The city seems to be falling apart, right in time for the World Cup. (Less than a month away!) Last week there was also a strike of the security guards for most banks, making it impossible for many people to withdraw money or pay their bills, and a teacher strike in the city's public schools also started this week. When I had arrived to Rio in July there was also a teacher's strike, so this would be the second strike in less than a year. And how could we forget the trash workers' strike that happened right after carnaval, leaving the streets and beaches of Rio a disgusting smelly breeding ground for rats and other nasties? Also, the metro construction in Ipanema is going to be delayed once more because craters have formed where they dug the tunnels for the metro, causing the sidewalk to cave in on my street and cutting some apartments' access to water and electricity....
So you can imagine Rio is as interesting a place as ever to be studying abroad, and things will probably only get wierder as the Copa approaches...hence my intense gratitude for being able to escape to the Amazon a week and a half ago! I almost missed my flight because of Rio rush-hour traffic.... Basically I left my house three hours before my flight and took the bus to the airport then had to get off mid-way and flag a cab because the bus was taking too long then even in the cab the traffic was so bad that I got to the airport when my flight was boarding then I used that good ole jeitinho brasileiro and cut the line by checking in at the odd-sized baggages counter and was so relieved I hugged the guy who printed my ticket then I ran through security (OK not gonna lie I felt like I was in a movie haha) to make it onto the flight just in time!
Giant Lilypads in the Amazon!
And boy am I glad I made that flight because the Amazon was AMAZING! I had heard from a couple people that it was overrated (ie you can see more animals in other places) and out of all of the Brazilians I know none of them have actually been there so they all gave me puzzled looks as to why the heck I would want to go there... Yes, the mosquitos were terrible (they bit through my repellent covered pants like it was nothing) and yes it was pretty physically uncomfortable at times sleeping in hammocks in super humid weather but the experience of being completely off the grid (no wifi or cellphone signal), boating along pitch black opaque waters, having a clear view of the stars in the complete darkness of deep nature, swimming in the Amazon river under a neon pink sunset, holding a sloth, and much more was sooooo epic!!
Hammocks with oh-so-necessary mosquito nets! Our sleeping arrangements in the Amazon (the beds were more expensive and mostly taken up by other guests of the lodge)
I only spent two nights in the actual jungle but we had a busy schedule packed with activities every day. On the first day we spent the whole morning traveling to the lodge from Manaus. The voyage involved getting picked up from our hostel then taken to the agency with whom we booked our tour, then taking another car ride to the port of Manaus, then a boat to the other side of the river where a kombi was waiting for us to take us to another boat on a smaller river that took us to the lodge (all in the pouring rain). After lunch at the lodge the rain calmed down and we went piranha fishing (I almost gave up because I had no luck catching any but then the guide told me not to be a quitter and on my last try I caught the biggest one! He jumped off my hook soon after though). The cooks at the lodge prepared the piranha for our lunch the next day, pretty standard in taste as far as white fish go but super duper boney. We also swam in the Amazon which is something you should only do in the wet season (which, lucky for us, it was). There was a case two years ago when a 7 year old boy got attacked by piranhas and died because he went swimming during dry season where the piranhas are concentrated in a much smaller region of water. All it takes is one bite for the piranhas to swarm you because once they smell the blood it's game over... So my paranoia about the piranhas getting me was a bit reduced because of wet season, but Nigel our guide freaked us out anyway warning us not to pee because that would attract a certain kind of parasite that can enter genital orifices then grow inside of you. Apparently its more common in men though...?
At night we went cayman spotting (I got to hold a baby cayman!) and we found a bright green iguana too! The next day we went on a jungle trek (my skin will never be the same...getting swarmed by mosquitoes for three straight hours is no fun) and saw tons of cool jungle creatures like boa constrictors and tarantulas. The adventurous eaters of the group got to taste a kind of larva that grows inside of a poisonous nut, feeding off it and becoming an edible, non-poisonous, nut-tasting, protein-laden bug in the process!
That afternoon we went on another boat tour and just by chance happened upon a sloth! The guides never guarantee animal-sightings, and previous groups we had talked to said they had not seen a sloth so we felt very lucky that day, and even more so when the driver of the boat sacrificed his body to climb the tree we saw the sloth in. He climbed all the way to the top where the sloth was chillin' to bring him down into the boat. The poor sloth held onto the branch for dear life with his enormous claws but he ended up caving to the driver's strength and then we each got to hold him on the boat. He didn't seem too upset in the end, which may have to do with how the sloth has an adorable perma-smile and super gentle demeanor, but I do still feel bad for interrupting his alone time up in the tree. We joked that he would probably take at least five hours to get back up the tree when we plopped him back onto the lower branches.
On the last day we visited a caboclo (mixed indian descent Amazonian people) house that just got electricity a couple years ago from Lula's "Luz para todos" project where we saw people making farinha (manioc flour), tasted some exotic fruits native to the Amazon then traveled back to Manaus. Then we hung out for a bit in Manaus near the beautiful Amazon theater that was built with rich rubber baron money in 1896, then I came back to Rio on a 2 AM flight! There is no such thing as uninterrupted sleeping schedules for people who want cheap flights!
Our awesome guide Nigel, complete with Machete and awesome outfit, who was from the border of Brazil with Guyana. His grandfather was an English man who settled in Guyana with a native woman and thus he had an English name (Nigel Kurt Atkinson) and perfect English!
This past week-end was the UC trip to Paraty, another welcome respite from Rio. And on Saturday I'm off to NYC to see the big bro graduate law school. Woohoo! USA and, especially, MEXICAN FOOD, here I come! I haven't been back since July!!!
Thanks for reading!
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