Adventure in Brazil

Brazil is not necessarily boring but we haven´t missed any flights or had strangers sleep on our floors. We have had car rides comprable to those in Peru.

We started in Manaus, in the Amazon jungle. Really in the jungle. We stayed at Eco Park. It is the South American version of a dude ranch. We each had our own cabin. All the meals were prepared for us and we did activities in between. We went to the monkey forest where the tour people attract the monkeys by feeding them twice a day. We went to the indian village where the tour people have paid five families to come in from the deep dark forest, to perform for us and offer to sell us their handicrafts, and then go back to their houses with electric power as we left. The dancers were playing volley ball in the communal court as we left.

We did go fishing and some of us caught pirrana. We went on the boat at night and the guide caught a kayman, a cousin of the alligator, though I wouldn´t want it to bite me. We all held the kayman, some of us tried to strangle it. We spent a whole day driving down the river to see where the black Rio Negro merges with the brown Amazon looking a lot like the Texas oil spill. It was a warm up for the rest of Brazil, pun intended. The whole country is unbelievably hot. I sweat continuously, but then I sweat when it gets up to 35 degrees in January.

We then went to Salvador for a couple of days, to Fiera (pronounced fay-ra) for church and then back to Salvador. In Fiera we spent time with folks Mike taught and baptized. It was clear from the reception he got that he had a great positive impact in their lives. One is now the elders quorum president and another the young mens president. We had sunday dinner in a home with cement floors and no hot water. Afterwards they walked us to the bus stop which is really good because it is a very scary neighborhood. We got on the bus and stood all the way to our destination. The only thing missing was chickens and pigs.

In Salvador we are staying at the Red Fish Pousada. I expect to meet Earnest Hemingway in the hall. It oozes character. If the air conditioning worked better it would be one of my all time favorite hotels anywhere.

Just down the street is a cafe with no sign to tell you what it is. The walls are stone, the same stones on the inside and the out. We have eaten there three times because the price is right and the food is good. Down the street this neighborhood becomes the avant garde area and the food prices are at least twice as high as at our place. As we finished up tonight and were talking a rather bedraggled man came to our outside table and spoke to Mike. Mike then handed him his plate with the unfinished piece of chicken on it and all the rest of the rice and beans. The man scooped them all together and gobbled them down in about 80 seconds. I have seen lots of homeless and hungry folks but that was a first for me.

We have walked the beach and seen some of the sights and most of the shopping. We didn´t get to eat any cooked bugs like James fed us in Korea. We did however eat bean paste and small shrimp with the shells still on. (I will take the shrimp with shells over the larvae.)

A couple of more nights in Salvador and we are off to see the Iguasu falls. Hopefully that goes as planned. No matter what else you say about this trip, it is an adventure.