Manaus, Brazil

Welcome to the Jungle…10 points for anyone who can name that band. Anyway, we’re here for another three days so I just wanted to update quick on the last two.

Yesterday, Sunday, we arrived early to a Samba line performing to us at 7:30am. Because a few of us weren’t going to Rio (regretful now), we spent the day exploring Manaus. After going left from the pier which is a huge no-no, we finally found our way to the beautiful Opera House. Because almost everything is closed, we had a tough time finding anything interesting to see. However, after that nice visit, we wondered around the city before finding a quaint little “bar” that would serve us at 11am on a Sunday. The bottles of Kaiser were huuuge and the lady couldn’t understand that each of us wanted one. So instead, she brought one out with seven glasses for us to share. We just settled and kept ordering them and refilling our cups. While we were there, there was a little boy who would poke his head out and peak at us before hiding again. He was so adorable. When we left I coaxed him out to take a picture with me and I have some of the most memorable photos with him holding his hand around the glass. Way too cute for words.

After that, we meandered around some more before heading back to the ship. Ali and I had an FDP later that day so we rested a little before getting on the bus for “From Rubber Boom to the 21st Century.” In all honesty, it was the most boring thing I have ever been on. I hate to admit it, but I literally got on the bus and fell asleep while they drove us around Manaus. I woke up for pictures of the Favelas and stolen electricity from the power lines but then cashed out again right away. We got out twice; the first time for literally two minutes to look at a rubber tree, and then the second at this super sketchy part of town. Ali and I got a drink and took some pictures trying not to think about where we were. There were however, some really cute kids again. It seems like no matter where you go, a smile will win over the hearts of the little ones. This one little boy in particular kept following us and trying ot play soccer with an empty two liter bottle. I’m guessing he had down syndrome or something similar, but he was so friendly with us. I reached out a hand to him and after a second of hesitation, he took it. Again, the pictures are worth 1,000 words. I currently have a picture of us set to my desktop background. That 25 minutes off the bus was the best part of the entire 3.5 hour tour just because of him.

After the hellish tour, we got back to the ship, ate some dinner and then headed out for the night. Even though it was kind of a bust, we still had a good time after going to Hotel Tropical, some outdoor trampoline show and then another outdoor place with live music and tables. Hopefully on Wednesday we’ll make it to Samba and see the performers. We heard it was a blast and now we’re regretting our decision.

Today, Monday, I didn’t have a tour planned at all. After sleeping through my alarm (apparently you actually have to turn it on for it to go off, who knew?!), I met up with Taylor and some other girls and we found this guy to take us around on the river. Packed into this rickety old riverboat with a guy who spoke absolutely zero English, we saw where the rivers met (the Amazon and the Rio Negro are two different colors and they don’t mix together-you can visibly see the different waters flowing together but never blending), the riverside villages, and some floating gas stations. We got out at this floating restaurant and went on a hike through the rainforest. Although we could hear the monkeys, we never actually got to see them which is unfortunate. However, at the end of the scariest, most worn down wood bridge/walkway through the rainforest ever, we got out into this swampy part with HUGE lily pads.  I’m talking three feet across at the very least (the kind they had at the Botanical Gardens in Scotland). On the way back to the boat from there we stopped and got off the walkway onto the Rainforest floor. The guy led us to this HUGE tree. It was massive. The trunk and roots formed walls around it was so big. We also stopped through this crafts warehouse type thing with different vendors selling all sorts of Amazonian things. Only two were open so we got a few things and then went on our way.

