Manaus, Brazil & The Amazon

We arrived in Manaus , located on the Amazon River , around midday. We got picked up by our hostel, who also ran a tour company. Before going to the hostel we stopped by his hostel to find out about tours to the Amazon. We booked one that would leave the following morning. We finally got to our hostel, which was completely empty. It wasn´t the best place, since it was kind of musty. But it did have 3 cats! The one guy who worked there seemed disinterested and spoke no English. We went to bed early, so that we could get up by 7:30 to start our Amazon journey!

We were picked up in a cab at 8am, which dropped us off at the dock. We took a boat across the river and stopped at ‘The Meeting of the Rivers.’ It´s where these 2 rivers meet, and because of the difference in density there is a clear separation between the two. You can see how one side of the river is dark, and the other is much lighter. We put our hands in the water too, and you can feel the difference in temperature too. It was pretty cool. On the other side of the river bank we were picked up by another car, which took us to catch yet another boat. We finally arrived at Juma Lodge around 11am. The dining area is on logs, and as the tide rises the structure moves up. We dropped our stuff off and then took a swim in the river. Which by the way was the same river we had just seen alligators in. Although the owner promised it was safe. After having lunch we packed a few essentials and were taken out into the jungle with a group of 5 other people. Nicole and Keema (sp?!) were from New York City and Washington DC respectively, there was a couple from Switzerland, and there was Joey, who we had actually met in Montevideo! Small world! Our guide was Mateo and his assistant was Paulo. They were both really cool guys, and natives of the Amazon River basin. After an hour boat ride we arrived at our camp site. We set up our hammocks beneath a little hut made of palm tree leaves. We collected fire wood for dinner. We got into a boat to go collect wood from a tree in the middle of the river. Mateo tore off pieces of wood and put it in the boat. We even discovered a baby bat among the fire wood! We returned to camp and started the fire. For dinner we had chicken, rice and some Brazil nuts found in the forest. After dinner we did a night walk in the jungle. We heard lots of animals and saw a huge ass spider! Later we hung out by the fire until bedtime. The hammocks weren´t too bad, but a bed would have been better!

The next day we woke up, and had hard boiled eggs and bread for breakfast. We packed up our stuff and headed out on the river. After an hour or so we arrived at a native’s house, which consisted of three open rooms. After putting our stuff down we went on a jungle walk. It poured rain almost the whole time! It was pretty muddy and slippery; Katie fell twice! There wasn’t much of a trail, and our guides had to take a machete to the plants. We saw lots of plants and ate sugar cane. The walk was about 2 hours long and by the time we finally got back to the house, we were all soaking wet form head to toe! We changed and tried to dry off. The lady of the house made us lunch, and we ate with a bunch of her grand children. After lunch we went back into the river to put out some nets to catch fish for dinner. A couple hours later we retrieved them and found nothing! Thankfully, there were some other nets from earlier which had a few fish in them. That night for dinner we just ate crackers, since neither of us wanted the fish! Later on in the night, we all were dancing with the kids to some American pop music. Also a bit later, our guide offered us some shots of rum! So we were all taking shots with the natives and drinking Caipirinhas made with fresh lemons – and ants! We went to bed around midnight and tried to get comfy in our hammocks!

We were woken up at 5:30am the next day so that we could return to the lodge by 7am for breakfast. After breakfast we went piranha fishing. Leif caught one fish, but unfortunately it wasn’t a piranha so he had to throw it back. Later for lunch there was piranha soup; we both passed though, because it was literally the piranha as whole. And we did not want to eat something with a face! After lunch we said goodbye to Nicole and Keema, and then we went on another jungle trek. Leif really wanted to see some monkeys, so our guide looked extra hard for them. We ended up seeing quite a few, and two different species of them. We also saw an anteater that was climbing trees, tons of birds, lots of ants, spiders and plants. At one point we had to cross a river by walking over a wet, dead tree that was about 30 feet long. We thought it was a joke at first, but he was serious. It was probably the scariest thing we’ve done so far! But thankfully we all made it across alive. When we got back to the lodge we saw a sloth laying on the dock. We thought it was dead, but they told us he was just resting. When it got dark we went into the boat and we went caiman spotting. Mateo caught a three foot female and we all got to hold it in the boat. He also gave us a mini lesson all about caimans. After getting back to the lodge for dinner we were exhausted so we went to bed early.

