La Gran Sabana

Waterfall in La Gran Sabana

Today I set out with four Japanese guys on the first real outdoor activity of my holiday, 6 days climbing Mt Roraima, the largest of Venezuela’s tepuis, or tabletop mountains.

We started the trip with a day long visit to La Gran Sabana, the area that Roraima and several other tepuis are in. After a couple of hours in a four wheel drive with our guide Richardo, we arrived at a clearing where we could walk down into a valley where we ventured through some jungle to a beautiful waterfall where we swam in the cold waters and enjoyed an amazing view.

After the waterfall we discarded our clothes and, wearing only swimmers and socks, walked through a hip high river to a smaller waterfall, about 6 metres high. We then climbed the waterfall, the socks helping with our grip as we walked over the slippery surface of the waterfall. Being my first experience actually in a waterfall, I was totally overwhelmed. Seeing the huge waterfalls at Iguazu was one thing, but walking through one, even a little one like this was a great feeling.

Walking through these creeks reminded me a lot of growing up in Wahroonga, playing in the bush near our house, where there was a waterfall that I always loved. Craig and I would ride our bikes down and run around in the bush, chase lizards, collect tadpoles and do the stuff that kids are supposed to do. Of course, the Sydney to Newcastle freeway runs through that particular piece of bushland nowadays, so I imagine things are a little different for kids there now.

After a lot more driving and a couple more stops, we came to the highlight of the day. Walking up the first waterfall was cool, but we now came to a waterfall that was like a little Niagara Falls, about 30 metres wide and 5 or 6 high. We once again got into our swimmers and socks and this time walked behind the sheet of water forming the waterfall… and there was a lot of water. Holding hands to make sure none of us were washed off with the river, we walked around the right side of the waterfall, the water pounding down on us as we moved behind it. There were childlike smiles all around as we got a third of the way across. That’s when Richardo told us we had to get down and crawl through a little passage in half a foot of water to continue. I think my smile got a little bigger when I heard that and I did a military style crawl (just for you Kenny), water splashing into my face and my legs slipping in the dark on the slick rocks. We finally made it to the left side of the waterfall, but not before linking arms again to walk though the main section, where I went blind from all the water crashing down on me. Once we came out of the waterfall, we floated with the current for a little while then made out way back through the waterfall and too the truck.

An hour later we were at the first camp site in the little Indian village of Paraitepui. Approaching the town there were little mud and straw houses and fires burning in the fields to clear them for new crops. As night fell it revealed one of the most beautiful places I have been, the Milky Way stretched out above us and fireflies danced in the fiends around us giving the village a magical feel.

We made camp, ate some dinner and got ready for the following days with an early night.

These early nights really are becoming an unexpected habit.

Not Indecisive... Dynamic

Well, plans really are meant to be changed. After swearing off the outdoors for a while I’ve decided to do the Mt Roriama hike after all. There were some Japanese guys on my bus to Venezuela that I’d met in Belèm and the mountain really does look amazing, so we’re going to do a 6 day hike on Wednesday.

So far Venezuela is great and I’m thoroughly enjoying speaking Spanish again.

Life in the Jungle - Day 5

Last Amazon Sunset
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

I woke a bit before sunrise to the most amazing sounds I have ever heard, howler monkeys greeting the morning... I have absolutely no idea how to describe it, but luckily Richard, a Swedish guy we camped with, made a recording of it.

We headed back to the lodge about 11am and on the way, Rubins noticed a sloth in the trees. We stopped the canoe and went back for another look when one of the guys in the boat started yelling “Anaconda, anaconda!” There was a 2 metre anaconda making it’s way towards the sloth! Rubin and Charles, proving their mettle as true Jungle Boys, caught the anaconda to take back to the lodge, then nabbed the sloth for more show and tell.

When we got back to the lodge the guides played a great practical joke on the one armed manager of the lodge who they asked to open the bag that the anaconda was in without him knowing what was in it. He was understandablely surprised to see the snake in there.

