The Amazon

It has been a few weeks since we returned from our trip to the Amazon and we still pinch ourselves that we got to spend time there.  On our family scale, it ranks right up there with any trip we have done.  On one hand, the Amazon basin is so huge in scale that is hard to fathom.  On the other hand, every square meter of ground holds enough life to be fascinating for years.  The back and forth that is part of switching scales from the immense to the minuscule means that everywhere you look could just possibly be the coolest thing you have seen on the trip.

One moment you are feeling like you are sailing on the ocean as it takes you seven miles just to cross from one side of the river to the other, and the next you find yourself mesmerized by a two inch wide line of leaf cutter ants on the jungle floor in the middle of the night.

That our family likes rivers is not exactly a hidden secret, so when our guide said that getting a houseboat would be the best way to see the Amazon, we were sold.  Sara’s parents were even brave enough to join us on the adventure, which made things even better.   It was a quirky, wooden, thirty year old boat that was by no means luxurious, but it had an amazing top deck with a covered patio and a walkway all the way around the boat, beds for everyone, and great Brazilians taking care of us.  The Comte Shaloom was our home for six days, and it was river living at it’s Brazilian finest.   Most mornings you were up before dawn to take a motorized canoe out to watch the jungle wake up.  Amazing birds, monkeys, sloths, caiman, dolphins, and insects galore were all part of the daily agenda.  Then it was typically back to the “big boat” for breakfast and then a few hours of motoring to the next spot.  Lunch, another side trip to something else amazing, another round of motoring, and then the evening event of a sunset canoe tour or a nighttime jungle hike.   Some of the days stretched to fifteen hours, but there was always time for a nap in a hammock and a good book.

Being on the boat also let you see life on the river as you cruised along.  It was nice just to spend time passing by all the small villages and the floating restaurants.  It was teacher interesting to see the school boat parked outside the regional boarding school.   A normal moment on the river would be where one minute there’s a family motoring by in a dugout canoe, the next the whole boat is rocking in the wake of the giant ferry boat making it’s way upstream during a thirty hour journey to some far away town with the top floor full of hammocks. You pass by too many rivers to name or keep track of, and when you finally do go by something as small as the Deschutes, it probably isn’t even on the map.  We went about 200 kilometers upstream and back during our six days, and on any map of Brazil that shows the whole Amazon basin, our route would look like we barely left Manaus.  It was just a small taste, but one we will remember.

Once again, I end with a montage of moments from our trip.  No explanation, just the best I could put together to convey the moment.  

Cheers, 

Adam

I Heart Brasilia

 Eu ❤  Brasilia

It is kind of hard to believe, but we are one quarter of our way through our time here in Brazil.  Tomorrow we head back to school to start the second half of our first school year down here.  In some ways, it has been an incredibly long six months since we arrived.  In others, it is hard to realize how short our time down here will actually be.  Ah well, just pondering before I get started on the story of our last month.

Our first official visitors arrived the weekend after school got out.  Sara’s mom and dad made the journey from Massachusetts to spend the break with us.  They had some travel adventures on the way down, but landed just in time to turn around and head to the beach with us.  The beach this time was just south of Porto Seguro in the town of Trancoso.   Lots of good food, beach time, and a chance for me to practice my Mario Kart driving skills negotiating narrow, old, one lane cobblestone and dirt roads with the rest of humanity.  It was a minor miracle that we finished the trip with both mirrors.  Apparently when there are no lane markers, there are no lanes.  And we found out that a car, a van, and two motorcycles can fit in one lane if everyone holds their breath at the same time.  

Like every beach we have seen, the ones in the Trancoso area were amazing.  My favorite was the one we found by accident while trying to go to a completely different spot.  A local told us the beach we wanted to see was closed, but if we drove four and half kilometers, we would go down a hill and see a small road to the left.  He told us to turn there, park before the sand got too loose, and walk towards the ocean.  And it worked.  We popped out over a sand dune to find a spectacular beach with only two other people on it.  Palm trees for shade and sea turtles just offshore only made things better.  Just another beach day in Brazil.

Slightly sunburnt and with more than a little sand stowed away, we made it back to Brasilia in time for Christmas.  It was nice to have family here for our first Christmas in Brasilia.  There were definitely cravings for snow, family, friends, and Bend around Christmas time.  You will notice some completely unnecessary sweatshirts and jeans worn in protest in the Brasilia photos.  This was the girls’ first “warm” Christmas, and while we are quickly becoming accustomed to the Brasilia uniform of shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops, it was different.  We had the tree and lights, and some of the normal routines, but just with a Brazilian twist.   Santa brought popsicle makers instead of his annual warm, cozy clothing gift.  We went for a sunny family stroll on the closed highway instead of through the cold and snow like back home.  We ate pao de queijo instead of cinnamon rolls, and potato leek soup instead of posole.  But there were children up at dawn, full stockings, and time with family, so we did just fine.

I think I’ll end this blog entry there.  The second half of our break was centered around our trip to the Amazon, but that is just too big an event to shoehorn into this blog.  So, enjoy some pictures of Brasilia and Trancoso, and I’ll start working on the Amazon post soon.