The last morning we went to an 84 year old man´s house, who showed us about the rubber making process. He makes wallets, shoes and condoms! The condoms do not look comfortable; they are thick and sturdy. He showed us the different sizes of the wood molds, and Mateo commented on the little one saying it was for Japanese people! First he puts a cut in the rubber tree to collect a milky substance that was the rubber. He makes a fire and pours the liquid over the mold, then roasts the mold over the fire. But it was hilarious to see an old man making a rubber condom over a fire. After the rubber demonstration we went and saw a humongous tree, and then returned home. At 2pm we were picked up by boat and made our journey back to the city of Manaus.

We were originally supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, giving us one more night in Manaus. But apparently the boats don´t always leave on time if they aren´t full, so now we are leaving on Saturday afternoon. This was actually a good thing, because we were able to see the city and also got some errands done. We even got to do laundry for the first time! We also got in some shopping, which was great because things are pretty cheap here. We each got something we had been wanting for a while; Leif got a Speedo and Katie got shorts and a tube top. In a few hours we´ll be heading to the dock and hopping on a boat for about a week to go upstream on the Amazon River!

Salvador, Brazil

We arrived in Salvador in late morning. We got a cab to our hostel, and the cab driver dropped us off about 2 blocks away from our hostel. We had to walk up a steep, cobbled stone hill in the 90 degree heat with our 30lb bags. And we got lost for a little bit. It was not fun. We eventually found it, and it was in the back of an art gallery. We found out the private room we requested was unavailable. But they ended up giving us a 4 person dorm for just us two, and we got a discount. So it all worked out! After resting for a little while, we wandered into the city. It´s the most African influenced city in South America. It´s very colorful and lively, with live music everywhere on the streets. We found a restaurant to eat at, where we each got a free Caipirinha. We shared a steak that came with rice and fries. All the meals in Brazil come with rice and fries! After dinner we called it an early night, because we were still recuperating from Carnaval!

We slept in the next day and then headed to the beach. Going to the beach was really nice, as we hadn´t been to one since Punta. Not counting the times in Rio where we danced on it at night or when we landed on it after hang gliding. And PS – they sell everything you could want on the beach: hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, jewelry, food. After sun bathing for a few hours we walked around the city some more. We saw lots of shops with souvenirs and paintings, and hung out in a square sipping on some coconuts.

Our last day in Salvador we checked out at noon, although our flight out wasn´t until 3am that night. We left our bags in the hostel´s storage, and returned to the beach! It was much hotter, but at least we got tan! For lunch we ate at a place on the beach, which had German menus for some reason. Leif thought he ordered a hamburger, but ended up with a slab of chicken and an array of fruit. But it was still tasty! We hung out at the hostel till 8pm, when we got a ride to the airport. At the airport we ate Subway and Bob´s Burgers. Oh, and Bob´s has an amazing chocolate milkshake! We finally checked in at midnight and were able to board our plane at 3am. Eight hours and three plane rides later, we arrived in Manaus!

Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro!!

DAY 1:
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro late morning on January 30th. We were picked up by Martin, a cab driver the hostel had sent for us. During the 30 minutes drive to the hostel he gave us a little Portuguese lesson, and then quizzed us at the end. We arrived at our hostel, Brazil Hostel which is in Lapa, next to the Arcos de Lapa (pretty much party central for Carnaval) We also met the owners, Jorge and Ana. They seemed really nice and the hostel looked like a good place to call home for the week. We ended up sharing a room with 4 Aussie girls. They were pretty nice, even though their crap was all over the room. One of the girls even lived in Seattle for a few months, so she was our favorite. After putting our stuff away we went in search of food. We ran into our taxi driver on the way out and he offered to help us find somewhere. We ended up at Zabor, a per kilo restaurant. He ended up eating lunch with us and we had a pretty good conversation despite the fact he didn’t know much English. We also ordered our first of many Caipirinha´s; and it was nice and strong. We went back to the hostel and met some of our hostel mates. The coolest one was Trish, a girl from England . We decided she was our new best friend! We also met Junior, who works for the hostel and helps plan events and outings. We signed up to go to a futebol (soccer) match that evening. It took place at Maracanã, the largest soccer stadium in the world. Flamengo, the team we were rooting for won! People really get into the game, it´s pretty awesome! We went to bed early that night so that we could rest up for the upcoming festivities.