I have had an incredible time in the jungle, but after 5 days here and 6 on the boat before, I’m ready to leave and head back to “civilisation”. This afternoon I’m going to book my bus ticket to Venezuela, hopefully leaving tomorrow. Enough people have warned me off Caracas that I’m going to skip it this time.

After the last couple of weeks, I’m going to skip the 6 day hike to Mount Roriama. I also decided a few weeks ago to take a little holiday from my holiday in Merida and work on a little computer game while I’m taking Spanish lessons. It should only take a couple of weeks, famous last words, and give me something to do between class and hiking.

Camping in the Jungle

Jungle Camp - The After Shot
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

We woke at sunrise and after breakfast went for a canoe ride in the jungle near Jose’s house. The canoe was pretty leaky, so I spent most of the time emptying water out of the canoe with half a 7UP bottle.

After the canoe trip we went for a walk in the jungle around the house where we plucked some bizarre fruit that looked like an overgrown string bean off a tree and ate it... delicious!

Around 4pm we headed from the lodge back into the jungle to spend the night camping. We arrived at the campsite in the rain and had to fix up the skeleton of a shelter by adding some tarps, cutting down some palm branches to make up more of the roof and collecting firewood. Charles then cooked up some dinner for us and I stupidly walked into a creek. My shoes, socks and jeans were soaked, so I spent an hour or so toasting them on the fire to dry them out. At night, the sounds of the Amazon were phenomenal, with birds, bugs and monkeys chatting all night - we avoided the rain, making it a perfect night.

Three Days into the Jungle

We woke early to see the sunrise, heading out to an open area where we had a great view of the jungle. It was overcast, so we couldn’t see the sunrise, but there were lots of grey and pink river dolphins feeding around us. The pink river dolphins are a vibrant pink and grow up to 3 metres long. Seeing them however, I could think of nothing but musk lifesavers, my first yearning for something from home.

Afterwards we went to an Indian village which is very modernised, having electricity, provided free by a huge hotel upstream, and a road to Manaus. The people sustain themselves by fishing, hunting and processing manioc, a Brasilian potato, into forofa, a flour that is put on nearly all foods over here.

Some of the guys were a bit disappointed that the village wasn’t more “authentic”, but I don’t think there would be many people living traditional ways here anymore, and they generally don’t allow visitors since they don’t have resistance to our colds and flus. There is a school in the village that teaches kids up to year 3, but after that they go to Manaus for schooling. The city provides accommodation for the kids, since traveling 2 or 3 hours each way would be too much for them - unfortunately many kids just stop school in year 3. It will be interesting to see the effects of the $100 Laptop Project in areas like this.

It started to rain on the way back to the lodge, so I got to break out the “Emergency Ponco” that had been on my desk at work for the last few years. It turned out to just be a yellow plastic bag with some holes for my arms and head, but it kept me dry.

At night we stayed with a local man, Jose, in his house. It was a very simple house and we had our earliest night yet, going to sleep a little after 8pm.

Amazon Adventures - Day 2

Michael y Sloth
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

After a great sleep, we started out for a trek through the jungle during which we saw monekys, lost half of the group, checked out some native cures for the flu and malaria, swung from vines like tarzan and sweated a whole lot.

In the afternoon we paddled out for some sloth hunting. On our way we passed through absolutely breaktaking parts of the forest. Like most of the jungle, the water level had risen so the lower parts of the trees were submerged and the water was perfectly still so there was an awesome reflection of the trees in the water. The sky was a little overcast, so it was fairly dark under the trees, adding to the tranquil feel. After a bit of searching we found a sloth and our guide in training, Charles, climbed up the tree to bring it down. He was having a bit of trouble reaching the sloth, so he shook the tree until it feel into the water. We then moved the canoe so we could reach it and had a cool look and lesson about sloths.

