wizehop
Chasing the Darkness
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Most people come to Brazil for the beaches. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't take at least some pleasure in spending nights getting drunk ocean side surrounded by tits and ass, It wasn't why I wanted to come to Brazil.
The funny thing was once arriving in Rio I quickly realized that everything the rest of the world knows about Brazil can literally be summed up in this one city. The massive beaches, the favelas, The ever so watchful Jesus statue, you name it, its all right here in Rio.
Mac, a rider buddy of ours from Canada was down here taking a few courses between chasing girls on the beach. Despite earlier invites to come enjoy what Rio had to offer, it wasn't until I saw just how massive Brazil's freight trains could be, did I even start to consider a trip down.
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Once I saw the potential to hit up a few freights and tour the jungle it was a no brainer. I had my eyes of a few select routes as my time in Brazil was limited. One of these lines was a trip through the jungle and up into the mountains starting just South of Sao Paulo. I did most of the research before leaving north America so by the time we left Rio and maid our way to Praia Grande I was pretty confident I could pull it off.
I had been warned about the crime in Brazil and to be honest we arrived half expecting that at some point we would get robbed. It didn't help that once here three or four people a day would tell us we would be shot and robbed. People here live in constant fear of crime, more than anywhere I have been to date.
The first night after arriving in Praia Grande (pronounced praia grangee) we ordered a pizza as it was late and all the restaurants where closed. The delivery company asked us what the exact bills we were going to pay with so they could bring the exact change encase they got robbed...WTF
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Every home was gated, barbed wire, guard dogs, and these were the good places. I almost turned back a few times as when I would head out on my own, locals would come and tell me I was going to get shot and they would take all my shit. I continued on but I wont lye I was scared. The further out of town I went the ruffer things got and the more worried I became.
None the less I found the abandoned train line that would take us the 8k to our catch out spot. Ships ported in Santos, then a crew would take them to a yard north of Praia Grande where a road crew would then take the train into the mountains.
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We would have to walk through 3 favelas in order to reach the yard, which ended up working in our favour as once the railroad employees saw us filming by the yard, they actually took us in to keep us from getting robbed. Not only did they take us in, they gave us a tour and free reign of the place. We spend the day scouting then got a ride back to the city with one of the workers so we wouldn't have to walk through the bad areas now that everyone there knew we had gear.
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The yard and the main line where literally cut out of the jungle, it was sexy as all hell. Not to mention there where a few companies who used this line to access the post, so we had lots of options on who to ride. The yard saw about 20 trains a day which was also nice to see. The only down side was most of the cars where not very ridable. None the less we got a game plan together and decided to come back in a couple days at sunrise san Bandita. With the gang issues and a few other challenges I didn't feel it was safe for her so it was decided she would sit this one out.
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The morning we came back was busy as all hell and within 30 mins we had already managed to grab a train heading inland. Since all the workers knew us by this point we could literally walk freely to our catch-out. But to be honest here they don't really seem to give to much of a shit about us.
Our trains crawled into the mountains, and I mean fucking crawled. Even though it was double track almost the whole way we would stop for every fucking train that passed. Then once it was past us we would go again. Now I love trains, I love seeing them but there where so many fucking trains on these lines that after 4 hours I was sick of seeing fucking trains.
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The views were amazing and the tunnels where many We scored the second unit back as I had looked at the weather earlier and it was going to thunderstorm. Nothing worse than riding suicide in a down pour, and pour it did! Safe and dry in our gutted unit we enjoyed the coolness the rain brought with it.
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I also bought a garmen GPS which came in extremely handy considering it was all new territory. I have vid on all of it and hopefully can get something up in the next year. All in all though I will say Brazil is def a ridable country, but the trains stop a fuuuuck of a lot!
Most people come to Brazil for the beaches. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't take at least some pleasure in spending nights getting drunk ocean side surrounded by tits and ass, It wasn't why I wanted to come to Brazil.
The funny thing was once arriving in Rio I quickly realized that everything the rest of the world knows about Brazil can literally be summed up in this one city. The massive beaches, the favelas, The ever so watchful Jesus statue, you name it, its all right here in Rio.
Mac, a rider buddy of ours from Canada was down here taking a few courses between chasing girls on the beach. Despite earlier invites to come enjoy what Rio had to offer, it wasn't until I saw just how massive Brazil's freight trains could be, did I even start to consider a trip down.
View attachment 37022
Once I saw the potential to hit up a few freights and tour the jungle it was a no brainer. I had my eyes of a few select routes as my time in Brazil was limited. One of these lines was a trip through the jungle and up into the mountains starting just South of Sao Paulo. I did most of the research before leaving north America so by the time we left Rio and maid our way to Praia Grande I was pretty confident I could pull it off.
I had been warned about the crime in Brazil and to be honest we arrived half expecting that at some point we would get robbed. It didn't help that once here three or four people a day would tell us we would be shot and robbed. People here live in constant fear of crime, more than anywhere I have been to date.
The first night after arriving in Praia Grande (pronounced praia grangee) we ordered a pizza as it was late and all the restaurants where closed. The delivery company asked us what the exact bills we were going to pay with so they could bring the exact change encase they got robbed...WTF
View attachment 37023
Every home was gated, barbed wire, guard dogs, and these were the good places. I almost turned back a few times as when I would head out on my own, locals would come and tell me I was going to get shot and they would take all my shit. I continued on but I wont lye I was scared. The further out of town I went the ruffer things got and the more worried I became.
None the less I found the abandoned train line that would take us the 8k to our catch out spot. Ships ported in Santos, then a crew would take them to a yard north of Praia Grande where a road crew would then take the train into the mountains.
View attachment 37025
We would have to walk through 3 favelas in order to reach the yard, which ended up working in our favour as once the railroad employees saw us filming by the yard, they actually took us in to keep us from getting robbed. Not only did they take us in, they gave us a tour and free reign of the place. We spend the day scouting then got a ride back to the city with one of the workers so we wouldn't have to walk through the bad areas now that everyone there knew we had gear.
View attachment 37024
The yard and the main line where literally cut out of the jungle, it was sexy as all hell. Not to mention there where a few companies who used this line to access the post, so we had lots of options on who to ride. The yard saw about 20 trains a day which was also nice to see. The only down side was most of the cars where not very ridable. None the less we got a game plan together and decided to come back in a couple days at sunrise san Bandita. With the gang issues and a few other challenges I didn't feel it was safe for her so it was decided she would sit this one out.
View attachment 37026
The morning we came back was busy as all hell and within 30 mins we had already managed to grab a train heading inland. Since all the workers knew us by this point we could literally walk freely to our catch-out. But to be honest here they don't really seem to give to much of a shit about us.
Our trains crawled into the mountains, and I mean fucking crawled. Even though it was double track almost the whole way we would stop for every fucking train that passed. Then once it was past us we would go again. Now I love trains, I love seeing them but there where so many fucking trains on these lines that after 4 hours I was sick of seeing fucking trains.
View attachment 37027
The views were amazing and the tunnels where many We scored the second unit back as I had looked at the weather earlier and it was going to thunderstorm. Nothing worse than riding suicide in a down pour, and pour it did! Safe and dry in our gutted unit we enjoyed the coolness the rain brought with it.
View attachment 37028
View attachment 37029
I also bought a garmen GPS which came in extremely handy considering it was all new territory. I have vid on all of it and hopefully can get something up in the next year. All in all though I will say Brazil is def a ridable country, but the trains stop a fuuuuck of a lot!
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