http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnwP75YZycY&feature=youtu.be
ANYWAY BRAZIL! Its all been a bit of a blur of random fruit juices, locals staring and various fried goods from dodgy looking stands. But in between we have managed to do some exploring and travel what must be AT least a few thousand (feels like it at least) miles up the Amazon. I do not doubt that it is in fact the biggest river in the world. And most probably the brownest.
We finished off in Belem with a tour of the Teatro de Paz, a grandiose European style opera house in the middle of a not so european city. As it was wednesday, the tour was free (my fave kind of tour) AND the tour guide happened to be called Pollyanna. After her telling all her friends about her new friend and her name and various photos, we finally got round to the tour. After a longish talk about all the different types of rubber and wood that went into the flooring (thrilling)... and an analyse of the wallpaper which was in fact paint in the style of wallpaper (actually quite thrilling).... we finally got to see inside. Luckily there was a rehearsal going on so we checked it out and between us music students, we still had no idea what piece they were playing :S
Then it was time for the boat. Of course we got there at 3pm and of course it didn't leave til well gone 7pm and of course Polly A attracted the weirdest half blind crazy man in the docks to come and shout at us for a while. Luckily we were stealth-like when we boarded the boat and waited until we saw him turn left then snuck right and hung up our hammocks in the middle of a friendly looking family, so close together their was some serious spoonage going on... and I'm not talking about me with Polly or Olivia. And so we settled in for a good three nights sleep. Luckily in all the confusion getting on we had managed to plonk ourselves right in front of the toilets- win!
Did I mention the delicious food selection that was available. Oh wait, it was unidentified meat and rice and spaghetti, or, a pot noodle. for breakfast, noon and dinner. Nom. And so it began, plenty of bananagrams, cards (a man tried to buy Polly's harry potter cards... she was not having any of it!), bit of tanning and some stunning stargazing. Me and Pollz are convinced that we saw Mars... well, a reddish looking star at least, and some shooting stars! We went past plenty of little villages and the villager all canoed out to the boat in the hope that we would throw them some food/ toys/whatevs. Sadly we didn't get the memo so we hadn't bought anything for them so there were a few awkward moments of either pretending to be asleep or using the failsafe 'Alemania'... got them every time. There were some good moments- occasionally the music in the bar would change from truly awful to merely vaguely appalling and we could stand to sit up there and eat our carb-heavy dinner with a cheeky coke- the treat of the day.
After three nights in the hammock we were pretty happy to stop off in Santarem for a couple of days. A smaller and much more chilled city than Belem. We went for a fruitless long trek back to the port to try and buy boat tickets, and came home sunburnt, thirsty and hungry. Cue more fruit juice and more fried goods and we slept pretty well in the beds. Until the diarrhoea started sometime in the early hours but we don't' need to go into that...
The next day we visited Alter de Chao a very surreal river beach and clearly the playground for rich Santerem-ians ... we even saw one guy on a jet pack water thing- ridic! Between us we spent most of the time napping under the table in a little bit of shade and downing the Fanta- and filming the video, of course! Cheeky local bus back and we even managed to get off at the right stop!
Well, after almost a full 48 hours on land we were clearly getting bored and ready for another boat so we headed off in a river taxi via the meeting of the waters to the port. The meeting of the waters is where the Amazon river meets another river, the rio negro (black river). Funnily enough, this one is black in colour, unlike the muddy yellow brown of the amazon. Weirdly, when the rivers meet they run side by side for what seems like a long time without the two types of water merging. There is literally a line in the middle of the river where the colour changes. Banter.
Back on the boat. This time we seemed to be in a very small minority of young women on the boat which meant we had to put up with three days of whistling, shouting and hello, hello, good morning, and a whole lot of staring. Ideal. Luckily there was plenty of unidentified meat and rice and spaghetti to take our minds of it. One day they asked if we wanted chicken or beef- oh the excitement! we chose chicken... only to be told that sorry, it was a mistake and that, come d'habitude they only had beef. Ideal. More banangrams, fanta and Polly A taking the role of chief reader of a suspense mystery on her kindle kept us sane. Apart from the casual locust infestation that occurred on the last night :S
Luckily, the first night, I was half asleep when I discovered that what had been itching in my hair was it fact a Grimola locust. I threw it away and thought that was the end of it. Not so lucky. The next day they were back and there were more and the locals took great delight in our squealing and jumping out of the hammocks every time one came near. We were just falling off to sleep when one joker thought it would be funny to take the locust made of grass off of his hat and put it on Olivia's head. She went mental! So much so that they decided to do it again and film it. She could be appearing on Brazil's version of punked anytime soon!
I think that about brings you up to date... the boat was a casual 9 hours late to Manaus but we made it and have found a really nice hostel with delicious free breakfast and the obligatory roof terrace. Polly A is leaving tomorrow- very sad times!!!!!!!! But also, only three weeks until I am back in England, can't really believe its actually happening!
Sadly Polly A is taking the apple store with her so no more wifi devices for me so will probs have to update when I am back in St. Laurent..
Obrigada for reading (that means thank you... the only word i have learnt in Portugese. )
xx
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