The Rainforest

Jan. 16th: Time for the Amazon! Our departure for the rainforest has finally arrived. We've discovered that the best way to plan anything in South America is....to not plan at all! Our flight is to Manaus - the city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. After 3 connecting flights beginning at 3 AM( yes you heard me - three connecting flights in the middle of the night), we reach Manaus. So upon arrival, we are in search for a jungle lodge. For a good price. We consider our options and visit a few tourist agencies in the airport. We find a good deal for a lodge on the Rio Negro for 3 nights ( 1 night of camping in the jungle) and 4 days.

Day 1 : Our guide picks us up from the hostel and we get on our motorized canoe to the lodge. We see the meeting of the waters - where the River Negro and the Amazon river meet. After, we see the huge lily pads and 2 crocodiles. Oh and little kids apparently aren't afraid of snakes, crocodiles, huge sloths - they bombarded our boat! So we get to the lodge - it's floating on the river. No electricity, only amazon water, and no lights!! Our room doesn't have 2 mosquito bed nets and Marlana wasn't advised in Chile to bring one so we decide to share mine. Here we are sharing a bed again like summer - except now in Brazil and under a bed net. Que bien! After an exotic lunch and swimming in the river, we go fishing for piranhas. Now let's just say....viscious little creatures. Marlana's hand got bit off! jk jk jk BUT - our guide did tell us that a man had been eaten by an anaconda 2 weeks earlier while he was fishing. haha....

Day 2: After a night of tangled bed net, we wake up for breakfast!! Then off to jungle trekking! The Amazon is filled with anything you could possibly imagine - we found natural malaria medicine,viagra, headache medicine, natural bug spray.... everything! We get back to the lodge and Marlana and I decided to entertain ourselves by having a dance party under the bednet. Of course, this needs documentation so we made a video for our favorite - Adrian Chapa. While we are doing all of these excursions, we're with a group. It's me, Marlana, 3 brazilians, a chinese woman, a taurus named Renaldo, and one japanese man. Now let me tell you about the japanese man. First of all, if you don't speak english or portugese, you will be completely lost. Anyway, this man is super quiet and doesn't know anything that's going on....he has to sleep in the hammock outside of the lodge...i'm sure he wasn't aware of this when he signed up for this shindig. Of course I told the chinese woman i loved her in chinese because that's all I know.

Day 3: Time to prepare for jungle camping. Marlana and I hate packing so we decide to bring as little as possible. This day is our 3rd day without a shower.....but don't worry, we swam every day. That counts right? We take our canoe to the jungle and set up our hammocks. Apparently our guide told us in portugese to put our hammocks in the plastic bag before leaving because it was going to rain. We didn't get that. So our hammocks were drenched. We slept in wet hammocks. But it was awesome!

Day 4: Leave the jungle around 8 am. While the other group members paid to swim with the dolphins, Marlana and I take advantage of the Brazilian sun rays and lay out while our guide drives us around in the canoe. Life in the amazon.....On the way back to the lodge, our guide Charlie decides to take a short cut through the marsh. We get stuck. As the taurus Renaldo takes the lead and steers from the front with a paddle, all of a sudden he starts frantically screaming in portuguese! Marlana and I are like "whaaaaaaat is going on?! Please translate for the Americans! WE DON'T SPEAK PORTUGUESE!' Then the girl translates it to ' alligator, alligator! ah!' Renaldo almost flips out of the boat but I save him, don't worry. The alligator turns out to be a big tree branch. Love it!

While checking in for our flight to Sao Paolo, we have a plastic trash bag filled with all of our untouchable dirty rainforest clothes. Obviously, we want to check this one. The Lan Chile woman looks at us with skepticism and makes us sign a waiver so that if they lose/break it, it's not a liability of theres. WE laugh and say ' they will be careful with that bag because if it opens the whole plane will smell like wet amazon! hahaaha!'


XOXO
Cora

Transportation Bloopers

As stated in a previous entry, our lives in general (but especially in South America) prove to be pleasingly adventurous. While we cannot possibly capture all of our extraordinary moments in a blog, I would like to expand upon a few of our hilarious, frustrating, challenging, dangerous, and (always) adventurous transportation stories.

(Please Note: These take place in Brazil where the official language is Portuguese which neither of us speak nor understand.)

