Brazil: Manaus and the Amazon

Our first week in Brazil was spent in the gloriously humid city of Manaus. Since it’s located in the middle of the Amazon, every single day was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat started as early as 8am. On an average day I had a several streams of sweat flowing down my back. My favorite part of the day was taking a shower. I will never complain about heat ever again! Manaus is isolated due to the surrounding rivers and the only way to get there is by plane or boat. They are currently trying to build a road so people can actually drive there during the dry season. We used our first day to get accustomed to the area and get a feel for the bus system. The buses drive crazy fast and make you fear for your life! They don’t even wait for you to pay before the driver decides to leave the stop. It was actually a neat system where you enter the bus and you are contained by a turnstyle until you pay the attendant. This allows the driver to continue with minimal wait times. So awesome! My transportation nerdiness is showing... Everyone always paid before they had to get off but I wondered what would happen if you didn’t end up paying. I guess you’re eternally stuck in the turnstyle portion of the bus. We explored Centro Manaus which was basically the only part of the city that had any major activity. In Manaus there was a massive language barrier. I would say 4% of the population spoke English. And when I say English, I mean completely broken English. Thankfully, people from other countries were there for the World Cup as well and they spoke English. I never knew how much I appreciated being able to talk to whoever whenever. I love meeting new people and so when I couldn’t carry out a conversation with the locals it was really depressing. Even though there was a language barrier we were still treated as celebrities. I’m not kidding. Many of the locals wanted to take pictures with us because we were American! One guy in particular, Simon, had showed us other pictures he had with Americans and there were about 6! Even as we walked down the street cars would honk at us and wave. I felt like a movie star :) Move over Jennifer Aniston! On our bus trip back to Andrea House (this is where we stayed for the week) some English speaking people jumped on the bus. We were immediately drawn to them because we could carry out a conversation. It turned out that they were Australians! Kerrie, Andy, and Brett. Super chill and awesome people who had just returned from a Jungle Tour. We became instant friends. We were all surprised that we were both going to the Dom Pedro area. Most people stay in Centro. Kerrie asks, “And whereee are you going in Dom Pedro?” “Andrea House” “US TOO!” It was a freakish coincidence and it was great because then we could ask them a bunch of questions about Manaus and how to get to certain places.


The second day was all about the USA vs Portugal match. Oh man was that an experience! So much patriotism for America and the stadium was huge! I felt like I was back at a Lane Stadium football game because of all the hype and cheering. When we pulled ahead of Portugal near the end the stands went completely NUTS. But then the unspeakable happened in the last 20 seconds and the match ended in a tie….let’s not talk about it.

We then took an overnight jungle tour of the Amazon Rainforest! This was a really cool experience. We saw the Meeting of the Waters which is where the Rio Negra meets the Rio Amazona but the two rivers do not mix. There is a distinct line between the two. One is a light brown while the other is more blueish brown. Each has its own density, flow, depth, and other defining characteristics.  After this, we rode in 1970 Volkwagon hippie vans, saw iguanas, experienced the very poor conditioned dirt roads that including hundreds of potholes, and rode in a boat to our destination. We were situated deep within the Amazon Rainforest. When we finally reached our destination, our tour guide says, “Ok you all have 2 hours before lunch. Why don’t you take a nice refreshing dip in the Amazon River.” I was a little hesitant considering what dwells in these waters, both species and bacteria alike. But we did it anyway. The next day, all the guys were fishing off the dock in the same location. I asked, “Whatcha fishing for?” “Piranha” WHAT?! So we were unknowingly swimming with piranha. The tour guide was probably using us as live bait…dang.  Anyway, the day we arrived we took canoes and visited a small farm to learn about the culture.  The canoes had motors but they resembled motors that you would remove from a lawn mower. Not too powerful and very loud. On our way back to the hostel, we came across the most gorgeous sunset. Every picture I took was beyond belief.

At night we went for a canoe ride to search for alligators! It was wild. The stars were absolutely gorgeous that night. Being so far away from any civilization made them all very visible. The whole sky seemed to be sheeted by white specks. The only time I’ve seen more stars was when I was in the Outback in Australia. It was breathtaking. In the Southern Hemisphere you can see the Milky Way and the Southern Cross. You could actually see the Big Dipper too but it was really close to the horizon. During our stargazing, the other canoe caught 3 baby alligators! When we got back to our place everyone took turns holding them. I was terrified.  The next day we did a sunrise canoe ride which was around 5AM (the sun sets and rises VERY early in Brazil. Sunset is around 5:30PM). After that we did a legit jungle tour. That was one of my favorite parts of our trip. The group dynamic was pretty eclectic.  We had the very energized people who do whatever they want and are from Colombia/Spain, then the Swedish couple who is very sweet and write everything down that they learn, then the guys from Sao Paulo (Brazil), a girl who left her brother to go on this tour, a couple that isn’t afraid to show PDA every second, and 3 guys from Switzerland who didn’t speak English and laugh a lot. There was also a guy from Britain who was a daredevil and bald. We also met a really cool guy named Andre from Wisconsin. He became the fourth member of our own personal group. After the jungle tour we ate lunch and returned to Andrea House.

The next day we went to the zoo and watched the Switzerland vs Honduras match. This game definitely wasn’t as thrilling but our seats were outstanding! We were right behind the goal to the right. We were definitely on tv a few times. It wasn’t a close up of us but you could see our American flag! After the game we went to Centro Manaus to experience the nightlife. We met up with Andre and the Australians and it was wild. It was like Bourbon Street times one thousand. They had military men standing on watch towers to use force if necessary. This is the night we discovered the deadliness of the Caipirinha – Brazil’s well-known alcoholic beverage. This thing was STRONG. I would compare it to a Long Island Iced Tea but with more alcohol. Here’s how it’s made: place ice in cup, add heaps of sugar, add several lime chunks, dump in a massive amount of alcohol. I’d say at least 5 shots worth. Let’s put it this way, my dad had a fourth of it and was feeling realll good. And by that I mean I basically had to watch over him haha. When taking the bus back, Kerri and Dad decided to create a new sport called bus surfing. Basically you stand in the aisle and try not to use anything for support. This is especially tricky when the crazy bus driver takes sharp turns. It was very entertaining and all the Brazilian passengers were laughing.

Thursday we watched the USA vs Germany match at FanFest on the beach. That was pretty fun. Not too many people were there but after the game ended, we all went to the beach. The water was really interesting because it was a blackish red color. The Rio Negra is named adequately. On this night we went back into Centro and ate a delicious meal to celebrate our last night in Manaus.