Blog 20

I awoke the second say ready to take on the Amazon, but I had quite a journey just to get there. There were five Amazon groups through SAS, I was on group D. My group left in the late morning, and all the other groups left early that morning. We loaded up on the bus and we were ready to go while all seemed to be running smoothly. I had only a backpack full of stuff for the next three nights. I brought only, a couple shirts, some shorts, a pair of jeans and my camera. Once we got to the Salvador airport, much to our surprise, our flight had been cancelled, and it seemed that 20 SAS were out of luck. We finally found a ticket agent who spoke English who was able to redirect us to a flight to Brasilia, and then finally to Manaus. Besides the flight cancellation, I have only good things to say. It had nice big seats with some sort of hot pocket type snack, and complimentary beer! I sat next to a kid named Danny, and I'm glad I did. Danny and I had one of the most refreshing conversations I had had in a long time. Danny says he will be famous one day and I can tell you that he at least has his head in the right place. On the other side of me was a girl that I would sit next to for all four of my flights to and from. This girl had a fear of flying, which I had a good time with, and her name was Kaitlin Segal. You know, as in Fred Segal, that would be Grampa. I'm not kidding.

Upon arriving in Brasilia, we had very little time until our next flight to Manaus. Upon arrival in Manaus, we loaded up on a bus to our riverboat. Upon arrival, it was actually very late at night, around 1AM. As we boarded the boat, there was a young guy and girl decked out in traditional Brazilian dress that would put a necklace and a safari hat on us as we boarded. Mine was way too small, but it was a pretty sweet hat nonetheless. The boat was pretty small, probably about 50 feet long and with two stories, but it was completely open to the outside. The crew looked as if they had been waiting for us for quite a while. They went over the ground rules; no booze, no running off alone, etc; and we had a snack and took off into the night. We were currently sailing along the Rio Negro until we got to the spot to stop for the night. Up on the second deck, hammocks were waiting for everyone, and we were off to sleep. That night, it was very difficult to sleep for a few reasons; we had been napping on and off on airplanes all day, we were very excited about our new surroundings, and we were sleeping in hammocks in the middle of the Amazon. Once I finally figured out how to sleep in my hammock, I finally dozed off. Not long after that, the sun was coming up and I was coming in and out of my slumber. Somewhere within this timeframe, the boats engines started up, and I could feel we were moving again. Our hammocks were now swinging steadily back and forth with the rocking of the boat and the sky was a reddish tint as the sun peaked over the water. I can say I was able to experience the sunrise, and then nod off back to sleep for an hour or two. Once I finally got up, that morning, I went down to find a breakfast that they had prepared rather impressively. Scrambled eggs in the Amazon? That's whats up! After breakfast we met up with group C and E from Semester at Sea. They pulled right along next to us and we all loaded up on smaller boats to head to a hiking spot. The hike was pretty cool, but I gotta say, I was surprised that it looked like it could have been somewhere in the everglades.

On the hike though, my opinion changed when we stopped every two seconds to learn about a new deadly plant, killer ants, or razor blade leaves. We saw even more stuff like spiky trees, all kinds of spiders, and mosquitoes galore. I climbed a vine up at least 30 feet up, and the guide thought it would be funny to dub me tribe chief by making a crown and leaf dress from a palm tree and dressing me up. I was lookin fly! Once, we were done, we were happy to get out of the unbelievably humid jungle and return to the boats. Upon our return, we were delighted to learn that we could go swimming. Both boats changed into our suits and took the small boats to a "safe" area to swim. This area happen to be only about 100 feet from the river boats, but for some reason, they insisted that we take the smaller motor boats. Here, it was shallow enough to stand in most places and there were trees jutting out of the water which we climbed and took a few dives out of. The swim was very refreshing, and the guides even broke out volleyballs for us to bat around. After the swim, groups C, D, and E remained together and we went to a nearby village on the river. At the village, we had a chance to buy some arts and crafts in the little huts, learn about the local people and the schools, and see the people at work. After a tour, I joined in a game of volleyball with the local teenagers, and the kids of the village. After that, we organized a huge soccer game on a full scale field. It reminded me of my high school days of soccer and how I hadn't touched a soccer ball since. Never did I think the next time I would be playing would be with Brazilians in the middle of the Amazon.

The afternoon was coming to an end and we took another swim to cool off and then loaded back up into the motorboats. We had arrived by riverboats, but they had left for some reason and we were traveling in the motor boats to meet back up with them. The sunset that evening was just as beautiful as it's rise. This time we were divided up into groups of about 15 people each, and we speeding through the water into the sun as it faded out. Once we arrived at where our ships were parked, we saw that they were anchored by a beach with chairs and lights set up with a sign that said "Welcome Semester at Sea". We could hear music as we approached, and they shot off fireworks that we could see from the water. That night, we enjoyed a BBQ with chicken, catfish, (that the other groups had caught) and all kinds of different Brazilian dishes. After dinner, group D went out in the motor boats alone with our guide Enny to hunt for some caiman (little alligator). He would shine the flashlight around near the trees and look for red eyes. We were very hopeful to find some, because the previous groups guide caught a 3-footer with his bare hands. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything but a pair of red eyes that quickly disappeared underwater, but I got a priceless response when we put on an act of freaking out as I splashed my hand in the water next to the boat. Half the boat slapped me high fives, and the other half didn't speak to me for the remainder of the evening. When we got back to the boat, the crew was cleaning up and everyone was exhausted, it wasn't long before everyone was in the hammocks fast asleep.

That night, I had a little trouble sleeping but would like to think I was adjusting nicely to my new sleeping arrangements. I tried to wake up early for the sunrise, but it was just cloudy and gloomy, so I made no effort to keep conscious. Later, when I finally did wake up, I had my scrambled eggs once more, and we were told the nature hike was cancelled due to the expected rain. Instead, we stayed on the boat and enjoyed the morning playing a few hands of cards and relaxing. Throughout the trip, there was a snack table that always had mangos. I think I ate about 5 a day, they were absolutely delicious. Soon after, we traveled to another village where we learned about some more deadly plants and village life. This time, we even did some cooking of our own on their fire stove. Everyone had the opportunity to make a Brazilian wheat dish on the stove, and some chose to take advantage and some didn't. There was also a small hut where the locals had taken advantage of being a spot for tourists and there were souvenirs sold. It was here that I bought my blow gun, which the airport security guards would later confiscate my darts. I had the chance to climb another tree and we stood around for a while before it was time to bounce. On the way back to the riverboat, we took a stop in the brush where we passed out fishing poles and tried our luck with some piranhas fishing. We fished for about 45 minutes in two different spots until finally; our trip leader caught himself a massive piranha! It was huge, about 10 inches to a foot, and our trip leader was an English man named George from Canada in his 70's.