hhehehe I think you don’t know Brazil very well. But to tell you something about what you are wishing to know, answer something… Are you planing to do all of that by car?

On the first time, Brazil is not Timor-Leste or Somalia. We have problems like many countries but believe me, is more safe that some places around the world.

Coming form Venezuela, you arrive on Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state. After this, 7 hours by car to Manaus but on this point we have problems. The biggest part of this road is across indians areas and you cannot pass at night. They make barries on the road and you can have big problems.

From Manaus to the rest of Brazil you have only one way: river. You need to put the car on a boat and trip 3 days to Belém, the capital of Pará state.

My opinion: leave the car in Manaus (if is rent), take a flight to Belém and rent another car in Belém.

Belém to Argentina is a big trip. The problem is not people or indians but the road conditions. Between Belém and Brasilia sometimes you can’t find road, only a way to pass. Is hard if you don’t have a 4×4 car but after Brasilia you can found roads like in Italy, Germany or Canada (i think). Very very nice.

This is only a small comment about this trip. If you need more infos, I can help with some infos about only some parts because I’m living on Timor-Leste now and the conditions of the roads change very fast.

Best

You’ll do fine from Venezuela to Manaus but there are virtually no roads from Manaus to anywhere else in Brazil (except North). Even the road to Porto Velho is in such bad shape that you can only take it in 4X4. However, as Paulino mentioned, you can leave/ship your car to Belem, take a flight to Belem, and start off with a new car/rental and drive down through the coast (more reliable, yet longer) or via Brasilia into Argentina.

Good Luck,

Ludovic.

thanks guys…it seemed on my map that the roads disappeared after Manaus, so I guess that was not an error on the fault of the cartographer! ;)

we’ll have to ship the car from Panama City to Venezuela (to get around the Darien Gap), so it seems like shipping it again in Brazil might be a good option. thanks for the info.

~Degan.

Actually, I live in Manaus, and I will say that what they are saying are true. There is roads from Manaus to another part of Brazil (south), but they were never finished, and most, to not say all of them, are not used nowadays. The roads we have here are for other cities in the state and the one that you can go to Venezuela. This one is very fine. Many people from Manaus are used to travel to Venezuela and Margarita using this road in their vacation. In some parts the conditions of the road are not very well, but you can drive anyway. Most of the road will be in very good conditions. My parents went to margarita during their last vacation. They told me the road is Ok. The main problem is that issue with the indian area. But the secret at this one is to avoid stopping during this area. The indians can be not very friendly if they find someone walking in their territory. And there iso no gas station, and nothing like this in this area. But this is not a bigg problem at their trip, my parents and some relatives had to stop in this area because of problem I don’t remember now. They didn’t have much problem but my dad told me he was afraid because some stories people told him and tried to finish everything very fast to go back to road and get out of the area.