Into the Jungle - Day 1

Phil y Crocodillo
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

Our jungle adventure started early on a Tuesday morning with a visit to the Meeting of the Waters on the boat that would later take us to the Anaconda Lodge, a few hours west of Manaus. The sky was overcast, so the waters weren’t as spectacular as the first time we saw them, and we spent the rest of the journey resting on deck.

Once we got off the main branch of the Rio Negro, Michael commented that the boat trip was already worth doing, and he was right. Cruising up the narrow tributaries, hearing animal calls all around, you feel like you’re in another time, completely removed from civilisation.

Afte a quick lunch, 9 of us headed off in a motorised canoe for some piranha fishing. We’re here in the wet season, and when they say wet, they mean it. The waters have risen 15 metres, so the paths that we take through the jungle are actually above the trees. The waters have risen as high as they will this year and it’s hard to imagine how much rain is necessary to raise the water level of the entire river by that much. We stopped at a couple of spots to fish for white and black piranhas, the “nice ones” that only attack if there is blood in the water and will only grow to half a metre. Our guide, Rubins, who constantly calls us Jungle Boy or Jungle Girl, and Maartje, a Dutch girl from the Belem boat, caught one each, but I was perfectly happy to sit in a canoe in the depths of the Amazon enjoying the scenery. Rubins wasn’t sure how much of the trip he would be our guide for on account of just getting out of hospital after being bitten by a snake on the 6th day of a 9 day hike with some German tourists. He, insanely, finished the hike before heading back to Manaus for treatment. Yep, the guides out here are kind of crazy.

After dinner we headed out under a clear sky to go caiman and alligator spotting. The view of the stars was incredible, with the entire milky way spread out above us. The calls of various animals accompanied us as we went into the trees in a leaky, paddle powered canoe, brushing tree branches aside as we went deeper into the trees, Rubins holding a torch between his teeth looking for the red reflection of alligator eyes, making occasional calls to them and checking the canoe to make sure we hadn’t taken on too much water... which we had. We stopped near shore for a while and he and Bjorn bailed water out of the canoe for about 10 minutes before we were ready again. Rubins instantly walked up to the front of the canoe and snapped his hand down, pulling up a baby spotted crocodile. After passing it around for photo ops we headed back for the first of many early nights.

Manaus

The trip to Manaus was long, but definitely worth it. It’s beautiful here despite the fact that the city has declined and decayed since it’s hayday in the rubber boom of the 1800’s. The city positioned itself as the Paris of the Amazon, and it certainly succeeded. The buildings here are incredible, with an amazing opera house, where we’re seeing a free performance of Brasilian music tonight, and the glass and iron-wrought markets on the dock were designed by the same guy that designed the Eiffel Tower.

A lot of the people here are of native indian descent and everyone has been really friendly, with none of the dodginess I found in other Brasilian cities. On Saturday night, looking for something to do, we chanced upon the last thing I would have expected to find in the middle of the Amazon, a gay and travestite club. We had a great time and relished the break from local music, forro. Being tired, as usually, I called it a night at 3am.

The main reason people come to Manaus though is to organise trips to the jungle. The group has been slowly thinning out as people head off on their own trips, and today I booked one with the Swiss guys and a couple of Dutch girls. We’re going for 5 days, spending 2 nights in a lodge, 1 in a native house and 1 sleeping in the jungle itself. We’ll be doing the standard jungle trip things during the days, piranha fishing, canoeing up little channels, looking for animals and taking obscene amounts of photos.

It slipped my mind that my Brasilian visa runs out soon, so I’ll have to leave for Venezuela as soon as we get back. It’s a little more rushed than I was hoping, but I think it’s time for me to leave Brasil, so not a bad thing.

Some of the gang in the Teatro de Amazonas

Day 6

Rather than arriving in Manaus at 6am we learnt, through unsubstantiated rumour of course, that we’re arriving at 10am... no 4pm... 5pm. Given that noone is really sure what day it is anymore, it’s not surprising that we’re not sure when we arrive. I just hope it’s today.