From there, our tour guide managed to get out “snake, picture, $1” so we said okay and he took us to this random floating house on the river. When we pulled up, two girls came out, one carrying a sloth like a teddy bear. She hopped on the boat and passed him around so we could all hold him (Sorry Dr. Bill. The whole “Don’t get bit, Don’t get hit, Don’t get lit, Don’t eat shit, Don’t do it” speech didn’t really register at this point). It was unreal. The thing was so light but when it grabbed on, it really pinched. I had marks on my finger for about 30 minutes after he latched his three sharp toes onto me. It was so worth is. Back to the snake though, after the sloth, the guy brought out a massive Boa Constrictor. It had to have been at least 13 feet long. He would pile it on us so we could take pictures. I was freaking out and turned my head and there it’s head was. Oh man. Not my thing to say the least. They kept it in their house in a Styrofoam cooler. There is no way that thing couldn’t get out if it wanted to. And to think they sleep with it? And the sloth was there too? That snake could eat the sloth as an appetizer and then come back for the kids as a main course! Soooo freaky. We got out of there as soon as our hearts returned to normal pace and headed back to the pier.

It was only noon at this point so we explored the city, got some of the best pizza I’ve ever had (Eat, Pray, Love style pizza) and bought some souvenirs before heading back to the ship to get cleaned up and eat dinner.

Since a lot of my friends were going to Rio, we decided to just go down to the pier outdoor bar and hang out before they left for their flight at 11pm. A ton of other SASers were there, all surrounding tables of beer “towers” which were these huge like…fountain type thing? Picture a buffet coffee dispenser, only this was clear and filled with beer with a chilling metal stick in the middle. We had a good time and called it a night when the rest of them went back for their trip, and Anna had had enough of the Brazilian men hitting on her.





By this point, I realize this post is getting excessively long so I hope I still have at least some interest? I started yesterday so I only had to catch up on two days , but then I didn’t finish and now it’s the end of Tuesday/day three. I guess I'll keep going?



This morning started off early at 6:00am. I quick showered and grabbed some breakfast before meeting my group at the pier at 6:45. We hopped on a big river boat and were off to see the meeting of the waters. The Rio Negro and the Amazon flow together in Manaus. However, because of the different sediments, acidity, and water temperature, the two never fully mix. There is a visible line between the black waters of the Rio Negro, and the milky brown waters of the Amazon. It was pretty cool to float over them to say the least.

As we continued on, we stopped at a port to pick up some of the Amazonas University professors and students who would be going with us to do research on our excursion. After a total of two hours on the boat, we pulled up to this tiny village with three guys in the water STILL BUILDING THE DOCK. Literally, they were in the water hammering boards into place on this super sketchy, rickety, three-board wide walkway. And just to make sure we were careful, they reminded us not to go in the water because a little girl was recently bitten by a Camen (otherwise known as the common Alligator/crocodile type thing). Yep, we felt pretty safe on that; at least we weren’t the guys in the water. Obviously, as I’m typing this now, we made it without any trouble. When we got up to the village, we saw how high the water rose during the wet season. It was incredible the amount of water that could come into a village and then out again. I guess that explains why all the houses are built on stilts.

As soon as we set our lunches down, we were told to hurry up because the village was waiting for us at the school. So, we started walking over there. And kept walking. And walked some more. We passed insecure wood slatted houses, the local bar, what was clearly the party house (it had some of the biggest speakers and subs I’ve ever seen, let alone in the middle of the Amazon), and a church. The church was actually the only building aside from the school that was built with concrete blocks and would be able to withstand time. But, we still weren’t at the school. We walked through pasture gates and dodged cow poop as we crossed the pasture, filled mind you, with cows, bulls, goats and horses. I’m pretty sure they didn’t enjoy our intrusion as much as we did—one of the horses had one blue eye and one brown. It was so beautiful. After the pasture we came across more houses and a “soccer field”, and after a bit more walking, we finally came to what we thought was the school. The building, again, on stilts,  was this huge one room place with a projector set up and metal folding chairs for us. The people of the village were so welcoming to all of us. The principal of the school gave a short talk and then presented two girls who were champion singers. While they were beautiful, I’m not sure they’d be winning any American Idols back in the States. They were accompanied by maybe a 13-year-old boy on the keyboard and some other background music. After their show, they sang as a young couple danced for us. They were amazing. The way their feet moved was incredible. And they were so happy while they were doing it! Dressed in a tank top, swimming trunks and flip-flops, I’ve never seen any teenage boy so happy to be dancing with his gorgeous partner in front of a crowd of complete strangers. But, the fun stuff had to be put aside for a more serious (and long) presentation about the village. While they were extremely kind and welcomed us with open arms, the two hour presentation of slides, speakers and clapping all in Portuguese being translated for us got to be a little excessive. They did however, prepare some snacks for us which were all really good. A few people even got dancing lessons during this socializing time.

