Manaus - The AMAZON.

Myla was great a drove me to the Airport, as Danni was sick and Jacki was going to sit an enternace exam for university. While I waited for the plane, I purchased a coffee and some cake. Wosrt coffee and worst cake ever. I think I have turned into a coffee snob, but I think that there are those out there who already think I am one... While I sat at my gate, a guy who had had to much amber ale, kept asking me if this was the flight to Manaus (in Portuguese) I said yes and that I was a foreigner and didn't speak to much Portuguese. That didn't stop him. I think it was more of an invertation for him, in his mind. He started to tell me his life story and how he was a Federal Police Officer and that he had been a member of Interpol. Mind you the occasional "Is this the plane to Manaus?" question thrown in... I think I answered that question 5 times in 30mins... the plane was delayed. He was sitting 2 rows behind me... great...

Anyway on the flight he met some lady and then introduced me, as if we were two of his long lost buddies and we should know eachother. She was visiting family and told me stories of the Amazon. She also asked where I was staying and how I was getting there. I said a hotel in the centre of town and I was going by bus. "NO! You are not going by bus, it is to dangerous and being a Gringo, you will get mugged." So I did the most stupid thing I have done in Brasil, I accepted a ride from her unmet sister and nephews. Now I was in a strange place, in a strange car, with 4 complete strangers. I felt a little uncomfortable. Sorry M&D for not telling you about it earlier, but I thought it best not too. After all that, they finally got me to my hostel all safe and sound. She actually ended up being a Christian and was starting an evangulism routine, when I said, "It's all good, I'm a Christian too". Load cheers and 'Praise the Lord' statements were said. So, I guess in the end, it wasn't to bad.

At the Hostel, I checked in, found my bed and started to met some of the other people who were staying at the place. There were a few from Germany (3 girls and 1 guy called Udo), a Frenchmen (Bastian) who lives in Canada and a guy called Rob from England. That night we all went out to dinner to a little resturant and ate to much food. The waitress asked if we liked Forro and as no one else knew what it was I asked if she had any DVD's to play. A big smile with a gleam in her eye followed and the DVD was changed. Everyone else complained, as they were liking the current playlist of music, until the Forro music got swinging. History lesson - Forro started in the North of Brasil, by the British, of all people. It is called Forro (pronounced Foho) as the local Brasilians tried to call the dance by it's English name "For all" and as their pronunciation was bad, it was called Forro by the locals. It was a lot more of a nicer dance in the old days but like all things here in Brasil, it was made sexual. There are a few bad conitations that go with Forro because of the way you dance it. Maybe when I next see you, I'll show you what I mean. (I'll only dance with the Ladies, Guys can watch).

I mainly hung out with Udo and Bastian. Udo had grown up in the Black Forest and had been kicked out of home at 14. He was always telling stories about various holidays he had taken, as he works for 9 monthsof the year and then travels for 3. Bastian hadgrown upin France, but didn't like French people, especially those fromParis. He lives in Canada and I think is studying. For his birthday, his friends had all chiped in so he could go to the Amazon for a month. He loves Insects. Nice friends... They were great guys to hang out with and it seemed that everywhere we went, it turned out to be an exciting adventure. I guess the saying "never a dull moment with the Leroy" is true. We went on a self guided city tour together, by bus. That's because we caught the wrong bus, the 120 and not the 121. So we went all the way out to Ponto Negro. That is where there is a big beautiful beach on the last bend in the Rio Negro (Black River) before it goes on to join with the Rio Salamonies, which when combined form the Rio Amazona. We had actually been trying toget to the Military Zoo, so we where a little off. At Ponto Negro we saw some locals in action... Working hard, as most Brasilians do during the middle of the day. Check out the photo above...

We finally made it to the military zoo. We started walking arround checking out the animals, when we saw a vet section of the hospital. I asked a solder if we could enter and was given a stern, "NO". We just watched as some staff helped a young family take Christmas photos with some Sloths anda baby Jaguar. One of the female Doctors came over to us, and we asked her if we could take photos. It wasn't long until we were holding and patting these animals too. It is amazing what some Brasilians, especially the girls, will do when you say in broken Portuguese that you are from overseas and love their country and could we have photos with the animals. Check me out with my little buddy... At zoo, met a girl from Switzerland. Renata. She joined our little group and we were now four.

