PART 12 - THE JOURNEY BACK, AN UNEXPECTED STOP

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Heaven began as the boat set sail…

Ok so it wasn’t a sail boat, nevertheless, the calm tranquility that I had experienced on the trip upriver immediately returned. I couldn’t help but think how much I loved this place… I went up deck for a while to enjoy the view, but as the sun rose higher and got hotter I gladly went below for relief, and to enjoy my delicious, giant, Brazilian lunch that was now ready.

I spent the afternoon relaxing peacefully and soaking up the pleasure of reading my grammar book at the side of boat, as the Amazon slowly passed me by. I grew a little sleepy and decided to take a nap in my hammock that was already swaying from the boat’s movement. It swayed me with a refreshing breeze in the hot afternoon until I lost myself in a directionless sleep.

I awoke two hours later unaware of which way I was facing, completely relaxed, with feelings of comfort and peace. It was really hot now, so I got up to walk the boat. The crew were putting a movie, “in the navy” with Cuba Gooding Jr., and so I joined them in watching it. After the movie I was ready to eat the delicious dinner they were serving, as I watched my favorite Brazilian Novelas. Aww…. This was the life…

I popped into the shower and just as I was popping out we were stopping at our first port downstream, Santa Isabella. This time we were boarded by army troops who routinely searched boats for drug trafficking, as we had come from near the tri-border area with VZ and Colombia. The soldiers were young, some looked as if they were 14, but they were probably 16, and despite their huge guns, they were very polite.

Afterwards I went to bed. The next morning I woke so peacefully, gentle, happy, and captivated by my dream, and wrapped in the cool morning breeze that had been chilling me through dawn. I opened my eyes just as the sun was rising above the horizon, its gentle orange serenity reflecting off the motionless glass like water. I thought about the dream I had just had. I was taking to beloved friend, Sandra. I was excited and happy to see her. I was telling her about my life, and my heart, and everything I had felt over the last while.


I could hardly wait for breakfast. I grabber the overly sugared coffee and a sandwich and went up deck. How good it tasted despite its simplicity. Everything was better in this place, and maybe it was because when you finally get a chance to unwind and become so relaxed, to truly touch the ground in your natural, raw, and unburned state, you finally get a chance to truly enjoy the simple things in life, like sensations.


After breakfast I did yoga for a couple hours in the morning sun that began to warm me. Then I did taichi… Awww… How good it was to be alive… I thought about all the sad dark evenings I had wasted crying in my apartment over a broken heart way back when. Why… I thought to myself. Why? How could I have been so foolish, trapped in my small narrow minded sadness, dwelling on things I could not change instead of smiling on God’s fruits.

I thought about how the human psyche is such a peculiar thing because it is obvious that I am not, and not always been happy, not always calm, not always with energy, with will, with strength and drive. Yet right now, standing on the top deck above the black Rio Negro, gazing at miles of jungle and open sky, I could never imagine wasting all that time again feeling sad, or sorry for myself. Life is too good, too magical, too special to waste on things as such, because as long as we are alive, we have a chance to live, and feel all of life’s beauty.

After my little moment of contemplation Regi woke from the nap he was having down below and we had out lunch updeck. Afterwards, I read a little more grammar, and then tried to watch a movie, but quit, cause a fat drunk guy kept hitting on me and was growing to be annoying.

It was our last day on the boat as we were getting off shortly to stop and the small indigineous community of Craveiro in order to find Regi’s long lost nephew. We had one last beautiful dinner up deck on the roof of the boat as the sun was setting.

As the boat approached the community, we got into the dingy strapped to the back of the boat with all our things, and the crewman took us over. We got to the amazingly simple island community just after dark. It consisted of one dirt road lined with about… 40 houses, one of which was “the power plant”- an extremely loud contraption, resembling a large lawnmower engine powered by gasoline that was shipped in weekly.

