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Published: August 28th 2006
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Avacado?
yes avacados here are the size of my head It’s ninety-six degrees today and I’m sweating like a menopausal female. The air is humid, almost like being in a greenhouse. It’s two in the afternoon and the sun has been up for hours. The day is almost over, in four more hours the sun will go down. It’s another day in Brazil. I slice open a papaya in the kitchen and smile to myself. Sweet tropical bliss. Everytime I cut a mango, guava or papaya, I am confronted with a wave of joy. Two women chatter and laugh in the open kitchen across from ours. All of the kitchens here have permanently open windows. It allows for a communal type of living where nothing is truly private. Smells of lunch waft throughout the air from one kitchen to the next. Bright torquise, gold and crimson towels hang on a clothes-line outside our window. The family across from us is drying their babys clothes in the steaming sun. The television hums in the background, as it does most places in Brazil. I can hear the neighbors watching futbol and shouting each time a goal is made.. Outside the window, there are tall rows of yellow and orange apartments. Air conditioners
breakfast joint
Parque do Mindu are scattered along the surface, hinting at how hot it really is here. Sitting at the window I watch people zip by on their motorcycles. Occassionally three are crammed onto one seat. A hoard of brightly dressed individuals wait at the bus stop across the road. All I can see is an ocean of yellow, blue, green, red and orange. Brazilians like their colors and they like them vivid. Women walk by with spike heels, tight jeans and mini skirts. Men eye them intensly as they pass. A man with bronze skin is on the sidewalk with a wheel barrow full of pinneapples. He gives a new meaning to the words fresh fruit. Honking cars whizz by, change lanes quickly and continue to their destinations.
Today we drove for about 2 hours, along the same road that goes to Venezuela, to a lovely spot called Presidente Figueriedo. The drive was great, there were flooded palm tree forests on the side of the road and little shacks selling coconut juice. Large Mercedes trucks passed loaded with bananas. Women with babies on their hips walked on the side of the road. Presidente Figueriedo is so beautiful, we parked and walked for
about a mile through some jungle. Along the way Fernandos friend Jefferson showed me this plant that curls up really quickly when you touch it. It's trippy and looks like it might gobble you up. As we were walking, la de da, then BAM SHAZZAMMM there was a massive waterfall out of nowhere and a lot of people splashing around in it. So nice and refreshing after the hot and humid wheather in Manaus all week. There are some caves there too, and the top has a bunch of plants and dangling vines. There were curly roots everywhere and little mini iguanas with a blend of orange and teal colors on their skin. We saw some monkeys too and these pretty little birds that were black and yellow and squawked like nobodys business. There were fatty leaves that were literally half of my body, huge. It seems like everything is bigger here and more lush....the fruit, the trees.....After our little adventure we ate some good amazon fish (my main staple here)
Yesterday I visited a neighborhood called Sao Jose in Manaus to make a movie for a local non-profit organization ADCAM: Association for the Cohesive Development of the Amazon.
I felt like I was really seeing and feeling the real Brazil, beyond the tourist attractions. Children scrambled in the street barefoot with a soccer ball. A man peeled an apple with a machete in front of his house. William, a local boy from Manaus and his cousin William, and I entered a simple home. Inside there was a studio with carpeted walls, an equalizer, computer, speakers and a microphone. It was pretty pimped out compared to the rest of the house. A large man, also named William, was waiting for us. As the Portuguese rang in the headphones over my ears, I spoke in English, reading from a prompt and big Will recorded. We were dripping sweat cause there were no windows, no air conditioning and no fan. WHEW! A sauna music/video space, kill two birds with one stone. It was good fun.
All of the Brazilians I've met thus far have been so open, friendly and wonderful. This is Manaus; a simple city with a beautiful friendly people and I’m so glad to be here.
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