So Brazil was awesome. There are few ways I can sum it up better than that last sentence.
I can’t believe the opportunity I have been afforded. We booked a 3 day, 2 night “amazon mystery tour” which was an awesome deal, but I never expected I would feel the way I do about it. There are some things that are hard to put into words, but here we go: We walk off port and meet our tour guide, His name is Rinaldo. He has dreads down to his knees, informing us he hasn’t cut his hair in 10 years, a beard down to about his pecs (which hasn’t been cut in 5 years), and tattoos all over. Naldo led us to a bank where we all pulled out a couple hundred Reals (which is deceiving, our rule of thumb is 1 R$= .50 US). After pulling out cash we went to our boat, which I have to admit was probably one of the cutest little things I have ever seen. We jumped on the boat, and headed to the meeting of the waters where the Rio Negro and the Amazon meet. The Rio Negro is a dark color, and the Amazon is more of a milky dirty color. I recommend you all check it out on Google if possible.
After the meeting of the waters we went to a little fish farm place where we fed these huge fish, they were literally like 5 meters long. How we fed them was really cool, we tied a fish on a crude fishing rod, and then we pretty much dropped the fish in the water, they pulled the fish off, while we pulled them out of the water. It was crazy, I have some pictures and videos which I would love to show everyone, but I guess that will be in 3 months haha. After the fish feeding we went to a little lake place and saw these huge lilies and there were a couple caiman hanging out. This was a gorgeous place, but the platform we were standing on was extremely sketchy and I am surprised it held all 13 of us.
We then went Piranha fishing. It sounds awesome, but it was just like any other fishing, its’ really the luck of the draw, and I drew the short stick and didn’t get anything. However, the cute dainty girl Betsy caught a piranha. Naldo literally put his hook in for 20 seconds and caught a fish; it was amazing how much skill he had. The next thing we did was cruise to a nice little place to hang out until the sun went down, and on the way we saw a couple kids on a canoe with a Sloth and an anaconda. Sloths are cute as hell. I really want one. If anyone has one and wants to sell it, let me know. The best part was after fishing we were able to go Caiman hunting. Essentially a caiman is an alligator or croc, but I guess they are a little different due to the geography. Naldo was really good at catching Caiman. We were cruising down the river and Naldo directed the driver right were a Caiman was, in the middle of the darkness and just caught it like it wasn’t a big deal. It was awesome. I was the first one who got to hold it after Naldo, and it was super cool. I felt like a little kid, between the Caiman, the Anaconda and the sloth, I Felt like I was at some crazy petting zoo. We got back to ship at about 7pm or so, and we set off to the place where we were going to sleep, on the boat… in hammocks. We ate around 8:30 and were in for a huge treat: the piranha Betsy caught, and the couple fish that Naldo caught. Piranha tastes like chicken, no lie. The meals were fantastic, and I am so impressed by myself with how much I ate as I am usually a pretty picky eater. Sleeping in hammocks was rough, but it was nice to be able to see sunlight when I wake up, as the inside of my room is super dark.
We woke up the next morning at 6am with the sunrise, ate breakfast and headed for a hike into the jungle. We get to a little village and Naldo runs up to talk to a local guide who would be leading us on the hike. His name was Marcos, and I’m not sure I will ever meet anyone like Marcos again. We set off into our jungle hike, and Marcos was not wearing shoes or a shirt, which was super crazy, I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt because I was afraid of mosquitoes and getting malaria, which I am proud to say I’m pretty sure I haven’t gotten Malaria yet. The Rainforest is terrifying. I hope I never have to go back. It is super-hot; my long sleeve tee shirt was completely drenched in sweat. When I got back onto our riverboat I rang out the shirt after realizing that there was not one inch that wasn’t drenched in sweat. I’ve never thought of myself as that heavy of a sweater, but after the jungle hike I definitely have to revisit my thought process. I probably lost 15 pounds in sweat alone. We got back from the hike and everyone took a 2 hour nap, and when we woke up it was 1pm, but it felt like it was at least 7pm. We went to a beach place where we all napped a little more, after that hike, and waking up so early there was no way anyone was swimming. After a delicious lunch, of something crazy local we decided we were going to sleep out in the rainforest, however when we got to the spot where we were going to leave the boat it started pouring for a good hour.
It was at that point when Naldo decided we should just stay on the boat again. But he had plans for us to go deep into the jungle again. We jumped on a little canoe that was powered by a small block motor hooked up to what was essentially a propeller on a long stick (Like the one they rode on in Around the World in 80 Ways if you follow that at all). We took this little boat so deep in the jungle. There were points where we had to turn off the engine because we were in grass that would mess with the prop. A sign of confidence from our guides came as we turned around 3 times because they weren’t used to going in while the water is so low. I can’t describe to you the density of the jungle where we were. It’s unfathomable to someone who hasn’t experienced it. The reason we went into the jungle was to see these gorgeous falls of a sort, nothing like Dominica, but there was some current for sure. It was pretty cool to take off your shoes and walk around. After a half hour or so we started heading back, which I was just as disoriented going out as I was going in, not to mention it was dark by then. I don’t know how these guys do it, but they knew the rainforest inside out, I wish I could share a picture of these guys.