As we walked down the tiny road, what few people were out recognized Regi immediately, which was kind of neat since it had been over 5 years since he had last been there (before his nephew had supposedly moved there). They were obviously happy to see him, but as were there odd custom remained almost reactionless. -and it wasn’t long before we found out that Regi’s nephew had moved away with the women who was supposedly looking after him. They had gone to some far off obscure community up the river St Lemoines, and most of these communities didn’t have phones… Well that would have to be another trip, and one I could not be a part of. - It looks like this would just be a social visit and although a little disheartened, we were still happy to be there.

We then approached Regi’s cousin’s, Pedro Paulo’s, house. It was a simple but very clean wooden shack on stilts, complete with a fridge and TV, but no bathroom. There was no bathroom just the forest across the field located in front of the house, or for number one, behind the house and down the hill. However, for showering there was a wooden stable contraption and a tap with buckets. So you could fill the buckets and shower with a cup. This was actually a step up, and worked well, except that you could be seen naked from the street. (This was also the area to do your dishes). The cooking area was located outside beneath the house, making it so the “house” would fill with smoke every time you cooked. It was basically just a table with chairs (to eat), and a sort of oven that was basically a large clay bowl you filled with coal and lit. You placed the pots or pans above the flame to cook, and voila. The process was a little slow but whatever.

Anyways, Pedro Paul, lived with his elderly uncle Sr. Pedro Faz that had just recently come to live him. Both were excited to see Regi, and quickly invited us in. Pedro Paulo gave us him room to sleep in, and it had a BED! Wow, a bed!! It was true I preferred to sleep in a hammock most days, but seeing as how it had been 2 months since I had seen a bed, it was a welcome change.

After the hellos, I had a bucket shower and exhausted went to bed. It was strange sleeping in a bed and took me sometime to fall asleep between the sounds of the TV and the extremely loud power generator that was across the street. Nonetheless, the cabin was very nice and I was happy to have been so well received.


The next morning I awoke my ribs and side hurting- it was difficult sleeping in a bed, and not as comfy as the hammock that forgave the curves of my body more. I woke just after 6 am when the loud generator stopped. Awww… the sweet silence- but it was only for an hour, as it rested one hour every day, always at 6 am.

We got up and went for a swim in the Rio Negro. Its current was strong, and water warm. -and it was a fun exercise just to stay in the same place. We came back, and Sr. Pedro Faz (who was maybe in his late 60s) offered us sweet coffee, biscuits, and banana for breakfast. After eating the meal eagerly I spent the morning chatting with the incredibly fascinating elder man. He was telling me about his remarkable life. How he was born in the interior (basically jungle) and how at the young age of 8 his parent sent his to the small remote village of Paricacheora, right near the tri-border of VZ, CB, and Brazil, and further up than the rio negro reached, since they didn’t have schools where they were. At the young age of 14 a giant airline company visited the village, scouting for employees. When they encountered Pedro Faz, who had excelled remarkably in school, and who passed the entrance exams (which the company had administered) with flying colours, they offered him a scholarship to finish his studies in Manaus, and then come work as an engineer for the company in Rio, and so he did. He told me of his adventures in Rio, and his business trips all around the country, including training in Buenos Aires for 7 months. Amazing how a small Indian boy had made it so far. He told me of his ex-wife and kids he left to journey off into the world, and of whom he had not seen in 30 years. He told me of how he had left the company after 11 splendid years to work and travel in Colombia. He had spent 28 years there and had just come back this year to brazil, leaving a jealous, feisty, women, which he obviously still loved behind. He gave her the “im going to buy cigarettes” story and got on a train and never said goodbye. They had shared 3 years together. It was amazing to hear his story- how he had adventured so much and left so many important people behind - and how much his heart suffered for his mistakes, but how he viewed them as facts of life that he was powerless to change, and willing to except. So many indigenous people I had met were living their lives this way. You lived how you lived, with difficulties and regrets, and just accepted things the way they were, without idealistic desires to change, to search, to fix, maybe those where just North American ideals or tendencies…

Sr. Pedro Faz was an incredible man, and a flawed man like all, and it was nice to get to know him a little. In Craveiro, he had planted a farm, banana’s, melons, caju, oninons, and many other things. After our morning chat we walked over for a tour, and I ate fresh watermelons that I picked from the ground, and caju fruit that I grabbed from the trees.