Some hours later...

We finally arrived in Manaus at 4pm, passing through the Meeting of the Waters, which is where the black waters of the Rio Negro and the brown Rio Solimoes meet but don’t mix. The result is spectacular, and there were even a couple of pink river dolphins playing.

The bulk of us decided to try and stay in the same hotel so we made our way, single file and lugging backpacks through the streets of Manaus, which must have looked very funny... just like little gringo ants. We managed to find a hotel for the 17 of us for R$12 per night each.

Belém to Manaus - Day 5

Sunset on the Amazon

Today we were supposed to arrive in Manaus, but apparently we’re getting in tomorrow instead. It rained most of the day, dampening people’s spirits, so the main topic of conversation was how people are sick of the boat, the boat’s rules and the boat’s music.

The ship is run like we’re in the navy or something. We get called to meals by the sound of a whistle, only 12 people at a time mind you, and while the food is better than the other ship, because everyone is waiting for you to finish... actually all 12 of you to finish, before they get called to sit down, you have to wolf the food down and I’m sure I haven’t been chewing the correct number of times before swallowing. One guy was even told to take his hat off when he sat down to eat and I’m a little surprised I haven’t been reprimanded when I only use a fork to eat.

After dinner, I was chatting to an American girl, Camellia, when a cute 4 year old Brasilian girl came up and started playing with us. Apparently we were pretty good at it because she was still there 4 hours later, fueled by lollies and Fanta that her mum was feeding her. The night finished up, as usual, with card games.

I had a rough night’s sleep with a new person next to me, or more correctly below me, who took up heaps of room so I was literally squashed and, because I was squashing other people they were shoving me all night. Being the patient and understanding person that I am, I let it slide... for a while, then started pushing back and, I’ll admit, maliciously trying to squash the woman underneath me... even though at the time I thought it was an old woman. That’s right, you heard me, I tried to squash an old woman... and then I yelled at her in Portuguese. .. ... well it was like 4am! In the morning I realised she was about 30 anyway, so I think it’s all good.

Day 4

Our new ship, the Com Te Paiva III

We arrived in Santarém around 9am and changed to our new ship, which is much bigger and nicer, having 2 decks for hammocks and the top deck as a bar, blaring out the latest and greatest Brasilian pop hits. We had a few hours at dock and I spent them walking around the town with some English girls before a stressful pizza lunch being bugged by bees.

There are much more people on this leg of the trip and I’m nicely squeezed between two Brasilians with my feet in a Frenchman’s face. Despite the intimate sleeping arrangements, the boat trip has been really fun and is flying by. I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of everyone in our group when I started, but everyone is really cool and we all get along great.

Day 3

The 3rd day on the boat was far calmer and we spent a slow day traveling up river. The landscape changed a lot, with hills and marsh land replacing the lush jungle. The jungle was, of course, still amazing.

Standing on the bow of the ship I was treated to an amazing sunset today as we cruised west through a huge channel. It was quite overcast, with rain breaking in the distance to the right and a storm brewing to the left, with lightning occasionally striking. Between the two, where the sun was setting was a bit clearer, and the sky had a nice orange tone and the sky arcing above us with beautiful cloud formations. All I could see was the sky and the river, and it was one of the calmest moments I’ve ever experienced – a perfect Amazon memory.

At night we pulled into a big town for a few hours, our longest stop so far, and kicked a soccer ball around, much to the amusement of the on looking locals.

After a few whiskeys and some beers, one of the guys decided he needed a hair cut, so we headed back to the boat where the closest we could come to a pair of scissors was a machette. After sharpening it up, a couple of the guys got to work... probably not a great idea considering how drunk everyone was, but amuzing nonetheless.

Before leaving there was a bit of drama when an old lady lost her ID documents, which is a big deal in Brasil as you have to carry them at all times. She thought they’d been stolen, so the police came onboard and started searching people’s bags, but it turned out they’d just slipped between some boards. Then, much to everyone’s surprise, we found we had to switch boats the following day.

