owned by them and will be developed then.
Lunch is at one of the farm the family owns. To get there means about an hour driving. The farms the family owns have a combined size of 15‘000 hectares. To put it into perspective: This means a strip of land from Bern to Thun with a width of 3 kilometers! We stop at a petrol station (owned by them) where we meet Walter. Driving with him over these unpaved roads gives us ar Paris-Dakar feeling. We come through some area where local Indians live. Sadly enough, alcohol is the biggest problem here, especially with the male population. We drive some kilometer through a Eucalyptus forest that was planted over 15 years ago and is now ready for harvest. Another project Walter of all trades is involved.
The farm house is really beautiful and lunch is already prepared. Some real nice meat (the suckling pork is out of this world) and as a special treat we have some fish that is bred on Walters farm. He started this new venture a few years ago and the fish are getting really big; several kilos. This is what we are going to see after we have all our bellies completely filled and it is just amazing what they did. Some of the farm hands get us some fish out and they are big!
But the nicest surprise is a flight with Walter‘s ultra light plane that he offers us. He is one of the most experienced pilots on these „planes“ and it is really coooool! Real flying on 1‘000 ft, sitting outside and just cruising along without any restrictions. We all agree: the best thing of the many treats Walter and Michael offered us.
Back in the hotel we tried to have some dinner at the pool. Rather difficult since the girls working there are not the sharpest knives in the drawer!! We hit the sack pretty early since tomorrow we have to get up early with a long flight ahead of us.
Walter, Michi and the rest of the whole crew: thank you very much for having us and treating us like kings! We will never forget Boa Vista and your hospitality. Abrigado!