Oh no. Complete side note, but some guy just sat down at the piano and he really shouldn’t be practicing right now. It’s horrible on the ears and really quite obnoxious.

Back to my unnecessarily long post, after the presentation we toured the actual school, a U-shaped building with one classroom for each grade K-8/9. They didn’t have anything in the rooms except for a white board and chairs that were stacked up every night. I should mention the water system also. They don’t have a pump or anything, so they either have to collect water from the river, or rain water in these huge  baby-pool like devices. They’ve been trying to persuade the government to provide the village with a water supply and treatment system, but so far they haven’t had any luck. So by each house, they have these huge 500 Liter tubs that collect the water to be used. The school had this system in use too. When you flush a toilet, you can’t put anything in there including toilet paper because the systems are so weak it won’t flush. And these are probably going to be some of the better toilets we see on this voyage.

Getting side tracked again, after the school we hung out and took pictures with the students before starting the trek back for lunch. Dee and I stopped for a quick pick-up game of soccer with two of the local boys. I’m happy to say that the score was 1-1 before we were too tired to run anymore. Have I mentioned the heat yet? Before the game I was sweating through my clothes. With the equator heat and borderline unbearable humidity, after running around I was dead. I don’t know how many times I can literally drip sweat on one trip, but I think we’ll find out. It was sooo gross and we still had three more hours of this trip.

We refueled with some lunch, Capri sun and water before our guide was like “oh, we’re just going to go look at the gardens over there and then we’ll go back to the boat.” Turns out the gardens “over there” were another 20-minute walk in the other direction. I had no idea this town could be so spread out. I’m still trying to figure out if it was all one village, or separate communities working together. We got to the gardens and it was pretty much like any other garden. They had some corn and watermelons and rows of two other plants that we never go the name for. While getting an explanation about a plant used for healing tea, and getting bitten by fire ants, the UFAM camera guy pointed out Dolphins in the river. If I haven’t mentioned yet (sorry, this is getting so long I can’t even remember what I’ve been saying), the dolphins here aren’t the cute ones you see at Seaworld. They’re ugly. Pink, fat and they have a really weird nose. After seeing them and finding out what they were, I was glad I didn’t get my Swimming with the Dolphins trip through SAS. No thank you.

By this point in the afternoon we were all drained, sweaty, hot and grumpy. What a delightful bunch of young adults. However, our tour wasn’t done, so we went further back into the forest and got a demonstration on how they make Rubber. They scrapped the tree and let the white sap of the Rubber tree drip into a Spam can. It looked like Elmers glue. Then the lady showed us how she sits in this tiny hut all day rolling rubber balls over a fire on a spit. Not a fun job. We got to feel a cooled one the size and almost weight of a bowling ball. True to rubber, it bounced when you dropped it.

Alas, it was finally time to go back to the boat. We managed to drag ourselves back, plopped down in the chairs on the boat and I fell asleep for the hour and a half journey back to the ship.

I was so dirty, sweaty and tired, I just ate dinner, got some water and went to take a shower. Now my friend Taylor and I are laying low and enjoying a quiet ship. Even though it’s only 8:50, I could easily fall asleep for the night right now. So, I’m going to try. Hope you all made it through this okay, if not, oh well. Tomorrow night we’re going to Samba so I should have a more exciting post coming. I’ve only heard good things about it.