BRAZIL

Brazil is an incredible and diverse country. This is one place that I know I will have to come back to and explore more of. Being in the Amazon was incredible, but I missed a lot of the culture since the vast majority of Brazilians live in urban areas. I knew that going in, and it was a tough decision to make, but the Amazon was well worth it.

I went independently with 13 other students that also did not make it into the SAS trip. This was the perfect way to go as we formed a tight group and were the only people we really saw for days- the way I think it should be when you’re in the heart of the Amazon.

The first day we took a couple car rides/boat rides to get to our base hut. We saw some pink and gray river dolphins on the way. The part we docked at was our floating kitchen where the family also lived. We set up our hammocks up the hill underneath a wood ceiling open on all sides. This basically consisted of the entire lodge, except for a small inside hut with a few beds (who wants a bed when you can sleep in a hammock in the Amazon), and our outhouse. After setting up camp, we had our first meal of fried fish and white rice. White rice was pretty much my diet for the trip since everything else was meat- explains why I’m a little malnourished right now. The kitchen sink was actually just a whole in the ground where they washed the dishes in the river.

The first thing we did was go looking for sloths and monkeys. We saw many from far away, but the monkeys usually didn’t stay around us for long. The sloths were hard to spot since they barely ever move, but we found a few and made it our mission to hold one (thanks to Frank’s healthy obsession with the animal). We found one near the river bank about 50 feet in the air. Our guide docked our boat then proceeded to climb all the way up the tree to shake the sloth down (don’t worry, this doesn’t hurt them). After about twenty minutes, the sloth gave way and grabbed onto a tree limb about half as high. Then our other guide, kind of like a monkey himself, climbed up that tree to shake it down. The whole thing took about an hour and our excitement was so high by the time the sloth hit the water that we were all yelling and screaming (Brittany has a great video of it!). Frank quickly dove into the water and swam out to grab it. The sloth had a permanent smile on its face and was adorable. We took turns holding it and taking pictures, then put it back on a tree. Funny thing is that when we got back to the lodge, a guy there had caught a sloth and brought it to us so we got to see two sloths that day. It was a lot more rewarding when we actually got the sloths ourselves.

Everyone fished for piranhas from the dock when we returned with bamboo fishing poles. They probably caught 20 in one hour, which scared me a little since it was the same water I had swam in earlier that day. They ate those same piranhas for dinner after we went for another boat ride. We were the only ones with a motorized boat. The locals, which were few and far between, paddled with wood ores they carved themselves. Everyone made almost everything here by themselves, including their homes, boats, beds, etc.

After dinner, when it was completely dark, we were alligator and caiman hunting. To find them you shine your flashlight around and you can see their glowing eyes above ther water. I thought we would just look at them, but all of a sudden, our guide jumped in the water after the first caiman we came across. Then he jumped in after a full size alligator, which also got away. He caught the next caiman we saw after a little chase across the shallow waters by the shore. I was so excited to hold it, but had to hold it very tight so it couldn’t turn around and bite me. It was only a few feet long, on the smaller side, but scary enough for me. I don’t know if I would have held the alligator if he would have gotten it.

The next day we did a jungle hike through the Amazon. Our guides showed us the medicinal purposes and other functions of many of the trees. It’s amazing because they all basically look the same, but one would have a juice that seals cuts, while the one next to it would be their cure for malaria, or treatment for cancer. It’s really incredible how well they know all the flora and fauna of the area from being so close to the land. A few people ate maggots and claimed they tasted like sweet coconut, but I didn’t have the guts. We continued hiking in the pouring rain (which it did a couple times every day), and even used logs to cross over big creeks. There were many snakes and insects, but we only saw one mammal because they stayed away from us since we made more noise than they are used to.

They afternoon we took another boat ride to watch the sunset and then set up camp in the middle of the jungle. We cooked our food over a fire that we made and then sat around and drank a local drink that I can’t remember the name of. It’s supposed to keep the mosquitoes away, and I think it worked, but it didn’t keep the spiders from biting my face.

We spent the last day at the home of some indigenous people. They grew a lot of crops of various vegetables, fruits, spices, and natural medicines. It was really cool to see all the things they had and how well their crops grew without any pesticides and chemical fertilizers. They knew the land really well; even the little kids were at work helping their parents with the production of a sort of flour to sell.
We had our flight out at 2 in the morning back to Salvador, so we had some time to check out the city of Manaus before taking off. It was surprisingly a beautiful city, especially around the center square.

Running into all the SAS people at the airport made me realize just how secluded our trip had been with only the 14 of us. We roughed it a lot more than the set-up trips, which is exactly the experience I had wanted.

Back in Salvador, I quickly walked around the city after showering for the first time in 4 days. The city has some amazingly detailed architecture, and I wish I could have spent more time there, but it was time to go to the famed Brazilian soccer game.

The soccer game was between Brazil’s two best teams, Bahia (the state we were in) and Victoria. The fans were extremely energetic and I couldn’t be there without getting into the game. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a crowd that into a game before- even at the biggest games in America. Sparklers were going off everywhere and people were jumping and running down the aisles. It was cool to be in the midst of a bunch of Brazilians in their element.

I really did not want to leave Brazil because there is so much left to do. I think I have to come back to see the amazing city of Rio de Janeiro, the mountainous city of Lencois and lots of other places. What an amazing country!