Carnival

We continued to bum the beach, visiting Porto de Gahinhas where we swam out to the reef and over a field of SEA URCHINS, to snorkel in jade coloured tide pools teaming with fish (Talia was brave to go but vowed ´never again´). Next it was off to Praia de Frances for a literal crash course in surfing. With only a couple hours, no instruction, incorect boards for learning and a lack of athletisism, most of the waves we caught were on our bellies. We did manage to come close to standing a few times and the thrill left us wanting more while the bruises left us in pain, so we headed down the coast to Salvador and Carnival!
We arrived the day before the giant festival began and the found an apartment close to the action. The city was ready for action with capoeira demonstrations, decorations, percussion parades and an air of excitment everywhere you looked. The first night of Carnival was magical. We found ourselves invited on top of a bloco, an 18 wheeler truck dressed up as a moving stage that rolled through the streets of Salvador with hords of people dancing infront, behind, beside and hanging out of their apartments cheering us along. In a crowd of millions, we were among the fortunate few to experience Carnival as a part of the show, complete with band T-shirts. We partied and rocked with our Reggae band for hours. We provided the dancing and waiving to the onlookers fo the parade root, while the band provided the beer etc. and the warning when to duck as we passed under telephone wires and street lamps. The parade root round trip that would take an hour to walk on a normal day, took us 5hrs on the bloco and as the sun came up we dismounted the truck a few blocks from our apartment. AWESOME!!!
For night 2 of Carnival, we were "popcorn" in the masses. We entered the parade and found ourselves in a feverish intense pandamonium. It took only minutes for the police to pick us out of the crowd and drag us out. They explained to us that we were in the wrong part of town for a foreigner and guided us to a taxi bound for Barra, where tourist were more welcome. In Barra which looked more like the pictures we had seen than the menacing and dangerous Capo Grande, we walked against the grain of the parade, seeing all the blocos with their different musics and costumes. The energy was palatable, and before long we were bouncing through the parade to samba beats, singing and waiving our hands. Againg we returned home a sunrise with filthy feet and another unforgetable experience under our belts. The days inbetween the long nights were just as exciting as the streets were filled with small samba groups parading through the smaller streets. Everywhere you looked was music and costumes and fun. Mostly Brazilians young and old and a few tourists gathered in the streets to sing and dance. Everytime you felt exhausted, the energy of the festival picked you back up to dance some more. Viva Brazil!

Flipping for Brazil

From Manaus we made a quick stop in Belem, at the mouthof the Amazon, and Sao Luis, known for it´s tile facades on many of the historical buildings. Feeling a little beach deprived we booked it to the coast for some beautiful Brazillian beaches. Weheaded straight to Praia de Pipa, a posh little beach town with beachy bays filled with gold sparkly sand, all kinds of blue surf, andbacked by huge cliffs, sand dunes and Atlantic rainforest. We took our first dip in the Atlantic ocean and soaked up the hot Brazillian sun for days. We climbed over rocks to explore every beach around, as well as an ecological park on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. As we strolled through the park we came to a beautiful lookout point. We were thrilled to see tons of sea turtles in the rocky ocean below taking a quick breather. We could see them perfectly from the enormous cliff through the clear waters as they surfaced and paddled their white flippers and bums back down. We continued on and were amazed to see marmosets jumping through the trees above. We had spent 3 days in the jungle hoping to see these adorable creatures not seeing a single one and now just off the beach the trees were full of them. Only as big as your foot with a long striped tail these curious monkeys kept our attention jumping quickly through the branches all around us. Nick even gave a couple of them a drink of water from the cap of his water bottle. It was so cute to see their entire faces plunged into the bottle cap.

One trip to the beach proved to be especially rewarding when as we had just chosen the perfect place to jump into the ocean a pod of dolphins appeared before us. We dove right in with them and watched as they jumped, flipped and spun on their backs in front of us. We swam within a few feet of these beauties and were able to see them up close and watch their faces as they caught fish. Exhausted fomr trying to follow the dolphins we swam back to shore and watched from there. It was an exciting beginning to our coastal tour of Brazil!

Jungle Boogie

Our long, long journey from the coast of Venezuela down to Brazil brought us through one of the world´s great landscapes. We lucked out and caught a ride with a tour guide through the Grand Sabana, home to the unique Tepuis, huge flat-topped mountains with endemic flora and which sometimes giveway to giant waterfalls, such as Angel Falls the world´s highest. Our driver was nice enough to stop along the way for us to see some of these beautiful falls that seemed to drop from out of nowhere.

Our crossing into Brazil proved to be infinitely harder as our Portuguese amounts to virtually nada. We found ourselves stranded at the border with no promise of a bus to come. We thanked the Brazillian Gods for sending saints in the form of young socialists. The University students returning from a forum on social justice swooped us up and carried us safely the 18 hours to Manaus and in the name of socialism they would not accept a cent. Some of our new socailist friends took it upon themselves to become our personal tour guides. They took us out for an Amazonian style breakfast of tapioca pancakes and throughout the day had us try a variety of local fruit juices (some good, some... interesting). Right away the Brazillian spirit was apparent and we felt more welcome in Manaus then most other places. We enjoyed Manaus and took in 2 free concerts at the Parisian style opera house where the decour was matched by the magnificent sound.

We took off from the modern world and escaped into the Amazon jungle. By boat we explored the channles of the Amazon river where we were met by our guide who took us deeper into the ungle to set up camp for the night. This was not car camping! Armed with only machetes we cut trees into a small structure, a table, candle holders, and a fire and spit. We slept in hammocks under the stars surrounded by the wild of the Amazon. We awoke the next morning, on Nick´s B-day in the jungle, to the loud, eerie sounds of Uacari monkeys sadly just out of sight. Our expectations for more monkey madness were dissapointingly not met as we had only 1 very brief encounter with brown capuchins :(. We did have an amazing day though. We explored the jungle as our guide explained the various uses of the vegetation. We made rubber from the milk of a rubber tree, ate bark which prevents malaria, enjoyed fresh Brazil nuts from the tree, met the vicks plant (as in Vick´s vapour rub), and learned about plants and trees that cure bronchitis, diabetes, arthritis, "traveller´s stomach" (Talia had first hand experience that this actually works), and much more.

After lunch we set out by boat for some Pirahna fishing for dinner. Luck was with us as both grey and pink dolphins played in the water in front of our boat as we fished. After a hard day of fishing, well just over an hour, we through caution to the wind and took a dip in the rejuvinating waters of the Amazon river while dolphins surfaced around us. Nightime brought with it discovery channel style alligator catching. We crept up in boats shining flashlights in the tall grass in search of the reflection of little eys staring back at us. Our local guide plunged his hand into the water bringing up little alligators (so cute). We also visited some families living along the river to learn about how they survive making use of their surrounding environment. Our time in the jungle was short and despite our love for the Amazon we had to head back to the city.

Tchau for now.

(Pictures to come - more computer problems)