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)