12 March

What is it now... Thursday or so?...

So we're still in Belem...

Last night we made some lovely Argentinian friends and sat up on top deck with all of them and 2 guitars, waiting for the ship to set off.

It was calm where we were, but all around us in the night there were constant flashes of lightning... now we are learning the Spanish words for everything as well as the Portuguese!

We got all tired and eventually gave up waiting for the boat to set off, and went to bed with images of waking up somewhere different with exotic forest floating past our window! If we can see the window through the mass of hammocks that is.

But this morning we woke up feeling suspiciously still, in the exact same place as we dropped off.

We have got various answers as to when we might leave, ranging from meia hora to meia dia amanha, so we went to the bar in the port for a coffee so as to be back with a safe amount of time- then not long after 12 we actually set off!... turned round a couple of times, and went back to port, where everyone started jumping over to the next door boat with their bags and hammocks. It was a huge palavre (which means 'word' in Portuguese) with hordes of people grabbing all their stuff and climbing from one boat to the next, bagsying spots for their hammocks- panicking about finding space bacause the last boat was so crammed!

But as it turns out this boat's got quite a bit more space than the last- which sort of balances out that it is supposed to be leaving at 10 tonight even if it is on time- which seems unlikely, as this is Brazilian time.

This is really nice, we're hanging out in our laughably little and nearly trustworthy hamocks (rede's) tangled among everyone else's, our Argentinian friends are playing music on their guitars, flute, ukelele, water bottle, and i just remembered my bag of flamboyam beans I gathered in Capao and handed them out too, so now there's some rattling going on too :)

It's funny, everyone's always really suprised about the beans, and always lacking in percussion (unless you count chair-tapping) so it works out really well. I don't know why everyone doesn't do it!

It's nice- the really frustrated peoplew have all left so everyone is just chilling with the music.

It is a bit of a shame because we are really going to have to hurry the rest of our trip if we're going to see the lot before Ash has  to go home, but that's not the aspect we're going to think about, it won't make waiting any easier!

11 March... anticipation!

We set off today but we haven't yet, there's been loads more people and stuff bundling on all day since we woke up with the sun!

It was a funny night, in a tangle of weird dreams, hammocks and mosquito nets.

I've never actually slept all night in a hammock before!

Today we went to Ver-o-Peso market to get supplies while Paul and Richard looked after all our stuff.

We got a coconutwhich the man de-shelled for us, a bag of mini papayas, giant passionfruits, apples, bananas, fresh brazil nuts (which are a completely different thing!!), an avocado the size of a squash and some tins of veg and instant noodles... etc, etc.

The market's great, it's huge and bustling with stalls selling crazy looking fruit, animals, crafts, herbs and spices and medicinal tree barks and powders and little bottles of exotic lotions and potions, fish and  meat and boating equipment.

There's hardly any other gringos there and the stall holders loved watching us not knowing what anything was- everyone wants you to taste their stuff, so we had plenty of those amazing brazil nuts...

When we got back Paul had his hair cut by the on-board transvestite hairdresser & now it's our turn to lounge around in the hammocks watching crates and crates of mainly veg and alcohol being loaded up onto the boat.

We're surrounded by a tangle of every colour hammock, all sorts of people going off up the big river for their various reasons- no other gringos again though.

I can hear so much going on, bundling stuff all around and people shouting in occasionally understandable portuguese, little fishing boat engines spluttering past.

And apst my mozzie-bitten feet & my 10 real stripy hammock I can see this huge huge huge expanse of thick brown amazon water, with a tiny grey gold distant strip of rainforest sandwidged between it and the heavy grey sky.

It's been hot and sunny all morning (though so humid and stuffy), but we've heard some rolls of trovao and the daily tropical storm is looking imminent. Hoping it doesn't catch the boys on their shopping trip!

(it's funny being with English people, we haven't mixed as much as usual with the locals, & I have to admit they have been much less inclined to mix with us! But Richard has a guitar so I'm sure we'll make some friends this evening. We do feel a lot like gringas though)

funky jungle roots

Ola tudo! como via?

(i thought i would do this blog in foresty green to go with our surroundings)

we are now in the strange old city of Manaus,built in the middle of the rainforest,with the start of the Amazon river just around the corner. In front of the city the two rivers,the Amazon and Rio Negro, flow in to one and you can see the muddy waters of the river sea and the jet black of the other flowing side by side,and then eventually combining. Due to different speeds and mass because of mineral content the two river dont just mix straight away,but share the same bed and get to know eachother gradually=)

The city has a strange feeling to it,you can tell there used to be a rainforest where now there are buildings,and some how it dosnt seem quite right. its very warm,muito calor aqui, and humid too.