We came back and had lunch. It rained hard in the afternoon, and lightning struck right across the street, not some 30 yards from where I was!! WOW!! What power! I had never seen lightning so close. The storm seemed so raw, so wild, and we were in it- but luckily underneath the house just watching it.

Later when the storm broke Regi went to play soccer with the town, as was their daily custom. I went to practice karate in the town square, and as usual small children gathered and watched me- but at least this time I wasn’t obliged to give them lessons. Lol.

I had a quick night evening swim in river, and hurried to catch my novella on tv. Had some oatmeal and off to bed.

The next day I woke a little late, past 7 am. It was a cloudy morning, but the clouds were clearing fast, and the day was growing more and more beautiful. I did a relaxing session of yoga, followed by meditation, underneath the house (as mentioned the house was supported by high stilts, and so it was rather pleasant to be beneath).

Regi than woke to make the fire in the stove pot and we made soup. Later I made fresh caju juice out of fruits I squeezed with my own hands, as we didn’t have any complicated devices. In the afternoon, we went for a long 2-3 hour walk exploring crops, jungle, and land owned by Regi’s relatives. I saw ACAI and BACABA trees, and even tried to eat the fruits, and we escaped two hissing cobra snakes that were in our path. We finally stopped on the beach and sat in the relieving shade to talk about the beauty of university and education, and about fighting for happiness, and taking control of your life, etc. Regi had the ill-conceived notion that life just happened to you, and so you just make due with what you get and never try for anything more.

Anyways, as the afternoon was getting late we headed back to prepare dinner. I was craving Bacaba juice and was almost thinking of going all the way back to Tupe to drink it (as it was so rare). I was completed elated when to my surprise a neighbor came by with a fresh jug and offered it to me by coincidence! What luck!! YES!! How delicious. (Bacaba is a small brown fruit that resembles, maybe like a tiny coconut growing on palm trees, and you essentially boil it to extract what looks like bark, which is what you eat, and make a juice that looks, and tastes like brown milk- it’s an acquired taste, but really healthy and very delicious).

This was our last evening in Caveiro. We were taking the 2 am boat back to Manaus. I went to bed around 10 pm and Regi woke me at 1:30 am to go. It was cold, and I wasn’t feeling well. I think I had eaten about 10 cajus that day and they were siting well… Even my pee was bright yellow and smelled like caju- I was “cajuzied”. Hahaha

Anyways, the small boat came, and it was a challenge to find a spot for our hammocks on the crowded deck, but being inventive and able to climb, we eventually did. I was ready for sleep and that’s what I did.

The next morning I woke at 6:40 am, to the gorgeous orange morning sun. It felt later than it was and I wasn’t tired. Excellent sleeps on these boats I tell you! There was something so relaxing, so freeing, to know that sleep and freedom was always available and plentiful. I got up and grabbed a delicious tapioca, a sweet coffee, and an egg sandwich for breakfast, then showered. I started to read Spanish grammar in preparing for my voyage to Colombia that was upcoming.


We had a big lunch, and lucky for that cause they never served dinner. For the first time I was rather bored in the afternoon, I watched my novellas as we pulled into port around 8 pm. Despite the irreplaceable rewards of having spent so much time in the amazon, a deep feeling of boredom was beginning to grow underneath, and indeed it was time to move on with my trip. Arriving exhausted in Manaus, we decided to grab a room in a dodgy motel and hit the sack.

Only a couple days left in Manaus before my flight to Bogota… and I thought nothing else could happen…

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Comments

[Debbie]

Adoro seu blog
I recently came across your blog and have really enjoyed reading about your experiences. I've traveled to the Amazon twice, both times spending two weeks on a boat exploring. I relate to much of what you mention - enjoying the simple things, sleeping so well in a hammock, how kind and open the people are. I also am learning so much from you, from your first hand experiences really exploring and living there and through your interactions with people. You're experiencing many aspects that I have wondered about. Thanks for keeping this blog!

[vivakula]

thanks for your comment debbie :)