DAY 2:
We got up semi early so that we could see some of Rio´s sights. We took the tram on top of the Lapa Arches to the neighborhood of Santa Teresa. It was a really cute, hilly area with good views of the city. We visited a museum, a park and a convent. The convent was cool, because they unlocked it especially for us, so we got VIP access! We walked down the extremely steep hills back to Lapa, where we visited the fine arts museum. A lot of it was closed for renovations, but it was free so that’s always good. They even had a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue, so Katie was very happy. We returned to the hostel for a nap, so that we would be well rested for another outing with Junior and our hostel peeps. We walked to a nearby club, which had free Caipirinha´s until 1am! And we definetly drank our fair share, so that it would last us the whole night. We also got a cool t-shirt with our entry fee that said something about Carnaval on it. We hung out and danced with our hostel people for a while to mostly hip hop music. Deepeka would have loved it! After a while the music changed to samba and a live band performed on a balcony. Katie and Trish were on the dance floor, but when they returned Leif was nowhere to be found. Katie looked up and saw that him and Casper (a Danish dude) had joined the Samba group on stage and they were dancing. Katie ran up to join them! We stayed there for a while and danced with the Samba girl, and Katie even got to wear her head dress for a while. Around 4amish, we walked back to the hostel. IMPORTANT: This will be the earliest we will have returned home after a night of partying!

DAY 3:
The next day we woke up around 1pm. We hired a cab to take us to the statue, Christ the Redeemer and to Sugar Loaf Mountain. He first took us to a place to get a good overall view of the statue, as well as the city. Also at this stop we saw some monkeys! So Leif was really happy! We then chugged up the hill, where we had 30 minutes to see the statue and buy some souvenirs. The statue was huge! And we also got some really nice shots of the cityscape. The driver then dropped us off at the cable car station to get up to the top of Sugar Loaf. Unfortunately, the cable car was $20 each to get to the top, and we didn’t even have enough for one of us to go. So we took some pictures of the mountain itself, found a metro station and went back to the hostel for a nap. Naps were an essential part of our life in Rio during Carnaval! We left the hostel around 9pmish. The second we stepped out we heard drums and music. We looked down the street and saw a crap load of people singing and dancing. We joined them and we all headed toward the Arches. We also bought some beers along the way. At the Arches we ran into someone walking around and selling tequila shots. He had a tray of salt and limes with a fifth of Jose Cuervo in his hand. We bought a shot and toasted to Frank! We were hanging out in the square with all the people, when all of a sudden it began to rain. People scattered like cockroaches to any form of shelter. We ran to a nearby tent to wait out the rain. But the rain didn´t stop everybody; people continued to dance and drink out in the rain. Once the rain subsided, we headed toward a club we had read about. We got a little lost for about 20 minutes, and had to navigate through the flooded streets. We finally found it, and it ended up being right next to the club we went to the previous night. The place was good, but kinda sketchy. There was an upstairs area called a ´dark room´, which is where people went to have sex. We danced a little bit and saw part of a drag show. But the best part of the night was when we met our new Brazilian friends! We stayed with them at the club until closing. Then we headed out into the streets with the rest of the city. Back at the Arches we met some of their other friends, and they invited us to a party that was going to start at 8am! Of course, we could not refuse! The people we met are Fabiano, Thiago, Natalia, Erica and Diego. Later on while we were hanging out and drinking Thiago (the cutest little black, gay man) introduced us to Bruno and Jhones (aka Johnny). Jhones told Thiago he thought Katie was cute, and it wasn´t long before they started making out. The two love birds wandered around for a while, but eventually caught up with everyone else. After having a hot dog, we made our way to Cinelandia Square , where the 8am party was to start. We switched from beer to coconut water and mate (a more sugary version of the Argentina tea). By 9:30am, nothing was happening yet so we decided to make our way home. On the way they showed us a club, where we would meet them at later that night. They walked us to our hostel and we said our goodbyes and see you soons.

