Brazil!!

Ciao friends!  For those of you who haven't yet tired of my long-winded posts, and the fact that I overuse the word "amazing", thanks for tuning in for another post. I just left the port of Salvador, Brazil, and I gotta say, Brazil might be my favorite port thus far (however that’s a loaded statement and I will not fully commit to it yet). 

My friends and I just spent the first half of the day exploring and shopping in Salvador. The people here are extremely welcoming. I completed all of my shopping that day since I had to leave for the Amazon!

 

So, on day two, my friends Liv and Morgan and myself got on our first flight to Manaus, then boarded the connecting flight to the Amazon. There’s actually a two hour difference between the Amazon and Salvador, so we arrived at the riverboat around 11pm completely exhausted. However we were still welcomed with food and some Brazilian dancing! Our sleeping arrangement consisted of almost 40 people on the top deck of a riverboat,with hammocks as beds.   We were packed together like sardines. But I didn't really mind it and we all definitely bonded. There’s nothing more relaxing than reading a book in a hammock with a slight breeze gently swinging you while you cruise down the Rio Negro. That was what I did about every morning we were out there.  Because we were sleeping outside, the sunrise woke us up every morning. If you know me well enough, you know I’m not a morning person. But I woke up at about 5:30am every day, and I was never grumpy (I also got some great sunrise pictures). 

Our first day on the Amazon we saw the “meeting of the waters”. This is where the two rivers of the Amazon meet. One side was a light brown, muddy color while the other was a reddish black. We docked and took a jungle walk through the “Flooded Forest”. They call it this because when its high tide, the water reaches up about 8 or 9 feet above the actual sea level. You can see the water marks on the trees showing how high up the water rises. During this jungle walk, I saw three sloths, one monkey, and a few water lilies that can actually support the weight of a small child. Throughout our adventure, I was completely covered in sweat and dirt. The heat here was a lot worse than Senegal, but you get used to it after a while. 

 

For the next part of the day, we went out on canoes and attempted to piranha fish. A very petite 11 year old Amazonian girl accompanied us on our canoe trip and gave us bamboo sticks with fishing lines with bait.  She taught us (without speaking) how to fish. You have to stick the pole in the water and splash around a bit to make it seem like there’s a fish swimming near the surface, to entice a piranha. I caught three fish, but none of them were piranhas. One was a sardine and the other two were catfish. A few other people in our group were able to catch piranhas, but I was just glad to catch any fish at all. I mean, that was the first time I actually went fishing, so needless to say I was proud of myself.

 

Afterwards, we headed back to the boat for dinner and boated back down the river to get ready for the next day. Turns out we were headed in the direction of a storm, but not close enough to affect us. From the boat we were able to see an amazing lightening storm that lit up the entire sky and the full trail of the lightning bolts. It was an absolutely incredible ending to our first night. 

Day two started off with a lot of pineapple for breakfast and another jungle walk. This jungle walk was more like a climb and it was a lot longer. We were covered in even more sweat than the day before, but it still didn't bother me. Our guide carried his machete and taught us how to survive in the jungle with only that weapon. I tasted the bark from a tree that contains preventative medicine for malaria, I drank water from a water vine that was wrapped around a tree, and also tasted the milk from a tree that people in the jungle survive on. We also learned how to communicate with people in the jungle by knocking on massive, hollow trees (like morse code) to communicate. I had many close encounters with the insects in the jungle and discovered ants that were half the size of your finger. If you don’t like insects back in the United States, then you might not want to see the ones in Brazil. They’re bigger, more harmful, and more abundant. Our guide started rubbing ants on his hands because it is also a natural mosquito repellent.

 

After making our a loop through the jungle, we headed back to the boat to take a “shower” before we swam with the pink dolphins. I use quotations since our shower consisted of just rinsing off dirt, sweat, deet, and sunscreen using only one water spout. Pink dolphins are a lot uglier than you would imagine, and a lot fatter. We were able to pet them as we stood in the water and they swam all around us. A man who was in the water with us held fish above the water and the dolphins would jump up and try to grab it. A few of them did but the majority just flopped around and ended up hitting us. We also saw the largest fresh water fish in the world. We were allowed to “fish” for them— aka using a bamboo stick with bait on it to lure them above water level so we could see their full size. A girl dropped her go pro in that tank and unfortunately wasn't able to get it back because that last man who went in that tank was in the hospital for a week. 

After our fish adventure, we moved down the river to a nearby village where we met and played with children. A group played soccer with the older kids while the rest of us (including me) played with the kids aged 10 and under. We blew bubbles, jumped rope, made bracelets, and gave them piggy back rides. A beautiful little girl named Melina stayed by my side the majority of the time and I think we really connected. It was really humbling to be able to give all these kids toys and toothbrushes and see how so little made them so happy. 

 

By the time we left, the sun was beginning to set and we took our canoes to our next destination. On this canoe ride, we looked for caiman, which are another type of alligator except that they have a slightly different shaped nose. Our guide found a small one on a beach where we stopped and took pictures with it.  I have to say, someone did get a great picture of me and Liv holding the little guy. During this canoe ride, we were went straight into darkness so I’m not sure how we didn't run into anything. The sky was lit up with stars and they reflected almost perfectly against the water and it felt as if we were sailing through the galaxy. Despite my slight fear of crashing into another boat, it was the most peaceful canoe ride I had ever been on.

 

Later, we were greeted on a beach with fireworks, torches, music, and a giant feast for all of us. After stuffing my face with meat, rice, and lots of pineapple, I fell asleep in my hammock. The next morning was our last day, and once we finished off the pineapple, we packed up and headed to the airport for a few long plane flights. 

 Writing this blog post reminded me of how much I love this country and now I’m already missing it. This country is my favorite by far, but we’ll see what Trinidad and Costa Rica have to offer. 

Talk to you soon my friends!