Well we made it, not only through our crazy last night in Praia, but through our Amazonian adventures also.........
Last Friday night saw us & the swedes dining on some amazing seafood just down from our Pousada before venturing back there to continue the evening on the balcony with some pre-festa drinks. A bottle of Vodka, a bottle of Cachaça, 2 oranges (which Linnea & I thought were Limes at the Supermercado) and plenty of mixes, before we decided it was time to move on to the transportation hub where we could grab taxis or 4x4´s across to the next village and onto the Festa.
The hub (street corner near the local reggae bar) was mahem to say the least, everyone keen to festa, not enough means to get there. We missed a 4x4 and headed to the party by taxi passing the many other festians who had given up the chase and were on their way by foot. The party was pumping, a house right on the beach with DJ´s and all sorts cranking the beats. There was a bonfire on the beach so we hung there most of the evening chatting to our Danish brothers, Rasmus & Jesper, who seem to be following us around Brasil. We started home around 5 so we could get a wee kip in before the 10am bus, once again finding transportation to be the issue, we were left with no other options than the stumble home. Apparently the walk takes about 30 minutes, we succesfully doubled that and crawled into bed sometime just before 6.
At 8 we were up and ready for our final serve of some of the finest breakfast that we have come across in Brasil, before finalising packing (actually starting for me, Lilla always seems to be way more organised) and on our way for a joyful day of transit, they always seem to fall on those days when sleep is running thin. We caught the 10am bus as the owner of our Pousada told us that they often break down and its better to be safe than sorry, I was happy to risk it and jump on the midday bus but Lil & the girls were not so optimistic. This left us with a 3 hour wait at Natal airport & the swedes with an even more depressing 4. Plenty of coffees and other random junk food items later we were on our way leaving Camilla & Linnea for the 2nd time with plans to meet up again in La Paz.
Fortaleza was our first stop with enough time there to head into town and find the biggest shopping center where we were able to stock up on a few essential jungle items and some subway. Back to the airport for the next leg to Belem, where we did stop but only to let more passengers on, before finally heading to our final destination Manaus. A long day was felt throughout the entire body!
Now I wasn´t quite sure what to expect from Manaus - a city in the center of the Amazon Basin with only one road into the city from anywhere, that´s only open in the dry season, but one thing was for, I didn´t expect a bustling city of 2 million people. We arrived close to midnight, headed straight for the hotel and to bed! We spent Sunday checking out different tour groups for the Amazon, watching a bit of cable and taking it very slow.
Monday morning bright and early we were off on our adventure - bus to the port, boat across to another port checking out the Meeting of the Waters along the way (Where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimóes meet. Both rivers are distinctively different colours, with different speeds and ph levels which in combination keep the rivers separate for some km until the Rio Solimóes takes over due to it’s higher speed and becomes the Rio Amazonas; interesting I know), a Kombi for about an hour South before a final leg by speed boat out to Lagoa Juma where our home would be for the next few days.
Lunch time & time for a swim straight of the porch of our floating dining room, we were reassured that nothing dangerous hung around these parts which kind of put us on our arse when an hour later we were told it was time for Piranha fishing, also straight of the porch!? We spent the afternoon cruising by boat spotting for monkeys and sloths before heading to a local village where they grew & produced Manioc before heading back to camp. We went in a bit soft and spent the first 2 nights in a brand new cabin, very comfy. A bit of time to relax before it was time to go Alligator catching! This also threw us a bit when we realized prime time Alligator catching territory was directly opposite us on the banks of the same river we had been swimming in earlier. Piranha soup was the feature for Dinner, yum!
We spent the night relaxing and watching the terrific lightning storm move in on us before heading to bed. The rain came down hard in the middle of the night, combined with the amazing sound of the Howler Monkeys didn´t see us get too much shut eye, but what do you expect in the middle of the jungle? Up early the next morning for a jungle trek where our dude guide Mateus, from the Wanu Tribe (up North), explained to us the different uses of all types of different plants and wildlife in the jungle whilst mimicking wildlife around us to attract them so we could get a better view.
