Big City

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Well, here I am sitting in the middle of the Amazon.
The funny thing is that you would never know it from the city. It´s a bustling, busy place with tons of traffic and markets selling plastic toys and video games, and cheap knock-offs of famous label clothing. The people here look different than out in Olinda/Recife: they´re shorter, more typically South American looking - I thought I was in Peru or Bolivia earlier today!
According to the book I was ready to be assaulted by hundreds of touts every step of the way from the airport. In fact, I have, literally, not been propositioned once, despite an extensive stroll around the Centro area. My hotel is one block away from the famous Theatre Amazonas. I´ll put up pics of it tomorrow - I was walking today to get my bearings and didn´t want to be flashing my camera about. To be honest though, the first impressions I´m getting suggest a busy but chilled out kind of place, rather than the nest of rats that the Lonely Planet guide book was leading me to expect.
Early days though.

The early night didn´t happen!
I´d met two lovely French women in the morning who were students about to live there in Olinda for a year. They were disoriented and a bit out of sorts after a 48 hour trial getting there. We chatted over breakfast, and I walked with them over the big hill and down to the Internet Cafe which was still closed. When I got back from my rather breakneck tour of Recife, the girls were in a mood to celebrate: they had found an apartment in a secure area already for a reasonable price.
Soon we had drunk a couple of beers. Just then, Andre, Julio, and another English speaking guide, a rather sad guy as it turned out, named William, parked themselves. After a rather strenuous, unrequested Portuguese lesson, we decided to have a ´going away´ party at the top of the hill, as well as a celebration of the good fortune of the girls.
We all piled into Andre´s car, music blaring (the very popular Charlie Brown Jnr.) to the top of the hill, where we had a very wonderful capeirinha from our favorite chap, then went to the restaurant.
I had tried to whisper to Marion and Loraline (apologies for the spelling!) to be careful with these guys, but they ended up getting a first hand lesson from the evening: we had a great time, funny, laughing, great views, decent food, but, as usual, we, the tourists, end up footing the bill for the whole group.
That´s how these guys play it: they´re very nice and good fun to be with, but they´re an expensive hobby. For me, it doesn´t matter so much; I consider us to have a clear and reciprocal deal; I pay, while these guys give me access to parts of the City other Gringos can´t see, keep the other guides off my case, and generally make the whole thing tranquillo. It´s different for the girls though given that they´re going to be living in Olinda. For me, it´s already in the past, but for them they´ll have to live with the consequences of whatever they gave away!
At the end of the meal, Andre and Julio gave me a going away present, a nice T-shirt. Despite their clear mercenary gameplan, I think they genuinely liked me, and I liked them too!
Funny old world, ain´t it?
Back at the pousada, a little worse for the wear, I began the now complicated task of preparing for the 4:00am start: pack the bag. Wait a minute. What about money? Unpack the bag. Get the money. Repack. Wait a minute, where´s my head lamp? Unpack the bag. Find the Head lamp. Wait a minute... You get the idea.
The clock the PTO gave for teacher appreciation is the only time piece/alarm clock I have with me, and it continues to bedevil my every step. Every time I pick it up I drop it. I´m constantly setting and resetting it as it mysteriously changes to London, or Paris time. Consequently, I woke up dazed every two hours, in other words I woke up twice!
On the second, I crawled into my clothes, packed the bag, one more time for luck then went out into the torrential downpour that had afflicted the entire night. Luckily, there was a taxi - not the one I had booked, and we whizzed off through deserted streets and gigantic rivers of water, for the thirty minute drive to the airport ( I´ve spent $75 today just on the two taxi rides to and from the airport!).
I must say, the Brazilian airports and the airline TAM have been uniformly excellent so far.
I had a two hour stopover in sunny Brasilia, then got to humid, but not oppresively hot Manaus in the early afternoon.
I have a pretty neat room with satellite TV, ac and all. There are two recommended Amazon tour agencies not a stones throw away, a neat restaurant with outdoor ambience three doors down, and this excellent internet cafe just across the street from that.
Rough life this travel business, eh?
I´m going to stay in and watch some movies on Cinemax and HBO tonight.
I know what you´re thinking, but I´ve only had 4 hours sleep, have flown half way across the continent, and I haven´t watched any TV since Rio!
Give a dude a break!
See you on the flypaper,
mike

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Photos

Rio Negra
The two rivers meet here in Manaus. One is muddy brown the other black. The colors take a few miles to mix together. I can smell a boat ride coming!

Comments

[deleted_20337]

Sounds like you've made a good start in your new area. We can send over some insanely humid weather, if you'd like....it's still hot and uncomfortable here. Saturday's prediction is 96 degrees. We await more stellar commentary as you begin this leg of your journey...and pictures, of course! Wow....I'm still shocked by the high costs there - but maybe, when all is said and done, you won't have blown your budget as much as you think you have? Take care, stay safe and healthy! xo, Suze and Gia

[Dani]

Anum Cara
Hello my soul mate, the spanish philosopher (jajaja) is here finally, join your blog. Sorry if I haven´t written to you until now but I have been doing a trekking in Chapada Diamantina and of course I had no internet. I have to say the trkking has been amazing. That place is really beautiful. Nice paths, funny adventures and incredible waterfalls. I did a 45 m rappel down a waterfall, crossing a huge rainbow and finally ending in to a deep lake. I didin´t need to pay for it, the guides told me that I´m a mountain free spirit and thay wanted to let me doing it as a present (normally they charge 100 reais). The small village Lencois is such a charming place. Narrow streets, colourful houses, rasta men walking around.... I will keep it in my heart. Now I´m in Valença, south of Salvador, a crowed fisherman villa. I´m waiting to get a boat to go to boipeba, a island wich seems to be another paradise. I really hope we keep in touch because really the days we spent together in our own heaven in noronha are still really deep in my soul. The memory of those days still makes my heart smile. You made me think about many things and I´m sure all of that will come out in some form. I definitly need to put all my writtings in to something or just to make something with all this crazy words that cross my mind every single second. Well, I wish all the best for your days in the amazon. Please talk to the mother earth about me, she knows I would love to be there. Take care my friend. Dani

[mike allen]

Dani - Anamcara
Hey, it´s the Spanish philosopher. I was just singing, ´Canta, LLora, Rie´ this morning. Glad you had another great experience. There is definitely something pretty special about Brasil don´t you think? If only it wasn´t so expensive! I hope we keep in touch, too. I´m going to keep asking you to work on, ´Thus spake Dani`! When do you see your new friend in Salvador? Holy cow, by the time I get back from the jungle, you might be in the company of the english couple you spoke about. I wonder if he will be doing the dishes like last time? I´ll write again when I get back. mike

[Nams]

hey!!
Hello Mike, it's Marion. thanks for your advises, they were usefull... I promisse. Now we're living in an other place, but still in Olinda. we finally met real friends... those who don't count with the wallet, even if many of them are foreigners... Your latest pictures are great!! Pantanal seems really nice! and I wish you good continuation in this beautiful trip... It was a pleasure to meet even if it was short. If you want some news from Olinda, just ask. I create a blog too, i think it's travelblog/bloggers/Namast_he. muitos beijos ^^ Marion et Laureline

[mike allen]

Marion
Great to hear from you. You must be starting to settle in by now, I would think. I'm going to chase down your blog after I finish here. How is the Portuguese coming? I've met some pretty excellent people on this trip and even though we only met briefly, I include you two in that category! Say hello to Laureline for me, and keep her away from the caiperinhas!