Tomorrow we are going on a jungle trip and staying in the rainforest for a couple of nights,oooo! im so excited about that!! we get to go parana fishing and crocodilio hunting,and learn about the medical uses for some of the plants.A few weeks ago some one saw a jaguar........=O =D
we are till with a few of the fellas who we went to Alter do Chao with,but no longer have the crazy Argentinians. was actually quite sad saying good bye to them,we had so much fun with them and they helped us loads with speaking portuguese and spanish. Tnight is our last night with the english lads,Richard, Paul and Danny but we`re all going to stay in contact and hopefully meet up when we`re all back in uk.We`re planning on doing something for brazilian carnaval next yr!

The boat trip up to Manaus from Santarem was a funny one,no where near as fun as the first one,there was much more space on the boat though.Paul had his birthday while we were traveling which was pretty funny,he said it was his most random birthday ever,and i felt very proud to be a part of that! We got him a huge cake and then covered it in doce de leite and rainbow sprinkles,it looked like some kind of outa space mushroom!

in the hammock next to us was a gorgeous girly called Lucianno,and her beautiful mum. we made good friends with her and Megnut made floweriny things with her and Danny taught her to do some stuff on the guitar. she was only 9 or 10 but so good to chat too,she spoke very clearly and made sure you understood. i dont think i`ve ever met a kid that age in England who talks about how beautiful light looks when reflecting on water at night,or discussing the difference amd strangeness between the green rainforest and the huge buildings of the city.
xxxxxxxxxx

10 March

We`re in our hammcks (rede) on our ship now!
We`re going up the Amazon to Santarem tomorro, but for now we get to sleep on the ship- which saves us a nights accomodation.
We`re with 2 english guys we met at the hostel, which is good because we can take it in turns to lok after the stuff, because the barco is completely open and the port is a funny sort of area!

We went for a wonder to get something to eat, had quite a mission finding any food but there were plenty of sketchy folk selling other stuff...

Found something eventually though, undefined greasy object, &came back to Paul and Richard who had made friends with a smelly drunk man on the boat. They've gone out drinking now and he won't leave us alone!

Funny old place, this.

we're here!!

ola tudo
this is a short one im afraid,soory it has been such a long time! we are now in the modst of Amazonia and the connection i s wee bit dodgy. we have both been writing loads in our books,so we will update the big gap from inbeween our last entry and this one when we next can.

i will just say that we are having an amazing time here,we have a wicked group of friends that we're with at the moment,and that we fully understand why the Amazon is called the river sea!

Right now we are in a little village on the edge of the river caled Alter do Chao,which is about an hour away from Santarem.its gorgeous e muito tranquilo aqui,with mango trees and mango fruits lining the streets.

so much love to you all
xxxxxxxxxx
ps i went for a midnight swim last night with the three agentinians,was wicked fun! the very same water that alligators,river dolphins,piranahs and sting rays live in! Nutmeg was a wee but poorly,but seems fine today,which is relief
xxxxxx

from Belem :)

We arrived in Salvador, got scammed all over again by the taxis- especially by trying so hard not to be! And returned to the Nega Maluca once we managed to wake Diego the dedicated night-shifter up with the doorbell, to a card off Rhiannon and a parcel off mum- which was SO nice :)

Stefan who we met at Venetius & Catarina`s house in Capao arrived not long after, which was really good as we thought we`d missed him - we were expecting to be on the same coach as him from Lencois and then all of a sudden he was gone.

We met a really lovely Finnish girl Alex who was telling me she got to South America by getting work on a sailing boat- apparently if I get to Caribia there`s loads of boats going back to Europe in May time... if I do stay a little longer (which is looking more and more likely...) (the idea of actually coming back in only a month is a bit mad for me at the moment) then I could do that to get home!! It would be pretty exciting and maybe even save me some money!
Much to think about. It would be very different travelling by myself.

We went to get Ash some new pockets because she sold hers to a leather worker to copy the design, found a bin full of scraps of fabric, scrounged them, & went home to make clothes in the morroccan corner all afternoon.