After Lunch our group split and Lilla & I headed off on a canoe trip throughout the jungle canopy (because we are here in the wet season, the rivers are literally 10m higher than what they are in the dry so we were canoeing throughout the canopy, the water still has another 4-5m to rise) with an American guy named John & Mateus. Once again Mateus was the master, spotting heaps of different wildlife including birds, bats & insects before spending about 30min just hanging out watching the Capichiv (spelling?) Monkeys play right in front of us before heading back to camp where on the way we got up close and personal with Pink & Grey River Dolphins.
An early night saw us up early enough for the 5:30 start for another canoe ride around the lake to check out different bird species whilst watching the sunrise, very spectacular. We spent the rest of the morning fishing & hammock chilling before our group split again as John headed back to Manaus leaving just Lilla & I with the master to head off into the jungle and set-up camp for our final night. After camp was set-up we were back in the boat for some more fishing, wildlife spotting, hanging out with Squirrel Monkeys and fire wood collecting before we headed back to camp for the evening. Mateus had set-up this cool table from a fern tree where we prepared dinner before roasting chicken on the fire. After dinner we took the canoe out to marvel at the thousands of stars that really are unnoticeable within the normal glow of any sizeable city, while Mateus kept an eye out for the 6m Black Cayman that was known to live in the area.
After a not so bad, very interrupted by Howler Monkeys, sleep in the hammock we rose to prepare breakfast before heading off for our final morning. We cruised around for a bit before taking another stroll through the jungle checking out more flora and fauna before heading back to base camp. Lunch, a final swim and it was time to make our back to Manaus. Back to the hotel for some R&R before our first hot shower in days which woke us up enough to get us out into the streets for some dinner. Our hungry stomachs were craving red meat after spending the last 4 days living off fish so we headed straight to the local Churrascaria (a buffet of assorted, roasted meats on swords brought around to your table) where we feasted ourselves past the point of no return.
A solid sleep last night has brought us to now, forced inside due to the rain, waiting for our evening flight to Porto Velho (about 300km from the Bolivian Border), where we plan to spend the night before making our way through some crazy back neck jungle towns into Bolivia tomorrow. Should be interesting none the less, the plan is not to get stuck in too many of them for too long, will let you know how we end up.........................
Which I do know as 3 days have now passed since I originally tried to upload some crazy jungle photos to match our awesome adventures above with no love or joy. It is now Sunday evening, we have spent the last 2 days & nights trying to get ourselves from Manaus to any sizeable city in Bolivia. We are currently in a town of about 78 thousand called Trinidad (actually surprised they have the net, however slow it is) sort of central east Bolivia. Our last 2 days or so have sort of been a little more interesting.
Friday night we almost missed our plane out of Manaus as the guy from the tour company had told our driver the wrong departure time. We got there in the end although a little rushed (this dude was doing 100km an hour through 40km an hour zones) missing the Jamaica LP that some aussie guy generously left at his hotel reception for us - no time for those sorts of shenanigans. 1 1/2 hours later (about 1:30am) and we were in Porto Velho, a few hours from the border still so the plan was to sleep and rest good for the following day`s craziness. (This in the end almost destroyed our fast moving plans).
Up early enough for th 9am bus for the 6 hour ride to a small town called Guajará-Mirim, across the river Bolivia was awaiting. A few difficulties with obtaining a Brasilian exit stamp, according to them Lilla & I had never actually entered the country!? Off across the water to an even smaller town called Guayaramerín (confusing I know). Even more troubles obtaining an entry stamp considering Immigration was closed for the weekend, before heading to the local airport in a tuk-tuk (I thought these things only existed in SE Asia). 1 look at the dirt runway, closed shed terminal, non LAB (Bolivian Airline who we were planning on buying an airpass from to get ourselves out of the nowhere we had gotten ourselves into), airport and we decided to head to the local flota (bus) station.