DAY 4:
On this day we had planned to go hang gliding at 12pm, but we totally slept through it and slept until 3:30pm. After waking up, having lunch and getting ready we headed toward the club. We paid a little extra to get VIP, which meant we had any drink we wanted for free all night! Definitely can´t get that in Seattle ! We had a few Fanta Vodkas and went in search of our friends. We found them pretty quickly and we all headed to the rooftop, which played our kind of music. Our friends introduced us to a lot more people, because it seems like they know everybody no matter where we go. And everyone loved us and said how beautiful we were! They also introduced us to a new song and dance. The song is called Creu by Mc Creu. Everyone in Rio loves it, and they stop everything they´re doing and dance to it. It was described to us as the 5 speed sex song. There are 5 parts to the song, and each one gets progressively faster. The dance is pretty much humping the air. It´s amazing…and a real workout! It´s our favorite new song! So Google it, learn it, love it! Later in the night it began to rain. Rain was pretty much a constant during our time in Rio , but it sure didn´t stop anyone from having a good time! Katie and Thiago danced in the rain together. Katie dancing in the rain seems to be a common theme on the trip. We noticed that in clubs and on the streets people will just approach someone, ask their name, maybe where they´re from, and then just make out with them. We´re not necessarily saying that we participated in this practice, but it happens. ;) We left the club around 6:30am and walked back in the rain to our hostel to pass out.

DAY 5:
Again we woke up to go hang gliding, but it was raining so we weren´t able to go. We went to a buffet style restaurant for lunch. At a Brazilian buffet the waiters continuously bring you food and you can have as much as you want. We had TONS of pasta, and it was so good! We were such fat kids. The best part was the dessert: a pizza with bananas and cinnamon sugar. After our big meal we took another nap. That night we went to a party called, BITCH, which was recommended to us by our new friends. It was a huge, huge club! I don´t think we´ve ever been to a club that ginormous. We ordered vodka drinks, which we assumed came with some type of mixer. However, it was just a glass of vodka, which was surprisingly cheap. After getting good and buzzed we danced for a while, and then met some people on the balcony. We talked to them for a while, but then decided to ditch them. We went downstairs where they played music we liked. Once again, we danced till dawn! After leaving the club we walked through the streets for a while, beer in hand. We stopped at a stand where Leif got a hamburger and Katie got a hot dog. Yum, street food! Then we went to a square where a live cover band was playing. They played Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park , Snoop Dogg and more. We joined everyone and danced and sang along to the lyrics. We eventually got back to the hostel around 7am.

DAY 6:
Well, you should know the schedule by now: wake up late, eat, take a nap, and go out! Again, we woke up and couldn´t go hang gliding due to the rain. Around 9:30pm we left the hostel to go to the Sambodromo. We lucked out, because this is the one night where it didn´t rain! So, this is where the big parade is. All the schools from Rio show off their best floats and costumes. Each school gets an hour to dazzle the crowd. They each play their own song, which is basically a 3-4 minute song repeated for an hour! The parade was amazing! So colorful, vibrant and elaborate. Everyone was having a great time, dancing, drinking and singing. It went on from 9pm until 6am. It gets a little tiring after a while, but we made it all the way through with a little help from our friends caffeine and hamburgers. We got a Bob´s Burger, which is like the Brazilian Macdonald’s. It was an amazing thing to see and definitely worth while. We followed the hoards of people to the metro and packed into a subway car. We got off at Cinelandia and sat in the square and people watched for a while. Again, we got home around 7am and passed out.