Belém to Manaus - Day 2

After a 5-star breakfast of 4 crackers, I spent the day playing cards, chatting and feeling tired.

The river and jungle are absolutely amazing. In some places the river is no more than 10 metres wide and in others it’s hard to see the other shore. Small wooden houses dot the river bank some, oddly enough, with satellite dishes. Alex knows a lot about people and their life on the river and was saying that the people here just sustain themselves growing açai and some other fruits and vegetables, and by fishing in the river. It is such a different way of life that I don't feel I can relate to it.

As the boat passes these houses, kids from them wait in their canoes for packages of biscuits or clothes that passengers throw to them. Life is so different here than for me it's hard to know whether or not to feel sad for these kids. Even if no one throws anything out to them, the kids'’ faces light up as they ride the waves caused by the boat in their canoes. Seeing them, I'’m not convinced that our way of life is any more enlightened that theirs, or that everyone needs our way of life.

As night came to HMAS Gringo, so did the alcohol, and as happens with drunken boys, things started to get out of hand. One of the guys had the great idea to start a "“fight club", which resulted in two of the loudest in our group drunk and shirtless punching one another in the common area of the boat. About half the gringos were out there as well as older Brasilian guys who were somewhere between amused and really Hassling some of the Israeli guys, who've all done 3 years military service in a war zone, to get involved was dumb enough, but then asking some of the Brasilians to join was plain stupid. It ended peacefully enough, though an American and a Brasilian ended up on the floor. I have the feeling it pushed some of the Brasilian guys who have little kids on board too far. Hopefully the guys from our group will wise up before something bad happens.

To escape the insanity I chatted with Alex some more. incrediblynreligiousy religous and is tired of "civilisation" to the point where he has decided to leave it behind to spend the rest of his life with a Christian community deep in the jungle. The religion here Catholicism Catholocism, African and tribal religions and at monthly cleansing rituals they drink halucenagenic tea while praying for 15 hours to be closer to God. We talked for a while about life, religion and the jungle and he invited me to drink the tea with him, but it'’s not really my cup of tea... boom tsk!

Phil's Amazon Adventure - Belém to Manaus - Day 1

The day started early, running around town to buy a hammock, reserve space for the hammock on the boat and stocking up on some provisions (water, tang and biscuits). The old 2-deck river boat takes 200 people, and there are about 120 on this voyage. The top deck has a small common area with a few seats and tables out the back, the cabin up front and a whole lots of hammocks in between. There are hammocks of all colours and sizes, some big enough for couples or parents with their children. There are hammocks high and low and some people are sleeping above one another as well as right next to people... like me for instance.

There are about 25 of us from the hotel in Belém, so we make up a big chunk on the passengers. A German guy called Alex, whose hammock is under me on the boat, commented that the captain said he’d never seen some many gringos on the boat before. Having a huge group is good and bad. There are always people around to watch the bags and chat to, but there are lots of excuses not to speak Spanish or Portuguese, I managed to have a good chat with a guy from Venezuela though.

Sleeping in the hammock, a life long dream, was anything but dreamy. I didn’t get much sleep and my back was killing me when I woke up, but my first glimpse of the river when I woke up made up for it.

Belém

The last couple of days in Belém have been fun, meeting people and getting a group together before heading up to Manaus. Nearly everyone in the hotel is taking tomorrow's boat, so there will be 15 or so of us enjoying the hammock lifestyle. In addition to cramming hammocks onto the deck, it turns out they stack them 3 high, so it's going to be very cosy. The trip takes 6 days, so we're all going to know one another very well by the end of it. Tomorrow we have to get to the boat at 7am to hang up our hammocks then we go back in the afternoon to depart. I'm guessing there wont be internet access on the boat (they need Tenzing!) so hopefully I wont have a nervous breakdown. Though after the last couple of days a break might be good. Internet is really cheap here, so I've been spending a couple of hours a day on it.