When we finally got back to the ship we were in for a treat. We were parked (docked?) on a beachy area of the Amazon, and Marcos and Naldo made us a huge bonfire. We cooked our dinner over the fire too. We had chicken and sausage, and it was phenomenal. It was really good; I can’t stress how well I ate in Brazil. We ate and Naldo made us a couple drinks, the drink was called a Caipirinha cocktail, it was sugar, limes and some native alcohol distilled from sugar cane. It was delicious. Naldo had 3 bottles of this stuff and everyone ended up partying pretty hard in the middle of the Amazon. It was a blast. We retired to our hammocks at about 11pm or so, and woke up at 6am again the next morning.
We all woke up again that morning and after breakfast we went into a little local village. We saw some of everything, and even hung out a local school for a while. The school was a little eye opening, the entire student body was something along the lines of 20 kids, aged 6 or 7 to 15 or 16, all wearing the same blue tank top with the Manaus City logo on it. There were two teachers who honestly did not seem any more educated than some of the students. I was however impressed with how the kids behaved and seemed like they were genuinely into classes. It’s kind of crazy to see how the locals live, and it’s crazy to think that these locals were better off than many of the locals across the world. They were educated, had fairly nice houses all things considered, and many of them had boats to get around the Amazon with. It is always interesting to see the differences from Manaus, which for all intents and purposes is a big city, and a little village just off the amazon about a 2 hour boat ride from the city.
After we finished touring the village we jumped back on the boat and headed back to the port, by the time we got back it was about 4:30pm and we were headed back to the ship but not before taking a couple group pictures with Naldo and the rest of the crew. Naldo decided that he was going to walk us back to port; on the way he bought us all a round of Brahma, which is a local beer that kind of sort of not really tastes similar to a Coors light or something along those lines. When we got back to the port it was time to say goodbye to Naldo which was a really disappointing thing to do. We became pretty close after everything. It was sad to leave him.
We finally got back on the ship and took our first shower in 3 days. It was heaven. I’m a quick showerer so although I probably only took a 10 minute shower, that’s the equivalent of like an hour for normal folks. After my shower we went to a local Brazilian steakhouse which we had heard was a pretty ritzy place, but I had no clue what I was getting myself into. After a 15 Real cab ride, we got to Bufalo Desade. From my understanding of it, it is extremely similar to Rodizios in Denver and Ft Collins. It is officially one of the best meals I have ever had. We sat down and ordered drinks, but we were super hesitant to order a bottle of wine because everything was so expensive as this place was super nice. Bufalo was the most extravagant meal I have ever eaten. We had no clue of the price of the meal, but they started bringing out filets, and tenderloins, and all of these crazy cuts of beef, pork, fish, chicken, anything you could think of. After eating a few pieces of steak I ordered a glass of red wine, which was delicious, and we ended up deciding as a group (it was Kael, Ryan Murphy and myself) to buy a bottle of the cheapest white wine on the menu, which ended up running about $24US. One led to two, two led to three, and finally three led to four.
We felt like such huge rollers, bottle after bottle of wine being delivered to our table alongside the most amazing cuts of steak I’ve ever experienced. After this mouthwatering meal we paid (which was a terrifying amount of Money ($100US per person)) and headed downstairs to a cool little bar where everyone got drinks. I personally had a martini, and was promptly made fun of because most guys where drinking whiskey and scotch, which I have no taste for at all. We called for some cabs and a big group of us went to Crocodilos, a dirty dirty local club which was known for its cheap drinks. We bought a couple beers, danced, had a great time, and headed back to the ship at around 1:30am.
The next day I woke up and met up with the group at 11am and headed into town. We had a few Real left and wanted to blow it before we left since it wouldn’t be any good anywhere else. The local market had a ton of touristy souvenirs and I bought a little wooden sloth, super cute of course, a tank top with a tiger on it that says Manaus Brazil, and a little shot glass thing which has Manaus engraved. On the way back to the ship we stopped by a post office to grab some stamps for postcards, and a supermarket where I bought a few bars of chocolate to take back on the ship. In the port authority we grabbed some burgers and a big tube of beer, which was kind of like what they have at Senor Frogs, or the lube tube at Quaker Steak and Lube. We headed back to the ship worried that we wouldn’t make it on time. The on deck time was 3pm; we sprinted up the stairs, and swiped our cards at 2:58pm!
Brazil was an awesome trip; it’s interesting to see how much I enjoy countries that don’t top my list of countries I want to visit. These experiences have shaped my world view, and so far I haven’t left what really are the Americas. Our next stop is Ghana, on deck for my 5 days are a likely home stay with a local family and a few SASers, and an FDP: ACR55 the queen mothers of Ghana for my Human Rights and Conflict class. 8 more days on the ship!
No comments:
Post a Comment