The next day we went with Stefan & Alex on a cheap food mission.
We finally tried cashew fruits! They`re horrible, I really didn`t like it, it was kind of like pepper but when you bite it all this super acidy juice spills out but no substance it`s all stringy. Me and Alex really burnt our hands and mouths too, trying to get our cashew nuts- don`t ever try that! Slimy acid all over us burning and nowhere to wash it off.
Later me and Alex went to an African cafe and Ash and Stef went to a cake shop, then after all bumping into each other again just in time to watch a stunning sunset, caught a bus here, and Alex came with us to get a break from her super intensive capoeira training. Stefan had to go back to get back to Nega the sick dog, although he was tempted to come with us. We sent plenty of love back with him to Capao!

We had such a great welcome in Arembepe! Everyone was sitting round a campfire and there were a couple of guitars, and Annie and Stefanie the amazing Italian girlies were there as well as all the Arembepe faces, they were all so suprised to see us!
It turned out to be Annie and Stefanies last day there, they were going back to Italy the next day!
So a lovely evening of chats & songs & goodbyes in the firelight.

In the morning it was the usual difficult Arembepe decision of sea or river first? We opted for sea first, river later, and some more wire jewellry making learning of Chacal inbetween :) I made a little wire spider the same as the one he made Ash last time, but littler.

There was a festa last night, we drunk Cachaca and had a really fun time, might have learnt some more Portuguese but might have forgotten it all too :S had fun trying though!

One more day in Arembepe though, because our coach to Belem leaves on Friday- we did some sea, some river, walked Alex into town to go back to Salvador, then me Ash Chacal and Edge went back to make a fire by the river and cook some plantain, yum. Saw some more giant toads, had a little moonlight swim & slept.

In the morning we ate a huge coconut we found, & caught a bus back to Salvador- used the Nega maluca (shower and) internet for a bit to sort out the phone thing
(when they were looking after it for me before, someone who worked there took it. They didn`t tell me until I asked though, so loads of money`s been spent on my contract... Aaaaaaa! So Chris (thank you thank you thank you!) has put it on hold so they can`t spend any more of my money, and I need to find out whether my phone insurance covers unauthorised calls, and if not does my travel insurance... otherwise i`ve lost about 2 weeks worth of spending!!!)

8 March
Now we`re in Belem!
Big huge exciting purple tropical storm happening right now- you must gthink they happen all the time but it`s more that once we`ve watched the lightning for a bit, it`s a really good time to write.

That was the worst coach journey of my entire life- not just because it was 40hours long, but I got a horrible stomach bug and was in the disgusting hot toilet throwing up all night. It was pretty grim as far as places to be sick go, but at least I wasn`t somewhere with much better things to do.

We`re having quite a chilled out day in Belem as it`s Sunday, but tomorrow we`re checking out hte market to see what exciting fruit and nuts we can find- apparently there`s more fruit than there are names for them here, I`m so excited!

Then on Tuesday or Wednesday we`re catching a boat to Santarem, where Rio Tapajos meets the Amazon, to do some exploring, before somehow getting to Cuiaba to see the Pantanal (there is no road in the wet season)

Love to Tess, it is odd to think of you being back in the UK- it`s been nice trying to picture you in Peru :)

9th
Aaaaaa. Today`s been reasonably grim. yesterday I thought I was better but it turns out I`m not, unless another spiteful bug came and bit me while I was busy kicking off the last one!
It`s really frustrating, we were going to catch a boat to Santarem tomorrow but that doesn`t look like a good idea any more. Also loads to see in Belem that I just can`t really, I want to go and see the markets and all the amazonian fruit, I want to get a hammock for the boat ride, I want to explore Belem! But I haven`t even left the building all day, I feel all horrible and trapped.

The really nice girl from Hong Kong who we`re sharing a room with, Sim, made me a cup of hot orange and ginger, which made me feel loads better, & I even managed to eat a bit after that.
Ash has been a star and found some spinach, which I hope I can get in later! Yummmmm. It`s the one food I`ve been craving most in this country!

