Brazil

Obrigada, Brazil!

I had an AMAZING four days in Brazil. It was an adventure for sure. I
went on an independent Amazon trip with a group of about twenty other
SAS kids, a Slovakian couple, a guy from Haiti, and later in the trip a
couple from Hong Kong and a lady from Poland joined us for a day.
Day one we met on the ship at eight and started our adventure from
Manaus. We hopped on a shuttle bus that brought us to another van which
brought us to taxi boats. The taxi boats brought us to East Manaus but
along the way we crossed over the meeting of the waters where the Rio
Negro meets the Amazon. It is so cool, the Amazon has so much sediment
that the water is brown and the Rio Negro is extremely acidic which is
why the water is so dark. The water is so distinctly different that it
doesn't flow into one another so you can see the exact spot where one
stops and the other begins. So once we got to East Manaus we had to wait
around for a bit for our next ride. East Manaus consists of a dirt road
with a bunch of vendors up and down the sides. At 10 am there were
kabobs cooking over open fires, dogs everywhere, and people trying to
sell the most random things. I was not about to risk eating those kabobs
but a couple people from my group bought them. After they were almost
done our guide told us it was monkey meat...I'm still not sure if he was
kidding or not. We explored for a bit but pretty soon after we got
there three old VW busses showed up and our guides (who spoke very
little English) told us to get in. We crammed in with four people on one
bench in the front and four in the back. Brazil is not a cool place so
we were cooking in those vans and the ride ended up being about two
hours through the countryside of Brazil and down a dirt road in the
jungle. Finally we stopped at this random house on the dirt road that
had a few people just chillin on the porch. We went in and said hello
and talked to the little kids (who were adorable) but none of us really
had any idea what the situation was or where we were going next because
none of the guides really spoke English so they weren't too informative.
So finally after about twenty minutes they started pointing down the
street and telling us to walk that way. So we all grabbed our bags and
walked down the hill where we saw three little river boats. We got in
those and we were off up the river. The boat ride ended up being about
two hours, but it seemed so much shorter because of everything to look
at along the way. In some parts we were in narrow areas surrounded by
jungle and in other parts the river was wide and the jungle was clear
cut for cattle and the occasional hut. The people who live along the
river have little boats that they use to get supplies far down the river
but for the most part they live off the land and farm. Finally we got
to our final destination which ended up being this little place that
consisted of about five huts and a main screen porch area for meals. We
each separated into the huts where there were beds and a little bathroom
area but before we went in our guide told us to be sure to check for
spiders and snakes. Comforting. The set up was actually pretty nice
though since we thought we were going to be really roughing it.
After being so hot and sweaty and traveling so much our guides
suggested we go swimming. So we jumped hesitantly into the river. The
entire time I was praying there were no piranha, cayman (crocodile), or
anaconda below me but our guide assured us that most of them usually
only came out at night.
That afternoon we split up into three groups and my group went on
a boat ride in search of river dolphins and other wild animals. We saw
tons of dolphins and our guide Antonio was a master at spotting animals
from afar. He pointed out monkeys in the trees, tucans, parrots, etc.
The best part was when his girlfriend Sharon, who was visiting from
Israel spotted a sloth in a tree on the river bank. Antonio whipped that
boat around and drove it directly through the tall grass on side and
beached it right under the tree. He then proceeded to leap out of the
boat and shimmy fifteen feet up into this tree. At this point we were
all like what the hell is going on right now? Cameras were out and on
the ready. So Antonio grabs this poor sloth by the leg and starts
ripping it down out of the tree but the sloth was a fighter. It had it's
little claws deep into that tree so as Antonio was pulling the sloth was
slowly inching further and further down the tree but leaving scratch
marks all down the trunk. As this is all going on another tour boat
pulled up next to us that was full of Germans. The German lady in the
front realized whats going on and started yelling "LEAVE THE SLOTH
ALONE!!!" she was bugging out. I think she must have been a PETA member
or something because she was like "It's not fair it took the sloth so
long to get up there!" So we were all in shock at the situation at this
point and finally Antonio took the hint and jumped down from the tree
and casually hopped back in the boat and got us out of there. So after
we got back from that adventure it was dinner time. The family who owned
the huts made home cooked food for every meal. We had fish, salad,
potatoes, some kind of meat soup, rice, and beans. It was really
interesting dinner conversation talking to everyone from so many
different places.
After dinner it was time for Cayman hunting. We all got into the
tiny little river boats in the pitch dark and quietly motored around the
edges of the river. Our guides kept making weird noises that they said
attracted the cayman. After about five minutes our guide jumped out of
the boat suddenly and popped back up with a baby cayman. We all got to
hold it and take a picture. One kid freaked out and dropped the thing
and everyone panicked and our little boat almost tipped over as the
thing was flopping around under our feet. The guide got it by the tail
and flipped it out of the boat in the end. It was terrifying I was
pretty sure I was going to lose a foot.
