Brazil

It’s been two days since we left Brazil and between Carnival and the Amazon River, it’s been the most fun experience so far.
We arrived in Salvador on Fat Tuesday the last day of Carnival, and before we disembarked we attended at briefing at 8:00 a.m. which warned us of the dangers in Salvador and safety precautions we needed to take. When they finally let us disembark the ship becomes a mad house of 700+ people trying to be the first ones off. Andrew and I surveyed the ship and found a stairwell that took us 5 feet from the door that exits the ship, so we cut the crowd and were one of the first ones off.
It was 10:00 and since we had to get back at 1:00 we decided to go not to wait around and wander off on our own, leaving the people we were going to travel around with. Without a good map we made our way through the market and to the elevators that take you from the lower Salvador to upper Salvador (Pelorina), but not without having to buy a ribbon bracelet. People on the streets sell these ribbon bracelets that they tie around your wrist 3 times and you make 3 wishes, and if it falls off on its own the wishes come true. You have to buy one because if you don’t you will be constantly hounded and some still hound you if you have one on your wrist. Once we got up the elevators we went about three blocks before we were approached by a small group of SAS girls who kindly demanded our company. They wanted us to stay with them because they had been wandering down a back ally (which we were specifically told not to do) and a man grabbed them and told them to turn around because they were walking down a prostitution street. Andrew and I didn’t mind, and we all decided to get a bite to eat together. Andrew had made conversation with an English speaking street vendor and he showed us a good place to go eat. The menu was in Portuguese and no one could read it so we all pointed at random things and shared every thing we got. The meal was delicious, especially the fried cheese balls. Andrew and I and a girl named Julie from Kansas City that we were eating with headed back down to the ship after our meal so that we could make the bus to our Camarote.
There was a group of about 40 people going in our Camarote and when we got to the bus they gave everyone a green tank top (which we looked really good in) that acted as our ticked into the Camarote. We hopped in a bus that took us about ½ a mile from where our Camarote was located and we walked the rest of the way with a police escort of about 10 the rest of the way. I really didn’t have a good idea of where we were going, I thought it would be a viewing platform with just about 40 of us on it watching Carnival go buy, but it was much more. There were about 2000 people on this platform that stretched about the length of a football field. They had bars set up every where and concession stands with everything from sushi to meat on a stick. Immediately we were separated from the girls that we had planned on staying with but we ran into some guys from UT on our trip and hung around them. After hours of watching people pass through the streets following the bands, we left and got a taxi with a few random SAS people we ran into. Carnival beats any thing I’ve ever done before or probably will do, we were told by our administrators that at any time in Salvador during the 5 days of Carnival there are estimated 2 million people dancing in the streets and it’s the biggest festival gathering in the world, second biggest gathering only to Mecca.
Back at the ship we packed last minute things for the Amazon and split up, Andrew going with an independent group, and I with a SAS group. At 1:00 a.m. my group left for the Airport and 11 hours later I arrived in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon. Manaus has a population of 2 million comprised almost completely of native Indians and is accessible only by air or the Amazon River. It was raining our first day on the Amazon and I had forgotten to pack any rain gear, for some reason I had left the poncho I brought just for this trip. The first day we saw where the Rio Negro and the Amazon meet, which is really cool because the black waters of the Negro and the brown of the Amazon don’t mix but remain completely separated due to the different temperatures and ph levels. Then we saw a lake with giant lily pads and crocodiles, and explored the tributaries on canoes. At night we went spotlighting down the river, kind of like in Seymour, only here we were looking for crocodiles. When we found some that were about 3 feet long our guides would jump out of the canoe into the water and catch them. On the boat we slept in hammocks and despite what some might say, I thought they were very uncomfortable. The next two days we visited Amazon tribes, fished for Piranha, hiked trough the jungle, learned survival techniques, ate bugs, and swam and bathed in the Amazon. The last night we went to a hotel in Manaus and saw an Indian tribal dance, then went to the airport at 12 for our flight back to Salvador.
The last day in Salvador I met back up with Andrew and some friends and we walked around the city and checked out the market and the little shops. We met two girls that are our next door neighbors on the ship and sat with them for a while in the square and ate smoked cheese on a stick. This guy was walking around with a small metal bucket full of coals and a box of squares mozzarella cheese that he puts in a bag of seasoning and then roasts over the coals. I don’t care what they say about not eating street food, it was the best cheese I’ve ever had. One of the girls was lactose intolerant but after a bite of someone’s she couldn’t resist and ended up ordering two, she spent all day yesterday sick throwing up.
Yesterday and last night we spent talking with our friends catching up on everyone’s stories in Brazil and planning our trips for South Africa. I can’t help but mention that we’ve got our Great White Shark diving booked after our safari. The internet on the ship is way to slow to load any photos, but our Safari will have free internet so I’ll make sure to load all of our pictures so far.