Biking for 2800 Miles!

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. Three crazy bikers arriving
at the dunes of Jericoacoara Beach
Photo: © Pantanal Vai à Praia Project, 1999

Exactly eight years ago my first “official” photo assignment and one of my life’s greatest adventure was ending. During four and a half months, from April to August 1999, my buddies Tietta Pivatto, Guto Bertagnolli and I traveled 4500 km (2800 mi) by bicycles along the coast of Brazil between Vitória (Espírito Santo State) and São Luís (Maranhão State). We carried an itinerant exhibit about the Pantanal with pictures, music and other typical items.

Our main objective was to promote cultural exchange between two regions located in opposite extremes of the country. As we traveled presenting material about the Pantanal, we collected photo and written records about Northeastern Brazil, which would then be used during the project’s second phase, when we planned to do the opposite: go biking throughout the Pantanal floodplains showing the culture from Northeast. Unfortunately this stage was never accomplished – or at least not so far...

Nova Tatajuba, one of the most
beautiful beaches that we cycled by
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 1999

By then, the internet - as well as digital photography - were virtually unknown down here, so that the great majority of our records were done on film, pencil and paper. We took approximately 3400 pictures, 250 of which using a Nikon Coolpix 100 camera with stunning 0.3 Megapixels (!) and 1 megabyte (!!) of storage capacity lent by one of the project’s 30 sponsors.

The trip lasted 145 days, during which we made 71 exhibits, 16 lectures and 15 environmental education activities in schools. We were interviewed 33 times by local TV and radio stations and had 21 printed articles published.

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Find more on our Trip Diary
In Portuguese only – you can just look at the pictures
or try out this online translator
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Our Logo!
Artwork © Ronald Rosa, 1999
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