2 March Our last bit of time in Campinas was really fun, it was very sad to leave (although i more and more think i might come back...) On Thursday afternoon when we´d done the morning´s work we walked into town to get some shopping, and on Friday got the fire going and made a great big version of the Be Good Soup, a big pot of chai, & baked plantain with chocolate & canela. It all went down very well and they told us we weren´t allowed to leave, we started to feel the time limit dig in a bit. Only a month left now really! There was a tarantula on the kitchen floor, we were all looking at it so i knew it was there, but I went to get Veronica a cup of chai and completely forgot about the arana until I saw the look on Ash´s face- apparently I stood on it bu I didn´t even notice! Graca did our Mayan calendar and Chinese numerology thingies for us- I was really happy as I´ve been confused about mine for ages... I am a Dragao Elétrico Vermelho and Ash is a Macaco Solar Azul and it turns out we´re dead opposite each other on the chart- so that means apparently we´re supposed to get on really well and complement each other perfectly and all this other stuff (which we could have told you ages ago obviously, but hey hey) After dinner I went for a walk by myself... The thing is I usually REALLY need some alone time! But me and Ash get on so fine I´ve never really felt pushed so haven´t bothered, but it turned out to be just what I needed, it was lovely to set out into the night with a brilliant torch made from a candle and a tin can, and process my thoughts, while I had a little star gaze and natter to myself (these things are importrant!!) Had some wishes on shooting stars and a little paddle in the river, wondered if anyone back home could see the same stars as me :) Lit the wee willy winky again and wondered back home feeling even better than before :) On Saturday we waved our goodbyes at the farm (after getting some of the salvia we dried to send back to our friends:) ) and dawdled into Capao like little snails, and sat down on the pavement with some rastas and their wares and spent the rest of the day dancing on the street with our rasta friends, various friends and Capao faces coming apst and getting goodbye hugs through the day. We caught a jeep at 8 to Palmeiras and a coach to Lencois, and dragged ourselves up the road to Woshington`s pousada that we stayed in last time (we were considering staying in one closer to the bottom of the hill but Woshington`s has such good breakfast!) Sunday we spent exploring Lencois- after dithering around town for a bit bumped into some more friends from the pousada and impulsively went with them to the waterfall nearby... It was really good, to get to the waterfall you have to walk up the river bed, past peoples multicoloured washing spread out to dry on the rocks and past all these deep deep holes, the rock was really weird there, a conglomerate which had been washed extremely smooth, so it was like spotty and slippy and quite fun for sliding down :) These deep holes, that the river flowed from one of to the next, were deep enough that you could leap off all the jutted bits overhanging, I was the only one who wanted to though! the others just stood around waiting, so i had to go loads of times in quick succession so as not to keep them, and then walk back- they`re mad though because it was brilliant! The hole carries on going straight down with perfectly smooth sides underwater, so you can jump from as high as you like from the rocks around it and when you get under the water you just slide down this tunnel! Ok I can`t quite decribe it, but it was lovely stuff.

a little load of updates from meg =)

22 Feb


So we had a twinkly little carnaval in capao, and walked over to the farm with ran in the afternoon. On our way we bumped a bearded barefooted man and his dog pushing a wheelbarrow of veg so we asked about the farm and found out there was room, spent the rewst of the afternoon by the river until a huge billowing storm cloud rushed over the mountain at us really fast, so we hopped it with everyone else at the river (it`s even busy here at carnaval!)

just after we set off this teeny car pulled up and told us to get in, one last glance at this cloud was enough so 7 of us squeezed in and we slowly inched down this bumpy sort of `track` through a stream and everything, only getting out to push a couple of times... We were so grateful!

Stopped at some Venetius and Catarinas house to pick up the didgeridoo Venetius made for Ran- and lost Ran in a mindblowing didge sesh, he`s not coming to Campinas any more...

We`re starting to see the suck factor of this place- when you ask people how long they`ve been here and they look at you blankly before saying um... a couple of weeks? no... what`s the date? Oh! ok... maybe a month or 2?...

We had a fun walk back, a bit chilly, believe it or not, and had chai when we got back. Now Ash and Ran are asleep and it`s only 9! Apparently some more festivities at the circus I might head down there...


24Feb

Now we`re in Campinas!
When we got here Veronica gave us breakfast and sent us off with the girls Sara and Rosa, for a guided tour.

The farm`s amazing, I`ve never seen so many herbs! Herbs for absolutely evrything, from sugar to face paint (that was fun :) )
But the rest of the day we didn`t have to work at all apart from a tiny bit of veg chopping & pot washing, we just spent the afternoon with the girls - they love our glitter and fake flowers and ribbon and glitter glue!

We made some filtro do sonyo`s with crystals found in the garden, went for a dip in the river and now it`s a big storm with trovao and relampago! The river`s flooded so we couldn`t get out even if we wanted to.

So we`re sitting in the communal kitchen having a doodle.