DAY 7:
This morning we were abruptly awoken by our Aussie room mate. She told us that if we wanted to go hang gliding we had to leave in half an hour. We looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:30am!! With barely 2 hours of sleep, we slowly got up and got ready. We took a taxi with 3 other guys to the hang gliding office. Katie had to sit on Leif´s lap, and she feared for her life. Drivers in Rio are crazy!! We got to the office and signed our lives away. We hopped in a Ranger Rover and went up through the jungle on a big ass mountain. We got into our gear and had a few practice runs with our pilots. Katie went first. As she was flying through the air, her dude got a call on his cell phone. Leif´s pilot was very informative and told him all about the landscape we saw. We both landed safely, but was sort of abrupt. The hang gliding experience was awesome!! Not as scary as sky diving or bungee jumping, but it was well worth the money! And now we can say we hang glided in Rio ! We waited around for the rest of our group to land. We then took a cab back to the hostel, where we took a much needed nap. We contacted Fabiano to find out the 411 for the night, since it was the last night of Carnaval! We planned to meet up with him, Erica and Thiago in Ipanema. We took a metro and then a taxi to get there. He finally found us on the corner and we went to a nearby street party. So many people were out drinking and dancing. We even got to dance in the middle of the street to the Creu song three times within 20 minutes. It was great!! Katie was sad that Johnny didn´t show up, so all our Brazilian friends were on a mission to find her a man. There were a few candidates, but nothing compared to Johnny. Sigh! Around 2amish we all headed to the beach, where a DJ was playing. We went between dancing on the sand, drinking and talking with all our cool, new Brazilian friends. After our very sad farewells we caught a cab with a girl who was friends with Erica, and returned to Lapa around 6am. Approximately one minute after getting out of the cab we run into Johnny, Bruno and their creepy friend. Katie almost passed out from happiness! We pretended not to notice them at first, and waited till they saw us. And once they did Johnny was so ecstatic! The three of them didn´t speak much English and we knew very little Portuguese, so the conversation was quite entertaining. But we finally got on the same page after about 30 minutes. Katie and Johnny hung out for a few more hours, and made plans to see each other later that night. Katie returned to the hostel around 9:45am, and upon arrival saw the hostel owner who gave her a smile and a knowing glance. It is an odd feeling coming home when other people are getting up and having breakfast!

DAY 8:
We woke up the next day around 3pm, and Katie filled Leif in about what her and Johnny ‘talked’ about. We got some food and wandered around the city for one of the last times. Because Carnaval was over, it was really weird to see how empty the streets were. There were no vendors, no music, and no people drinking, dancing and urinating in the street. Oh yeah, the city was basically a urinal for the week. It was awesome for Leif, but Katie did not appreciate it very much, especially wearing flip flops the whole time. Back at the hostel we packed. Leif went to see American Gangster at a nearby movie theater, while Katie met up with Johnny one last time…well, until they get married.

DAY 9:
Our last day in Rio we woke up at 4:30am in order to catch our 6:45 flight to Salvador. We were really sad to leave Rio! We had an amazing time and met some really awesome people. We want to go back every year for Carnaval. New Years in Amsterdam was awesome. New Years in Prague was amazing. But nothing compares to a week long party in Rio! Any time of the day you will find something to do, something to drink, somewhere to dance and someone to make out with. There is so much that happened, this blog doesn’t even do it justice. We love Rio!!!