Our plan has been always to head South to Santa Cruz, Bolivia`s largest city, en route to Uyuni (really South) before heading North again. The problem was we had entered Bolivia in the top North Eastern corner in probably one of the most remotest (we`re still in the Amazon you know) parts of the country. Once we had arrived at the bus terminal and started asking about Santa Cruz, we were shocked to hear the response ´4 days´ come flying our way considering the distance is only about 900km. Once we decided to jump on another bus to the next bigger city with supposedly more ways of escaping, Riberalta, we sort of figured out why; No.1 the Flotas are like 40 year old rusted out mini van 4x4`s and the roads look like these things have been working on them hard for far longer, that`s when we weren`t stopping to ferry across flooded rivers (we`re still in the Amazon you know).
Riberalta was not much more but with a few more homeless, wandering, feral dogs. Still lacking LAB (damn you Lonely Planet and your shitty information) & all travel agents and flight retail outlets closed for the night, we figured our only chance was to jump online and buy some flight tickets for the following day, hell even to bus it to La Paz from here, 500km away, was 2 days. Most sites in Bolivia actually don`t let you book tickets and with not even enough Bolivianos (cuurency) to pay for our hotel room and no ATM`s in town, we were drastically running low on ideas.
The next morning (being this morning) I decided to get up early and head to the airport, once I discovered that that was also closed I thought I would check out some ticket outlets, CLOSED! Luckily the mototaxi dude knew where I could change some US $ so atleast we didn`t have to do a runner on our hotel. At one of the closed ticket outlets I saw that they had a sign posted saying that they had a flight to Trinidad and onto Santa Cruz at 11, so after picking up Lilla from the hotel and trying to ring a few other agencies with no luck, we headed back to the airport.
Amaszonas only had 1 ticket to Trinidad but no onward to Santa Cruz, we just had to wait for Aerocon (of which I saw the sign) to rock up so we could get sorted. Apparently the 11 on the sign was actually referring to what time they opened at the airport. The first employee showed and said she thought there were 2 seats available, but when her boss rocked up she told her that there was only 1. There was no other option, we had to get out of here, tomorrow`s tickets had already sold out, we split up each with a different airline to Trinidad from where we thought we might actually stumble across another airline or some sort of reasonable bus time table to get us the rest of the way, there was only an hours difference in the flight anyway.
I purchased my ticket with Amaszonas and then when we went to buy Lilla´s ticket from Aerocon, they had suddenly decided that they didn`t have a ticket anymore even though I had reserved. They had forgotten that they had also promised someone else the ticket in the office the previous day, and to make things worse the lady from Amaszonas had headed home for a few hours as the plane wasn`t due to board for another 2. Aerocon told us to wait as the lady might be a no show and after further pestering they promised they would only give her another 15min to rock up. After a I was down to my last nail, we felt like we had won the lottery when we were told that the ticket was officially ours! Are we on the Amazing Race? Ironically for some reason my plane still had 3 spare seats when I boarded. More ironically the plane that Lilla ended up on actually stopped at Guayaramerín en route to Trinidad, if only we had of bothered to get out of the tuk-tuk the day before, we probably would have been able to avoid the entire catastrophy. Even more ironically is if we had of kept on trukkin once we had flown into Porto Velho instead of stopping to rest up, we probably would of been able to make some sort of connection yesterday. Pussies!
Anyway we`re here now and have oursleves an overnighter bus (a proper one with standard issue roads, or so they say) leaving in a couple of hours for Santa Cruz, hopefully there the immigration office will be open (the last 3 haven`t been) so we can finally oficially enter this crazy, very Honduras reminding, country. We did finally get a hold of LAB, but flight passes were too expensive considering we`ve already flown one leg of the country. I am glad we finally had a daily flight over the Amazon (both to and from Manaus were in the middle of the night) so we could get a birdseye view of some of the extensive river systems throught which I promise to share with you along with other jungle favourites once I am able to upload some photos. I have been able to upload all of them to Flickr though, the link is just on the right had side somewhere, you know the one with all the photos flashing up, so check`em ou! Until then, keep cool - I can`t wait for air conditioning!
