Oi!

After the Venezuela periple I arrived in Manaus, a city that is completely build from imported materials through the Amazon and also is the seaport the furthest away from the sea! The golden years of the rubber had a clear impact on the development of the city. The main building is the Teatro Amazonas, which is completly buildout ofimported materials from Europe and even the wood that comes from the Amazon was sent to Europe to be carved and sent back.

I went visiting the an oldrubber plantage with some Brazilians and they gave me my first intensive course of Portugees, because the museumguide didn't speak English. The Argentinian guy from the group had his birthday, so we had a party that night with a great churrasca! (Quite the same as a BBQ) But after a while we ran out of meat and went searching for more around 10pm. The streets were packed with students who just finished their classes and were partying in the streets.

After a while we ended up in a neighbourhood that didn't look that safe. People were watching us and it turned out we were just at the border of the favelas. Even the locals from Manaus say: 'They should drop a bomb on these favelas!'. Eventually the we got safe back, but without meat.. The nightguard from the hostel wanted to celebrate it even more and took us to a very cool place outside of town, packed with partying locals and again I was dropped in the middle of all these Portugees speaking people! These party's are really fun to meet locals and talk about the life in a city in the middle of the jungle.

The other nights in Manaus we went twice to the Teatro Amazonas. One night there was this eclectic, crazy dance/theater/.. I don't know what it was, but it was insanely strange. The other night we attended the Amazon Philharmonic orchestra. It was an amazing performance in this beautiful theater.

The 31st we left Manaus with our cruiseboat! Instead of a fitness, there was an iron bar with two concrete blocks on it, instead of a theatre we had a tv, instead of a luxury dining room we had a crappy place were we ate twice a day chicken,rice,noodles and beans(I'm so sick of that food! Really starting to hate it) and breakfast was a dry cookie with a cup of coffee that tasted like liquid sugar. Instead of a room with a view we had our own hammock with your neighbour constantly swinging and bumping against you because there was not enough place. Instead of a nice bathroom we had a room with a shower of brown Amazon water and right underneath the shower stood the toilet, so you had to stand over it. HARD CORE cruising I call this!

So to keep busy during the seven day trip on a river: we read, took naps, played cards and chatted with the locals. I met some verynice people! Once a day we stopped in a harbour of a city along the Amazon and unloaded supplies, because these villages are only accessible through the river.

In one of the villages I went for a walk, because the captain said we had a 2hour stop. Another guy from the boat wanted to have a beer in town, so we went to a bar and had a chat. After a while the barman came over and asked us if we were from the boat.. because it was leaving!! We didn't hear the boat horn because of the loud music in the bar, so we ran as hell downhill(the village was on top a a hill along the Amazon river) to the boat that was already half loose from the port and everyone on the boat was cheering at us as we ran! This was one of the most intense moments ever! Eventually we made it and afterwards we had a good laugh about it and the locals really started to like me! The other crazy moment on the boat was on an afternoon when we were playing cards on the top deck, the boat suddenly made a 90 degree turn and went full speed direction shore. Everyone started to wonder what happened as we got closer to shore, and then ... the boat had a massive impact, we had just crashed into the riverbank with no reason whatsoever!! Nobody told us what happened or why it happened. Probably the Captain was drunk and fell asleep, but it was a major panick moment on board! The boat luckily managed to get loose from the shore and we simply continued the journey.

Wefinally arrived well in Tabatinga/Leticia and I'll be leaving this little lost bordertown tomorrow(Sunday) in the afternoon and fly to Bogota. Normally I could have left earlier, but there is a good reggaeton party in town tonight and someone from the boat wanted to go there with me, so I'll be dancing in the middle of the Amazon tonight! It's a crazy idea if you think about it, but awesome if you're here!

I'll upload pictures today normally! Be patient!

Have a good time at home!

G. on the road