I have just had a fantastic month with my sister Abi and my nephew Claudio (aged 5 and my biggest fan). They arrived from England armed with family-sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Chipsticks and also 96 Jaffa Cakes (English biscuits) - a welcome taste from home.
So this BLOG entry is not about biking really as we took to the buses - it has made me appreciate travelling by bike all the more now -16 hours on a bus and I was pleading to be let off.
I felt as if we were lucky to get out of Sao Paulo at all as I ended up having to go to the Police Station to make a statement about the storage garage -I had got VERY angry with them when we came to leave and they were insisting that I had to pay storage charges -after they were the ones who had broken my throttle cable which had meant I was stuck there for an extra two days.
The garage guy who had grabbed my keys to prevent me leaving got so scared at my angry reaction that he ran to get the police for his own protection. The police decided that I was in the right and I was allowed to leave.

We have been snorkelling off the coast, exploring Rio and headed westwards to the Pantanal to go animal spotting. We came face to face with a 2 metre long anaconda and then went after alligators with a lasso -in actual fact the "lasso" was my washing line but it proved useful and our guide caught an alligator in the river with it.

I am currently back in Sao Paulo, having said goodbye to Abi and Claudio, it is time for a return to solo travelling.
Now all I need to do is get my gearbox seal fitted -Hello BMW Sao Paulo ~ I´ll be round there first thing in the morning.
I have had no gearbox seal for five months now and Thelma has been sporting a "stylish" 30cm long yellow plastic snorkel on the Final Drive Breather hole, a feature that has been much commented upon by fellow bike travellers I´ve met.