Feliz Páscoa!

Feliz Páscoa todo mundo!

Last year, I was visiting Oma, Opa, and Stace in Michigan. The night before Easter Sunday, Oma went into atrial fibrillation and had to stay at the hospital overnight and almost all of Easter. She wasn't in any huge danger, but they had to make sure her heart rate was stable for some time before she could leave. We stayed with her most of the night. The next day, I made Easter lunch/dinner for Opa, Stace, and Stacey's boyfriend, Chris. We made a little plate and took it to the hospital for Oma. She ended up being fine, but it was a weird way to experience the holiday.

This Easter has been delightful. This morning, we had an excellent, extravagant breakfast for here: pancakes, choc chip pancakes, strawberries, scrambled eggs, Easter eggs, and my first attempt at homemade bagels. Andrea purchased a bunch of weird presents for Manda and I from Le Biscuit. She and mom hid gifts around the house for us (it was raining this morning). Among my haul: a pair of bunny slippers, a dark chocolate egg, and a long stick-thing you use to grab things that are far away with chomping teeth at the end (it's really hard to describe).  

Then we watched Kensington's Easter service on the internet. I especially loved hearing people's testimonies. 

The day turned out beautiful, so Andrea, Manda, Mom and I spent a lot of time lounging/reading in the pool. 

I feel very peaceful today - a rare feeling for me of late. My heart is grateful and humbled - for He is Risen!

Graffiti

The graffiti in Salvador is awesome. Most of it is very beautiful and artistic. A few weeks ago, the American Society sponsored a graffiti tour in the city. We rented a small bus, and drove to a couple sites of awesome graffiti. One of the local graffiti artists, Eder Muniz and his partner, Carly (an American Fulbright scholar) were our guides.

Eder Muniz

The tour was enlightening. Salvador treats graffiti artists very strangely. At one time, they had a progressive program encouraging graffiti art. They sponsored artists, believing the public art enriched the city (as it clearly does). The program was a great idea, but it never really took off, and eventually the government stopped funding it. While the government has an officially friendly relationship with graffiti artists, the police decidedly do not. Eder and Carly explained that the police have an inexplicable, burning hatred for graffiti artists. If they have an opportunity to arrest or harm them (painting on an unauthorized structure, etc), they take it gladly. Some policemen even harass or beat artists' mothers/girlfriends/wives. Many artists are beaten. Eder, himself, has never been beaten, but he has been arrested and was driven to the police station in the trunk.

We focused mainly on Eder's work (which is probably my favorite in the city) but we saw a lot of great art from many artists.

Afterwards, Carly invited us to a graffiti event in Castelo Branco, near an old Nestle factory. Andrea and I went with some other ladies on Sunday. It was interesting, though not quite as exciting as I expected.

They invited many graffiti artists to come together to share one wall and paint together. They had some music and food. It was cool to see their work - it's amazing how precise and expressive they can be with just spray paint.

A visiting artist from Philadelphia

Eder at work

Eder's plan for his piece

Part of the wall when we left

Carly is an American who is only living here for a while. She and Eder live in the favela where his family is from. They just had an adorable baby. Carly was kind enough to show us her home right before we left. I loved it. I loved the whole area. I wish we lived somewhere that felt more...Brazilian. Or vibrant. She has an amazing view from her back porch.

Eder's work is really beautiful. You can see a lot of it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calanguiando
I'm obsessed with this window he found and painted:

but it's far too expensive :(

A Brief Horror Story

Today, on the way to school, Ricardo the girls and I got into a minor accident. We stopped at a red light on Estrada do Coco, and the person behind us simply did not notice - SOMEHOW. We were stopped, and I heard screaming tires behind us. Luckily, Ricardo saw what was happening and maneuvered us slightly to the side of the lane. The frantically braking car managed to slip between us and the next car - merely scraping the side of ours. He then slid through the intersection, where pedestrians hadn't quite started crossing (thank God), waved out the window and sped off again. Sheesh.