Later that night all four went to the Amazon Theatre to watch 2 movies for free, as it was "O AMAZONAS FILM FESTIVAL - MUNDIAL DO FILME DE AVENTURA"(rough translation... The Amazon Film Festival - World of Adventure Films). The first one wasthe Brad Pitt movies, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Note...This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen) & the second movie was a real old one where an American Family move to Brasil and the son is kidnapped by Indians and grows up with them. He parents are always looking for him and they find him and then the dam he was building gets washed away in a big rain storm. I can't remember the name of the movie, but I remember watching this movie when I was about 10. We finally arrived home at 1am, only to need to be up the next morning at 5 to catch the 6am bus to Presidente Figueiredo. P.F. has a lot of small rivers / creeks with waterfalls. We had arranged with one of the guys at the hostel to wake us at 5, as that is the time he gets up.

I woke at 5, out of luck and lay in bed waiting for the guy to turn up. 5mins went by and no sign of him, so, I woke Udo and Bastian and we left, no sign of the guy. Anyway, we arrived at the Rodoviaria (Bus Station) and caught our bus. It was a 2 hour ride and we thought that we could get some sleep, yeah right, this is Brasil. The guys sitting arround us talked the whole way and at the top of their voices. I think that there is no real sence of respect for others. On arrival, at P.F., we found the local supermarket and brought some supplies. We made our way to the tourist office, only to find out that it was all to be in Portuguese, No English... That's ok... been there before. Basically it was a pay everywhere you go place... We went to arrange a taxi and had a driver tell us that it would cost 30Reais. We knew that it should be more like 20. Anyway we did a little talking and we were soon on our way for 20. There is the usuall attitude of "Gringos... Money, let's double everything..." I am getting sick of arguing down prices all the time... The best experience was listerning to a local get something for 10Reais and then when I asked how much it was in my Portuguese, I was told that I had to pay 25. I laughed at the guy and then told him off and asked why I was to pay 25, when the other guy got the same thing for 10? I soon paid 10. Anyway, the waterfalls were great, just annoying that every waterfall you go to, you need to pay 4 or 5 Reais, as each location is owned by a family, who do nothing to try and preserve the environment that they live in... they sit arround and wait to collect the cash.


We had been told that there was a really good Grota to go and see, which was about a 30min walk into the jungle. The tourist office had told us that we needed a guide and that it would cost us 40Reais. After hitching a ride to where the trail starts, we couldn't find the trail enterance. We asked a local who asked us where our guide was? We said that we didn't need one and asked where the trail started. She was not happy that we didn't have a guide, but showed us where the trail started. We started our jungle walk and after 50m noticed that there were markers every 10m, indicating the distance to go. Who needs a guide for that? We arrived, were impressed, took photos and then walked back along the trail. We saved ourselves 40 Reais. We signed the visitors book and started to walk back to town. After about 30mins and several tries later, we managed to hicth a ride back to town, get some food and then jump on the bus for the return journey to Manaus. All in all it was a great day of Sun, Water and Jungle walks...

I also did a self guided tour of Manaus. I went back to the Teatro Amazonas, for a guided tour and then went onto the Catherdral and the various Markets that are about town. I was careful in some of these places as I was doing this solo. The Catherdral gardens looked like they were the local Prostitute station and the markets had people moving everywhere. I finally made it back to the Hostel,where I paid my bill. I had noticed that the owner, a fellow Aussie, was always on everyones case about paying the right amount. One guy got charged for an extra 6 hours, as he was leaving after 'official check out time'. When I said that I wanted to settle my bill and store my bags, he told me that I didn't need to worry about that. It was a little strange, I think. He was a bit of a strange guy. I felt he only cared about people paying their bills. When asked about tourist information or locations of places, it was like getting blood from a stone and that we were asking the worst questions ever. The hostel and location was great, just not the people. Soon after I left and headed for the River Port to catch my boat and home for the next 5 days. I was to cruise the Amazon River to its mouth and the city of Belem.

Brasilia.

The first stop, on my trip to the Amazon, was Brasilia (my second visit). I planned to stay in Brasilia for the weekend, but it ended up being a little longer. I had caught the overnight bus, which was late from Sao Paulo, due to the heavy rains. The bus also arrived late in Brasilia, about 3hrs late. I went and had lunch with Mylana and Maura and then went and settled into Myla's appartment, the same one as before. It was great to reaquaint myself with all the people that I had met from my first trip to Brasilia.

