I have so much to tell you! I’m in Manaus now (capital of Amazonas), a little hung over, but feeling great.<\/p>\n
Heading into the Amazon has been *wonderful*. Maybe it’s some kind of learned association, but the moment you set leg in a hammock, with the wind whisping across the deck and the slow rocking of the boat, you enter this incredible calm revere. I had plenty to read, work, and think on, which kept me busy when I wasn’t watching the forest. I just finished the interesting stuff as the boat began it’s final approach into Manaus International Harbor.<\/p>\n
The land along the Amazon river is gorgeous, and much more varied than I’d been told. Everywhere, the forest is a collage of a gazillion kinds of trees, but it varies from a dense green that overflows the banks, to awkward Dr. Seuss trees, to Lake Mendocino-like brushland, to treey farms. One day, the boat was passing floating water plants; the next it was inundated with endless yellow butterflies; the next night, huge swarms of moths clouded around every light.<\/p>\n
The food on the boat looks great, but its as bad as everyone says. I have a fairly iron-clad stomach, and I felt sick after every meal. In part, it’s because I am sick. I can’t tell if it’s the Malaria pills, or if the pills just gave my body a way to express a disease it already had. In any case, it’s the sort of under-the-weatherness that I can ignore.<\/p>\n
Mid-way to Manaus, I stopped in Santar\u00e9m and bussed to Alter do Ch\u00e3o, a small chicken-roamed village on a fantastically beautiful lagoon, with a large white-sand island 100 meters off shore. I met two pairs of Europeans, and we found a nice Pousada (small hotel) and hung out.<\/p>\n
I took a kayak out on the lagoon and there was not another soul there. It would be inconceivable elsewhere for such a beautiful lake to not be covered in boats, but I’m in the middle of the freaking Amazon. I found my very own flooded forest– it even had a sign that said “Property of
In Manaus, my couchsurf fell through. It was my fault– I forgot how to make long-distance calls in Brazil. But I ended up at a great anglophile hostel, with some cool Europeans. One girl had a birthday, and we went to one of the best restaurants in the city, where endless waiters with long sticks of meat (FYI, I haven’t returned to veggieness yet– it’s tough to do here) filled out plates as long as we wanted. We came back and got trashed on cacha\u00e7a and beer and a little 3-man (not my idea), and talked third-world politics and sex.<\/p>\n
Now I need to see some of this city before I have to catch my flight to S\u00e3o Paulo, tomorrow morning!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have so much to tell you! I’m in Manaus now (capital of Amazonas), a little hung over, but feeling great. Heading into the Amazon has been *wonderful*. Maybe it’s some kind of learned association, but the moment you set leg in a hammock, with the wind whisping across the deck and the slow rocking … Continue reading Jungle Trip<\/span>