Part 1 - 28 hour bus ride

• After finishing our time in Rio de Janeiro, we decided to head up to a more northern beach in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Finding that buses were the cheapest mode of transportation, we optimistically decided to "enjoy" ourselves on a 28 hour bus ride. Upon arrival to the hectic bus station that felt like it had caught on fire but forgot to burn, we found that the only remaining seats together on the bus were right next to the bathroom .... we each gave a hesitant laugh and proceeded to purchase our tickets. 10 hours later (and with 18 to go), however, we had replaced those smiles with scornful looks to whoever opened the bathroom door. The bus seemed to make a stop every five minutes, but passengers seemed to prefer the onboard bathroom (or the faces we gave them each time they used it). Upon arrival in Salvador, and 2 days of recovery with lying out on the gorgeous beaches of Brazil and drinking as many Coconut waters as possible, we decided never to take a 28 hour bus again.

Part 2 - Taxi Auction

• After a fabulous and relaxing stay in beautiful Salvador, Cora and I were headed out to the Amazon with our flight leaving at 3 a.m. in the morning. In responsible preparation, we had the hostel pre-call a taxi for us so we would have one waiting for us at 12:30 a.m. Everyone at the hostel was extremely helpful; so helpful, that two people called two different taxis. So, we walk outside at 12:30 only to find two taxis eagerly awaiting our expensive trip to the airport. Both come to take our bags and neither speaks English. We look at them, and each is trying to convince us to ride with them (at least, I think thats what they were saying) for about $30 USD. Deciding to use this high supply as a business opportunity (thank you McCombs), I started an auction and ask for a lower price of $25 USD. Easily receiving that, I asked for a lower price. Needless to say, after a hilarious auction in Portuguese, we were left with a taxi for $12 USD, an angry taxi driver with no customer, and lots of laughs because we didn't understand a word.

Obrigada! (One of the only words I speak in Portuguese.....translates to "Thank you!"),

Marlana

Okay....so lets just say that a Capricorn and an Aquarius are traveling around South America together.....and that makes life EXTREMELY interesting. We are currently waiting for our flight to the Amazon which leaves at 3 in the morning and has 3 layovers in the middle of the night. We like to make life as adventurous as possible.

So on our trip so far, we have developed a list of things to do (as follows):

1. Purchase a Brazilian bikini
2. Drink out of as many coconuts as possible
3. Bring Acai (a fibrous fruit) to the U.S.
4. LEARN PORTUGUESE
5. Always find a hostel with a free breakfast, Reggae parties, and crazy people

Brazilians in Brazil.

Love,

Marlana

Beaches in Brazil

The beaches in Brazil are: miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles long, white sand, blue water, coconut water, and super strong sun rays - be careful! my spf 50 couldn´t even protect me for long in the brazilian sun. Also, be sure to buy a brazilian bikini or speedo. And work on those butt exercises. Better to stray away from looking like gringos.

LOVE,
Cora

Reggae club in Salvador

After lounging on the beach all day in Salvador, we decided it was time to explore the nightlife of the city..... I looked in my Frommers Brazil travel book for ideas, and guess what I came accross?! A brazilian reggae live music club! Marlana and I agreed this would be awesome to check out. Soooo we catch a taxi to Pelourinho ( the historic downtown area). It was very obvious that we were foreigners and most passerbys let us know this without hesitation. We stuck out like crazy. Anyways, we find the reggae club and its so cool ! We dont have the guts to go in and dance like we would in ATX, but as we are watching from outside we have a fan! An old like 70 yr old man grooving and dancing to the beat of world reggae begins beckoning for us to join in. We decide this probably isnt the best idea.........obvious foreigners.

Anyways, we decided it might be a good idea to find a taxi back to the Che Lagarto Hostel. As we are walking through Pelhourino, we see 3 or 4 men with taxis and they all look like they´re on something...... We try to find a different area for taxis but the same thing happens 10 minutes later. So we choose the least shady looking man. He ends up being creepy and flirty but we get back safe! yay!

LOVE,
Cora

RIO DE JANEIRO

We arrived in rio yesterday and walked up the copacabana beach side 3 blocks from our awesome hostel. MELLOW YELLOW is the name. there are people from so many different countries - it's so much fun.last night we tried real brazilian caparinis at the hostel! they were our 'welcome' drinks and were made of brazilian rum and lime juice. most of the hostel went to favela funk party but we chilled at the hostel with many foreigners. today marlana and i went running on the beach before it started raining. afterwords we tried to find the hillside neighborhood of santa teresa but were lost so we just walked around alot. tomorrow we have 4 things to do: statue at corvocado, ipanema beach, sugarloaf mountain, and santa teresa BY CAB. we have to find it this time! i love brazilian metros!!

LOVE,
Cora