Word quickly spread and a BBQ was arranged with about 3hrs notice and most of the friends that I had made before, came. It was great fun, just chilling out with people. I even danced a little Forro, which was great fun, even though I am not that good at it. Jacki had dubbed the BBQ as "Leigh's Party" and told everyone that it was my birthday. It was a little hard trying to explain to people that it was not the case. I received a few strange looks. I also hung out with a guy called Robson. He is the son of a Pastor and is the church office administrator. He took me to a Churrascaria, one of the all you can eat meat resturants. Ohhh, I think that I ate to much, but when the food is good, what can you do... Later on that day we went to a Sports Club and went swimming in the pool there. Before I could swim, we need to go shopping for some new bathers, as they do not allow people to swim in shorts... Yes, a pair of 'speedos' were purchased. It was a good thing that we went swimming, so I could try and work off some of the food that I had eaten. All the Sports Clubs here a private. When I said that we have public swimming pools in Australia that you pay a few dollars to enter, it was like I was talking another language. It is just not done here in Brasil.

That night, the church was involved in an Artistic Night. Various churches were getting together to dance and praise God through various styles of Dancing. Now I usually don't like this kind of dancing. I never really have. The first people to dance were those from the Church that I go to, here in Brasilia. They were represented by Fernanda and Anderson. They danced with passion and enthousiasm. It was not until Fernanda sat down, that I could see the happiness and joy in her face, that I realised how involved people can be in worship through dance. I think that I am beginning to change my mind on the matter. The wheels move slowly. After the dancing was done, it was off to have Pizza, at an all you can eat Pizza resturant... I think that this is becomming a theme, for returants here in Brasil. I also chilled out a lot during my time here. Going to bed late and getting up late.

I hung out with Jacki and Dany, as Myla was at work. So when the girls went places, I went too. It was great fun to experience their lives. One night, we all went to Pontao and had dinner. I ate way to much ice-cream, but it was hot and I didn't care. I was having fun. One of their friend's Kelly brought her Guitar, so we all sat arround and sung songs, next to the lake. It was great. A very relaxing night and it made me think of all the sings that we normally sing on a Sunday night, back in Oz. I also watched loads of DVD movies. It was a great enjoyable and relaxing time. I really needed the time to stop and rest.

On one of the weekends here, I went on a Church Camp. I have always felt at home here at this church, from the first service I went too during my first visit to Brasilia. Everyone has been just so warm and welcoming, even when they know that there is a language barrier, they still come over, smile and give a hug and say hello. Anyway, the camp cost 20 Reais (about $14 Aussie Dollars). There was some great teaching (if Myla translated correctly) and loads of singing and dancing. I just enjoyed being involved. I got involved in the soccer game that was played and although I didn't score a goal, I gave off a few good passes, which set up a few. I was happy with that. As all the guys were now so hot, it was swim time. They had a pool there, which we swam in for about an hour and then we all walked to a waterfall the swam some more. That night some of us played 'WAR' a great game of luck. I ended up winning, which was a first for me at WAR. All in all the weekend away with the church was great. The only down side was that we orded some bad food and a few people got sick, well most of the girls and a few guys were visiting the toilet often. It was a shame that this happened, but no one really complained about it.

So many more things happened in Brasilia, to many to write about each. It was like the Gringo had arrived and everyone wanted to show me off to their friends and to show others that they knew someone from Australia. I went bowling with Robson and Andre. I went to a family BBQ with Laura's family. Thiago, Gabi and Raphael also came, which was great. As a group from church, we went bowling (at a different location) where the pins were on strings. It was one of the strangest things I have seen. I was also invited to have Fondue at Gabi's house. Fondue is a big thing here in Brasil. It seems that everyone loves it. I also went to Fernanda's house for her Mum's birthday. I was asked 20 questions by various family members and I gave my responses in Portugues. I thought that I was doing well until I heard Fernanda repeat my answers with a few more Poertuguese words thrown in and in a much better accent. It saw the funny side of it, as I guess I have done that with people speaking their broken English here.

My last night in Brasilia was spent at the Tagutinga Shopping mall, as I needed to buy my plane ticket for Manaus. I had been a little lazy in going earlier to purchase it. I didn't care all that much, as I was spending the evening with friends. My farewell dinner was Pizza and red wine... We needed to keep a check on on person, to make sure they didn't have to much, as they were driving me home. Anyway the night was full of great conversation, sharing of moments and statements of how they plan to visit me in Australia. I will miss them all.