The wheels on the truck go bump, bump, bump…all the way to Brazil. The time had come to take the plunge and drive the truck the 80 km to the Brazilian border. The gringos needed a tank for their water project and it was up to us to go and buy it and bring it back across the river in a boat to Bolivia and transport it to the project on the back of the truck. The journey took just over 2 and a half hours with a top speed of 50km an hour in the rare patches of decent road. The guys bounced around on the back, eating dirt all the way there.

Upon arrival (or about two blocks beforehand) at the border to cross over to Brazil, we find that the river has risen about 2 metres since our last visit a few weeks ago, and has broken its banks flooding the low lying areas of both border towns in Bolivia and it Brazil. So off we set in a boat through the streets and finally make our way to the river and fight the currents of the overflowing river, through the gate and into the streets of Brazil.

Without many dramas the 4000 litre tank is purchased and we “patiently” wait for the next 4 hours for it to be delivered to our boat standing by at water’s edge. Finally, the man from the shop comes along and tells us that for some unknown the top of the tank that was perfectly intact a few hours before is now mysteriously broken. In the end the tank arrives without its lid and we take it across to Bolivia to be unloaded amongst mountains of pasta, fruit and nappies,. As the sun goes down, we embark on the bumpy, long journey home, minus the gringos who chose to ride in the comfort of a taxi for the return trip.

All in all we saved about $500 by transporting the tank ourselves and now we have a story to tell… And in a few more weeks it will be complete with a new lid...