First action of the Day was a phone call to the shipping agent in Cape Town who still could not tell Team Lipstick who their agents in Brazil are and where they are based.
However, they promised to give us an address within the next 2 hours -so the waiting game started and shortly after 8 am the guys received the following message:
Please see address below:
Victoria Armazéns Gerais Ltda
No telephone number or name of contact person were given so the boys -after googling the above company – got a phone number and phoned the company in order to find out which documents would be requiredto export Lipstick back to SA – but the lady answering the phone could hardly speak English but promised to send an email with all requirements.
One hour later and no email received the boys went to the hotel’s reception and found a girl which could speak perfect English – so Team Lipstick asked her to phone the company and find out more details.
Half an hour later all information was on hand and it was agreed that Lipstick could get customs clearance on Monday 12th March starting at 9.30 am – BUT the boys now realised that they would have to drive back to Itajaí (some 700 km) on the same road on which they came in to Sao Paolo.
They however decided not miss Rio de Janeiro which lies some 450 km in the opposite direction and soon made their way out of Sao Paolo on the Ayton Senna highway to Rio de Janeiro.
2 hours on the road and the clouds started to burst like never before on any of Lipstick’s trips around the world and driving speed had to be reduced to 50-60kmh
And at stages it was like driving underwater rather than on a Brazilian highway.
The roads were lined up with some slum like residences and one can only imagine how rough and tough it must be to live in these overcrowded areas of Rio de Janeiro
The rain changed to light drizzle when entering Rio de Janeiro and the boys made it to a hotel in close proximity to the famous Copacabana Beach.
Unfortunately, Lipstickwas too high to get into the hotels parking garage so Lipstick was parked of in a bigger Parking garage 800m away from the hotel.
The rain continued throughout the next Day with heavy clouds hanging over the city so the boys spent the day with a bit of shopping and spent some time in one of the many beach restaurant and bars along the Copacabana beach where they also concluded their first full rain day in a nice restaurant.
