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Published: November 1st 2006
Welcome to Brazil!
On my first day in Manaus, I was sitting in the square, and this bunch come and did some capoeira while a camera man was shooting and a journalist interviewed the guys in between... Wow!I arrived in Manaus early morning and the taxi took me to the center.. I arrived early on a sunday morning, which is not the day to DO things. Everything is closed and only one guy had his business open, for a little bit. I didn't really want to buy a jungle tour, cause they are so touristy and they pull down sloths (sengangare) from the trees and I don't like it. And the companies are usually called ECO-something, I say ECO whatever. I heard there are as many interpretations of ECO as there are people using the word, I think that it is true.. As I asked about the tours but didn't show interest in any of them, the salesman probably thought I was bothered by the price and after barganing (he did, not me) he sold a tour for possibly half price. I wonder how he made money on it. Surely not a problem, never mind, Mr Scam. All I care is that they don't pull the sloth down the tree. I'd seen pictures of that earlier and it looks nasty and I don't want to pay for the sloth's misery... In a way it's good that the forest
Teatro Amazonas
Went for a performance the first night in the famous theatre! A one man show in portuguese wasn't really my thing though.. and the wildlife is shown to people, but there's a certain limit to how much you can interfere with nature. So I made a big deal out of it, and in the end the other guys on the tour agreed we wouldn't pull that sloth down. We still caught an alligator and fished some piranhas. That wasn't that bad, in comparison. And when we went in the river boat, some fish with even more impressive teeth, called dog fish, jumped onto the boat. That's what we called humane fishing. They apparently wanted to come back home with us...
I was a bit disappointed with this touristy jungle tour, even if there were very few (and very nice) people on the tour. I think the idea of you being in the Amazonas is actually bigger than Amazonas itself. And it's huge. But what was I to expect, really, after living in the jungle in Costa Rica... nothing can beat that now, not even the Brazilian Amazonas! Or you have to get further into the jungle, not going on a touristy trip.
I don't have many photos from the trip but will hopefully be able to update them soon!
Cultural Amazonas
Never thought I'd be going to a gallery in Manaus.. I love this painter, Ademar Britto Now after spending some waiting time in Manaus, I started enjoying hanging out with fellow travellers and brasilenos. I've been out dancing a few times and finally figured Forró out!! It's a fun dance, not like salsa, but still good.. Very interesting scenes too, there are always some very lightly dressed girls up on stage. The guys I went there with couldn't stop staring, while the local girls couldn't take their eyes off them.. However, they were much younger than they appeared and finding out the gorgeous girls were only 16 surely put them off. I got some chocking photos of the girls on stage (censured) but I'll give you a hint of the scene with one pic at least.
Also went to Ponta Negra, the beach where locals hang out on week ends. I don't know what to say about that place. The river (Rio Negro) is warm. It's very hot on the beach, still it feels cool when you get out of the water. The river is black and so are you after coming out of the water. EVERYONE stares. Not a touristy place, we apparently gave people something to talk about. All women weares G-string,
The meeting of the waters
Black and white, Rio Negro and Rio Solemoes no matter the age. From the young girls to the the older ages that really shouldn't be wearing it... We stayed on around the beach and later on we saw a show where a man jumped through a ring of knives and something like thai boxing. What a day...
Things change, and so does my flight ticket. As many times as it can. Now I've bought the maximum time possible, that is going to the States in dec (12th) and back to Sweden in january (Stockholm 15 jan). It can't get later now, unless somebody gives me a job and pays for a new ticket. As if that will happen..
Thanks for all comments and messages!! Great to hear back from you and to know you went through all this stuff i keep writing! I'll keep writing then!! Next time!
Ciao!!
H
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Vanja
non-member comment
Hej! Är stolt över dig att du sa ifrån om sengångarna...Är underbart att höra lite då kan man drömma sig bort igen. Förresten kom första snön idag. Ska du dra iväg till Israel sen? Kram Vanja