26th...
It`s really good here!
Yesterday we did a load of hoeing in the aloe vera patch then weeding and spreading mulch to stop the soil washing away. We`ve seen some pretty exciting bugs and torn our hands to shreds- aloe vera is brutal! Luckily we also knocked off a leaf or two so we`ve got something to put on our tatters.
Our Chilean friend Auka (another kringlin- yay!!) turned up as we were doing it, gave us a hand for a while and when it got too hot we went for a swim in the river.
Last night was good too, me and Ash and Auka walked to Capao and found the circus with all its goings on. It was nice to see some people and lights! :)
The circus was brilliant, (they have some really good clowns!)
And no rules or political correctness apply to Brazilian... well anything really!
The lady on the silks was amazing, and the Israeli lady on the trapeze too, in her pyjamas and hloding a pillow the whole time :)
Berto was dressed (and painted!) like the ladies in white from Salvador who sell food and cakes, with a big fake bunda & boobs.
After the show we hopped on the back of a truck that was going in the direction of the farm and walked the rest of the way, getting home at um poco para um a manha.

Today we made some paths through the Citronella and Lemongrass patches (so we didn`t get bitten by mossies so much!) and then went to the herb room to strip piles and piles of Salvia and put it out to dry! (They use it as medicine here)
Then this other herb Carqueja which is for making tea, which apparently cures pretty much everything from worms to diabetes.
But when I got the last handful out of the box I had to squeak because there was a tarantula on the herbs! We both squeaked a bit more and got out the branches around it till it was sitting at the bottom of the box, then I took it outside, had a little look and left the box upside down on a bush.
After lunch and doing some washing, we went for a nadar in the nu with Sara and Auka, and painted each other like indians with reddy rocks from the river, and played hopscotch till we heard people coming, when we went back as we flt a bit silly.
Fun times! :)

we're on the road again

ola pessoas bonitos!
tis i Ashai =D
well we have now managed to pull ourselves out of the strong clutches of Capao and Capinas,it was hard! right now we're in Lencois,but are getting a coach back to Salvador this evening to say hello to the lovely Nega Maluca family again.we'll only be there for one night though then back to Arembepe!!! yaaaay =D

Capinas was lovely lovely,it felt like we could have easily been there much longer.there's so much to learn.the poeple there were all brilliant,and helped us so much with speaking,especially the kids,and also the Brazilian Steve(im not quite sure which steve,but he remeinded us of lots of them....mostly steve jones who used to be with Dawn,sunni and rubi..)he lent us a huge english portuguese dictionary and a learn Portuguese in ten mins a day book,which was so helpful.

a day in Capinas....well we got up at around 7-7.30am,i had a lovely stretch and bounce around outside our little chalet every morning,then we head to the cozinha communidade(communal kitchen) for breakfast.all the meals are written on a rota and you put your name down next to one if you want to do the cooking,and when its all ready a konch or horn is blown.breakfast would be something like cooked plantain,cooked potatos,cuscus,or this sweet custardy stuff made from banana and..something! after breakfast(cafe da manha) we would then have our trabalha(work) which mostly,for us,was working with the herbs;either in the garden or in the casa do urvas.heheh we spent a whoçe morning working with Salvia,stripping it down and drying it!took us a while to realise what we were actually doing.

trabalha was only done in the morning as it got too hot to work much in the afternoon,so after lunch(normally something vegetably with rice) our time was ours. we spent a lot of our after noon time with the girlies,swimming and making stuff. we had a particularly briliant afternoon with our fantastic friend Awka and the younger of the girls,Sarah,down by the rio.we all went for a swim in the nu,and then det off to find a sunny rock to dry off on.there we found these bits of old pottery that went like paint when you rubbed them with water,so spent the next half an hour drawing patterns all over eachother and then got dragged off by Sarah to play hopscotch,where every one parked their cars no less! so there we all four were,playing hopscotch in the carpark,naked and all painted like indians =D we only got caught by a couple of people..heheh!

on our last night in Capinas me and beautiful nut meg cooked the dinner,and had great fun doing it! we made the Now soup(or a variation of),bread with herbs and sesame,a massive pot of Chai and bananas baked with chocolate =D tws lovely indeed,and very popular.

it was very sad leaving Capinas and Capao last night,but we got to say good bye to most of our friends(didnt find Ran though) and also found a few who are also headong to Arembepe,which is exciting,as we now have a new crazy,rasta-ery posi for that funny little hippy village=D

much love to you all,thinking of you ALL loads
xxxxxx

Just to let you know, from both of us...

Hello there.
Just to save anyone worrying about us, we are going to be working on a farm about an hours walk from any other civilization from tonighht.
So don't expect any updates or contact for a little bit (about a week?)
Hope you're all happy folk :)
Happy travels dad, Fiona, Naomi and Mike! Who are now in Cuba! We'll give you a little wave :)
Tchau por agora x x xx