Today I went to the Botanical Gardens with a couple of people from the hotel including a horticulturalist, which turned the visit into a very interesting and educational one... lots of fun. The gardens have a lot of plants and animals from the Amazon region, including crocodiles, amazing parrots, monkeys and a few jaguars. There are a few animals roaming free in the gardens as well and we even saw a sloth climbing in the trees which was really cool. Hopefully we'll get to see some animals other than mosquitoes and ants on our voyage.

Catch you in a week!

Back in Salvador and into the Amazon

After leaving Itacaré, I traveled back to Salvador by bus for a couple of nights before heading up to Belém at the mouth of the Amazon.

I have to say, my stay in Salvador this time was far less pleasant than last. It started fairly simple, leaving the bus station I asked a cab driver how much it was to Pelougrinho, which he said was R$15. When we got in the cab he turned on the meter, which I found a bit weird, but figured he’d meant it was around R$15, so I was fine. When we got to Pelougrinho the fair was $R13 at which point he said, “Ok, that’s R$15.” So he had basically put on the meter hoping it would be more than R$15, and charge me whichever was higher - I ended up paying R$14. Not a big deal, but annoying nonetheless.

As soon as I got out of the cab, a young guy came up and, after assuring me he was legit because he was with a capoeira school, started asking if I had accommodation… which I didn’t, but that’s beside the point. I asked him repeatedly to go away and that I was fine, but I was too tired and too hungry to really care. Obviously we ended up at a hotel where he hit me up for a tip then bugged me for more, which I ignored. Again, not a big deal, but annoying.

It was getting pretty late and I was tired so I headed out to get some food. Immediately a guy came up and tied a wish ribbon from Carnaval around my wrist and then proceeded to tell me about his hungry children and asking me to buy some milk for them. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this situation but agreed. He said the store was just on the other side of the plaza, so we started walking across it - yeah, I know, stupid. At that point an older woman who we were walking past tapped me on the arm and gave me the Brasilian no-no sign (shaking her finger) and I knew something dodgy was going on with the guy. I apologized for not being able to help and started walking back to the hotel, still hungry, with the guy asking what was going on, hassling me to buy the milk and yelling at the woman for interfering. As we got closer to the hotel, the guy got more agitated and starting to ask for money for food, at which point the woman said, “You better just buy him some food.” We went into a kilograma, which is a buffet where they weight the food, and I gave the guy R$5 for the “milk” and started to walk out. As I turned around the waiters in the kilograma went up to the guy, started saying something to him and pushed him out the door. He followed me for a little while longer, yelling that he needed more money then walked off.

By this time I was a little shaken and just wanted something to eat so I thanked the woman who had helped me out and started back into the hotel, where they was a restaurant. At that point she said, “Let’s jut sit here and talk.” We sat on a ledge in front of the hotel and straight away she started hassling me to go to a bar and buy her a drink… I’d stumbled from one scam into another. Fortunately this was the expensive kind more than the violent kind, so I said thanks but goodnight and went back into the hostel. She followed me in, but thankfully the girl at reception asked her to leave when I was clear she wasn’t with me.

Exhausted, I ended up in the hotel restaurant and had a great meal and got some sleep… phew.

It was the non-stop nature of the hassling rather than the actual events that bugged me the most. You can see how bad the situations of people here are, but, well… just leave me alone. In a way it was good, as I usually avoid bad situations by being polite, but here you really can’t do that, you have to be blunt, something I better understand now.

The next day I got out, wandered around and had a great time. I didn’t want to take my camera out with me, so I took my sketch pad instead. It’s been many years since I did anything, but I’ve had a few chances so far this trip which has been great. Here’s one of a decaying building in Pelougrinho. The others are, of course, on my Flickr page

The next day I got out, wandered around and had a great time. I didn’t want to take my camera out with me, so I took my sketch pad instead. It’s been many years since I did anything, but I’ve had a few chances so far this trip which has been great. Here’s one of a decaying building in Pelougrinho. The others are, of course, on my Flickr page.