That night we were all exhausted but we hung out in the screen
house for a while, drank a little rum with the guides and played
dominoes which is a big game in Brazil.
Day two we woke up early, had some breakfast which consisted of
some fried dough tasting things and a bread, and got ready for our
jungle trek. We all had our long pants and shirts on despite the fact
that it was already about eighty degrees out, loaded up on bug spray and
water and were feeling pretty prepared. When we walked out of our huts
to go our guide was standing there in his flip flops and shorts just
hold his machete like a bad ass. He lead the way into the jungle on a
little footpath. We swung from some vines, slid down some treacherous
slopes, walked over logs, I felt like I should have been singing Hakuna
Matata the whole time. Towards the end of the hike which was about three
hours Antonio lead us past a tree that looked really familiar. Sharon
was like "Antonio, we have passed here already"and Antonio just stopped
and said "well then we are lost" and shrugged. I was like uhhhh??? So we
just kept walking and after a while Antonio seemed to know the way
again. He pointed out some really cool things as we were hiking, we
found the tree that they make Vic's Vapor Rub out of, he showed us how
to put our hand on a tree that always had a certain type of bug on it
and let the bugs swarm our hands then rub our hands together to kill all
the bugs and the smell made a natural bug repellant.
After the hike we ate lunch and then packed up some stuff for the
night, hopped in the boat and motored about another hour up river. We
stopped at a random spot on the side of the river where a shelter had
been made out of palm fronds. It looked like it was like a camp on
Survivor or something. In the shelter we hung up our hammocks and bug
nets. Antonio started a camp fire and cooked some chicken over it for
dinner. He made us plates out of leaves and we all hung out and talked
for the night and drank some more Cachaca. At about eleven we all
decided to go to bed so we got in our hammocks which were insanely close
together, we were like on top of each so when one person moved all the
hammocks moved. When the fire went out it was literally so dark, like
you could not see a hand in front of your face. We could hear all the
animals around us all night like the monekys in the trees and things on
the ground under us, it was really intense. I think I slept like two
hours the whole night. It was so worth it though.
The next morning we woke up, packed up camp and headed back to the
huts. We went out and did a little piranha fishing with stick poles,
wire, and raw chicken. As we were fishing out of the boat, Antonio just
casually jumped in the water to cool off. Nbd, piranhas don't scare him.
Everyone caught one, everyone but me. It was real sad. But I was kind of
happy because the boat was so small that Antonio couldn't move around to
help people get the piranha off the hook so we had to get them off
ourselves and I feel like I might have lost a finger if I tried to do
that. One kid dropped the thing into the boat so it was flopping around
our toes but luckily it didn't get anyone. After lunch it was time to
say goodbye to all our new friends and guides and we headed back to the
ship.
On the ride back as I was squished between to old Brazilian guys
speaking Portuguese in the front of an old VW bus driving by the
Brazilian farm land it hit me how weird/cool my life is right now.
Seeing the ship after traveling for four hours was like coming home. We
were all so happy to get back on and finally shower after three days in
the Amazon jungle.
Once back on board i showered quick in my cabin had dinner and then
was off again with my roommate and a couple friends to the Samba school
in Manaus. It was the coolest experience of my life. The Samba school is
where they practice the Samba all year round to perform at Carnival in
Rio. Luckily we went on a night that they were rehearsing in the street
which drew a HUGE crowd. Carnival is next week so they were performing
for the people of Manaus before they went off to the big league. Manaus
is not a tourist destination because it is so far down the Amazon, so
they were so happy to have Americans at their performance that they
invited us into their performance to dance and play their instruments.
We went crazy, we danced and hung out with them for a solid two or three
hours. We got on Brazilian tv because they had the news film crew there
taping the performance. It was awesome. People were buying us beers and
thanking us for being there. I literally had a lady shove her infant
into my arms and asked me to take a picture with her. It was insane.
We got back to the ship pretty early around eleven and I was so
tired I passed out. This morning we woke up around nine and went out to
explore Manaus. I got some souvenirs and we ate at an authentic
Brazilian place which was delicious. It was kind awkward walking around
though because most people there have never seen blonde hair except for
on TV so we had people bowing to us and thanking us constantly. One guy
came up to me and told me it was his dream to tell me I am wonderful. It
was kind of funny, it was like we were celebrity status.
Brazil is an amazing country. In 2014 they are hosting the world
cup and in 2016 they have the Olympics there as well! Good thing my visa
will still be good ;) I had an adventure of a lifetime while in Manaus
and the Amazon and I hope I can come back one day! Now we are back on
board for another nine days on our way to Ghana, more adventure awaits.