Iguazu Falls (Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay)

On January 27^th we arrived in Puerto de Iguazu after a 17 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. We took another bus to our hostel for about .50 each. We stayed at Hostel Inn, an ex casino. It was huge, and had a swimming pool! Unfortunately, it was raining! We went to check in but we had a little issue with our reservations. We had accidentally made reservations for February instead of January. We had emailed them a couple weeks back explaining the situation and they replied saying that it was no problem. Apparently there was some kind of communication problem and they through we were just confirming our reservations for February. We showed the guy the emails between us and the hostel. However, because the hostel’s reply didn’t specifically confirm the dates for January he said it was “50% our fault.” Katie was upset and said “it was not my fault, but whatever!” We finally got into our room and everything was okay. That afternoon we took a taxi into town, because it was still raining hard core. We searched forever in the pouring rain for a working ATM, and finally found one! We took refuge in a restaurant and got some food, and then headed back to the hostel. While drinking a beer in the common area, we ran into a Canadian girl we had shared a room with in Buenos Aires! Small world! And she was with two people from the Seattle area. Even smaller world! There were tons of people at the hostel and everyone wanted to check their email, but there were only 3 slow working computers. But we still waited patiently for our turn. Then all of a sudden this Israeli bitch comes out of nowhere trying to cut in line. Katie told her “no, we were first.” But she tried to say she was waiting before us. Katie replied “I don’t think so. We were sitting right there and saw you come up after us.” She then tried to play the pity card, and said she had something really important to check online. And then Katie said she did as well, and just sat down at the computer. The girl tried to argue more, but Katie wasn’t having it. Katie was really out going this day, and told everyone where they could stick it. It was great! After the little confrontation we went to bed early, as we had an early morning the next day.

On the 28^th we left the hostel at 7am and arrived at the Argentina side of the falls around 20 minutes later. First we went to the visitor’s center and walked through the museum. Then we joined a group of people on a jungle tour in a jumbo truck. About an hour later we arrived at a river where we hopped on a speed boat. PS – We were already soaked from the truck ride through the rain. We took the boat through the river and up to the falls. We went under a baby fall and got a little wet. We didn’t think we could get much wetter, but then we went under a massive waterfall (several times) and got completely soaking wet!! Thank god we had a waterproof camera! We were pretty much wet the whole day because it was overcast. We arrived back on shore and took a ferry to an island. We trekked around there for an hour or so, and saw some amazing views of the falls. There weren’t a lot of people on the island, so we were able to eat and pee in peace. We returned to the mainland and went on several larger trails to see small and big waterfalls along the way. In the afternoon we hopped on a train and walked about 20 minutes to get to the top of Devil’s Throat. Devil’s Throat is in the shape of a horseshoe where 14 falls drop 350 feet with tremendous force. It was amazing! It was pretty crazy to be at the top and staring down into the water. At points you weren’t able to see down, because it was so misty. After taking many pictures we headed back to the entrance. Along the way we ran into these little critters, called coatis. They were the cutest things! The best way to describe them is a mix of meerkat/raccoon/anteater. We also saw a Tiger Ant, which is an inch long black ant. It was super creepy! We left the Argentina side of the falls at 4pm and returned to the hostel tired and wet.

On the 29^th we woke up early once again. This time we caught a bus to the Brazilian city, Foz do Iguaçu. We got off at the bus station and started to walk toward Paraguay. We thought we would be able to walk across the border to Ciudad del Este, but after about a 40 minute walk with no border in sight, we decided to hop on a bus. We were kinda nervous crossing the border into Paraguay, because technically we needed a visa to enter into Paraguay. Fortunately, we arrived in the city with no problems. We had read that Ciudad del Este is the Tijuana of South America, and they were right; it’s a dusty, smelly place with tons of people, cars and bikes. And everyone is trying to sell you something. We walked around for a few hours, took some pictures, and then headed back to the safe arms of Brazil! Back at the bus station we took a bus to the Brazilian side of the falls. We didn’t spend as much time on the Brazilian side as we did on the Argentina side. There was less trekking and it was more about the views. It was a good way to get an overall view of the falls. You can really tell how massive they are. The Argentina side was a good place to spend the day and to be one with the falls, while the Brazilian side really allows you to appreciate the falls as a whole. After many a bus ride, we finally retuned to our hostel in Puerto de Iguazu late in the afternoon.

We woke up early on the 30^th and took a taxi to the Brazilian airport, where we would be catching a plane to Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval! Our time in the falls was amazing and was definitely an experience of a lifetime, but we were also excited to return to a big city…especially one where the biggest party in the world is held!