Pelougrinho, Salvador

Today I flew up to Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon River. One second we were in the clouds, nothing but white out the window and the next, the brown waters of the Amazon lay out beneath us. I had to do a double take to realize I was actually in the Amazon. This is somewhere I’ve wanted to go since I was little and constantly read about piranhas (and tigers) in a book about predators from Hornsby library. To actually be here is… really cool.

Belém seems pretty cool so far. I did a tour of the opera house this afternoon then walked around the dock area and caught some traditional dances before heading back to the R$8 per night hotel, which has both character and characters. I’m not sure what the name of the dance was, but it was absolutely beautiful. Many of the dances displayed men and women courting and were much gentler and more graceful than other dances I’ve seen in South America so far... I’m far too cool to have teared up. Little kids were also dancing around, which is always cool.

Tomorrow I have to sort out when and how I get to Manaus. I have to decide whether I can spend 6 days in a hammock on deck crammed in with 300 other people, or if I choose the luxurious option and spend 6 days in a hammock in an air conditioned room with 3 other people. Either way I have to buy a hammock and snacks which will be fun. I also need long pants to keep to mosquitoes away.

Hasta luego!

Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow?

I was sitting having quiet dinner with friends, listening to a live band play some Joe Jobim last night when all of a sudden some random little kid ran up and, making a noise similar to a lawn mower, ran his hands through my hair shouting "cero, cero". It's strange how the world has ways of telling you things (like when I wanted to type "strange" and my fingers typed "string"... oddly enough it just happened again, but when i tried to type "string", I misspelt it... twice. Yes, that's nerdy stuff :)).

So after blogging this I'm off to get it off. A number 2 to ease in and get a little colour on my cranium. It's almost like a symbolic act (admittedly cheap symbolism, but if you skwint your eyes...) since tonight is the last night with Danny and Nic as tomorrow I head up to Salvador again before Belém and the next leg of my trip, the Amazonian adventure :)

Speaking of nerdy stuff, if you're so inclined you should check out the D Programming Language and Java 7. Both look fun. It'll be interesting to see how the desktop integration in Java 7 goes. They're basically putting native calls under Swing and AWT so Java doesn't look and perform like crap for client apps. Yes, I know you can get Swing to perform well if you design your app right and know all the tricks in Swing, but you really shouldn't have to try that hard. There was also talk of versioned JARs a while back, but I'm not sure if that's in the latest plans.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Ok, I have a bit of a dilemma. My hair is the longest it’s ever been and I’m quite enjoying it, but I’m not sure it’s particularly practical for traveling. I’ve been tempted for a while to shave my head again, but I’ve grown quite attached to my hair... and it to me. It’s about 2.5 years since I started growing it, after 10 years of shavedness, and I’m at the age where, well... it might not come back.

What to do, what to do...

Itacaré, Bahia, Brasil

I have to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of beach holidays. There’s not much to do besides sit on the beach all day and occasionally going for a swim between eating. That’s exactly what the last few days in Itacaré have been like and I have to say, it’s absolutely perfect.

Itacaré is the quintessential beach town with a very chilled mood, lots of Bob Marley and breath taking beaches. It’s also the last stop for Hamish and Kiera, who leave tomorrow, and the scene of Danny’s 31st birthday, also tomorrow.

The days have been taken up with a quick breakfast at Mary’s Aloha café, comprising of an egg sandwich and an acai, which is an icy treat made with berries and guarana, that I usually get on fruit salad and topped with muesli. After breakfast it’s down to the beach for a swim before lunch at a great falafel place then back to the beach before a shower, surfing the net and dinner. Yeah, life’s pretty tough here.


Overlooking Praia da Tiririca

More photos from Itacaré on my Flickr page.

