MY RECENT TRIP to the Araguaia River basin, like so many of my trips to Brazil, involved many, many miles of dirt roads. Almost any road in the interior which is not a main thoroughfare, a state or federal highway, is likely to be comprised of the rusty, iron red native soil. In the summer, driving down them results in great dust-clouds of thick ochre sand billowing up behind the vehicle, or worse, from the car in front. It shrouds your car, chokes the vents and filters, explodes through any open windows and wears down the moving parts in a campaign of particulate attrition. During prolonged droughts, the sand may become finer, silkier, and softer, trapping inexperienced drivers in great drifts, leaving one stranded in the burning sun. In the…