Life is so tough in fact that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my next move. My current plan is to travel to Belém at the mouth of the Amazon and spend a week on a boat to Manaus, which is about halfway up the Amazon. From there I’ll do a jungle trip, possibly taking it as far as the Venezuelan border where I will, oddly enough, cross over into Venezuela. From there it’s Angel Falls, Caracas and then a drive to Mérida, where I’ll spend a couple of weeks doing hikes and taking more Spanish classes. Of course, plans are only good for breaking, so I might change my mind completely in the next couple of days. The main problem for me at the moment is how I get to Belém. It’s about 45 hours away by bus and about AUD$500 away by plane. I would like to avoid both, but think I'll have to swallow one. It’s certainly nice that that’s the biggest problem in my life right now.

Nearly 2 months into my trip, I know that I’m not going to have long enough to do and see everything that I would like, but have been having an absolutely wonderful time. I’ve met lots of great people and seen some incredible things, both uplifting, depressing and violent. I’ve only visited 2 countries so far, but the feel of South America is amazing and I really feel at home here. I can’t recommend a holiday here enough, be it for 2 weeks or 2 years.

Luego!

Carnaval – La ultima noche

The final night of Carnaval was a perfect end to the last week. We joined Fatboy Slim on the Skol +d bloco with pretty much all the other gringos in Salvador and, thankfully, Brasilian drum and bass DJs Marky and Patife. The 3 DJs played about an hour each, switching a couple of times and it somehow started to rain each time they changed, which was great. I personally don’t understand the big deal about Fatboy Slim, sure the Beats International stuff was great, but as a DJ his style is intensely boring, just straight mixes, and his track selection was crap as well, even for a commericial DJ - I felt kind of sorry for him next to someone like Marky. The crowd was great again, though insanely packed, and my glasses got knocked off again and are in pretty bad shape this time, so I need to invest in some super glue to fix them. Maybe it’s time to get laser eye surgery.

We managed to make it to the end of the circuit, which was a first, and got home just in time for it to pour down, a perfect way to clean away the remnants of Carnaval de Salvador 2006.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Itacaré, Bahia, a beachside town, for a relaxing week of sitting in the sun where I’ll figure out what to do next. I’m currently thinking of heading into the Amazon for a couple of weeks, then Venezuela and Columbia before heading into Central America for a bit, but I’ll just have to see.

Brasil Multicultural Bloco

Last night we went on an amazing bloco called Brasil Multicultural.

As I said earlier, the abada for this bloco was a pair of Capoeira pants, so we pulled them on, donned shirts and headed off. When we arrived at the bloco I was a little unsure we were in the right place because of 2 things. Firstly, we were the only people in Capoeira pants and we were the only whiteys. Ana arrived with her husband, Spider, from the Capoeira school confirming we were in the right place and introduced us to some other people she had hooked up with the bloco. An impromptu Capoeira exhibition/fight/spar left us all dumb struck, “incredible” was a word that I kept muttering throughout the night, which cost Ben a beer as a wayward foot knocked it from his hand. Afterwards, Spider kindly informed us, “You need to have your shirts off when we go past the cameras so we all look the same.” Huh?

Tops off, the bloco started to move and a not-so-random girl came up and told us to form a line between a breaking crew and some traditional African dancers. Ana came up, “A choreographer will show you what to do, but don’t worry, he’ll keep the moves simple.” Umm, ok!

At this point it occurred to me that maybe we were in an African cultural parade more than a bloco and I think I was right. Drummers ahead, choreographed dancing and Capoeira around us, smiles everywhere and the occasional TV camera, we had an absolute blast. Finally, we’d found what I imagined of Carnaval and it was great.

As we moved along, the bloco took up more of the… bloco vibe and became a big party with incredible drumming, a great singer on top of the main bloco truck and, as performers, we got free water J

Tonight is the last night of Carnaval and Fatboy Slim is playing in the “Gringo” bloco which will be interesting. This is the first time there’s been a bloco with just DJs on it and I can’t imagine how it is going to work without the Carnaval anthems and thousands of people singing along to them.

Luego!