But that's not the horror story. Myra just came over to tell us about her recent visit to the dentist here. She went in for a root canal. Yikes. While she was there, conscious but drugged, they decided the tooth was too degraded, so they needed to pull it. Then they either discovered, or caused, a crack in the tooth next to it. So they pulled it too. Then they decided since the very next tooth was her wisdom tooth, they should remove it too, just for the hell of it. WHAT ON EARTH? I would be furious if I went to the dentist for a root canal, and left with three unplanned teeth missing, and no real explanation. Her wisdom tooth had never caused her any discomfort or problems, but it apparently had to go. My mom suggested the dentist thought it might be lonely after the loss of its two neighbors. She has a ton of stitches in her mouth to be removed later this week. They gave her some good painkillers, I guess, but she still drove under their influence. Classic Myra.

Amazon: Friday

3/11

This morning, we got up to see Encontro das Aguas - when the Negro and Solimoes rivers meet and their black and brown waters don't mix. It looked really cool, but I never found out why it does that.

The same guide who dropped us off at the ship, Elcio, picked us up and took us around the city of Manaus a little. First we went to the market, which was a smaller, less touristy kind of Mercado Modelo. Andrea got some tree oils that are remedies for...lots of things. We saw something that claimed it was a remedy for cancer, herpes, and stomach ulcers.

Then we went to the opera house :) It was very elegant. The painting of the house ceiling and main curtain were especially nice. Strangely, the house only performs opera for one month during their peak vacation month. Otherwise it is used solely for the symphony or traveling artists (the Spice Girls once performed there).

Then we went shopping at some Indian stores to try and find a sloth claw necklace for Andrea. She only found one with caiman teeth. Boo hoo.

The coolest thing about Manaus is their concern for the poor. There is a giant fish/food market by the pier and from 6-8 every day, the people from the favelas come and can take whatever spoil-able food that wasn't sold that they want.

The government is also in the midst of a massive relocation program. Manaus is one of the sites for the next World Cup. Based on the revenue they expect to generate from the this, they have taken a sort of joint loan from the Bank of Brasil and Bank of America (Elcio didn't explain exactly how it works). With this loan, they are building nice government houses that families from the favelas can move into for free. Along with this, they will be able to use the army hospital when they need, and their kids can go to school. They tried a similar program a few years ago, but it failed because the families were given ownership of the house. The majority of families would live in the new house for 1-2 years, sell it, then take the money and move back into the favela. This time they don't get real ownership, and no one is allowed to buy or rent the houses. This is especially great since the favela houses here are so prone to flooding when the river rises because they're built so poorly. They hope the program will also help with the growing drug problem in the city. Manaus is the closest major city in Brasil to Colombia and Venezuela. Elcio said right before Carnaval the police seized 7 tons of drugs at the port alone.

All of my information is from Elcio, so I'm not really sure if it's all working, or if the program is really as good as it sounds. He couldn't really answer about the selection process, how they're moving people, or how they're handling the demolition/reconstruction process (because besides trying to provide for the people, this is obviously also a beautification process in anticipation of the World Cup).

..............

So now I'm back at home, resting/recovering.

Amazon: Thursday

3/10

So far, it has rained every day, but it didn't actually cause a problem until today.

We got up at 5:15 (!) to go on a boat ride to see the sunrise on the river. I was sooo tired. Once we got up, they explained that it was raining and cloudy so we probably wouldn't see any animals and we definitely wouldn't see the sunrise - but those who still wanted to go could. Yeah right.

So we slept until our next excursion to see the river dolphins. It was still raining pretty heavily, so we had to wear out full body ponchos and keep our heads down on the tender ride.

The pink dolphins were in the Novo Airão region. The people there are known for their expertise in boat construction. They used to live in the town of Airão, but ants invaded and completely took over, so the whole town had to be relocated.

I knew the pink dolphins wouldn't look just like the salt water gray ones everyone is used to, but I wasn't quite prepared. These things were so weird and ugly looking!

a monster.

They looked to me like zombie dolphins - like if you left a dead dolphin out to bloat in the sun for a while. They had tiny beady eyes, weird hair growing on their snout, and they looked lumpy all over.

 That being said, it was really fun! They were very friendly and playful. Everyone got a chance to pet them. They were very soft and smooth. Manda and Andrea were afraid, but touched them anyway.

Our guide told us a local legend about the dolphins: people say that the dolphins turn into men during the full moon and hypnotize village girls, sometimes impregnating them.
Thankfully, the rain had let up a little while were visiting the dolphins, so we didn't get too wet. 


Then we visited a local tribe at the Cuieiras river. The rain had finally stopped, so he had a beautiful blue sky for our visit. 

 When we first landed, there were some kids waiting for us on the beach. I felt kind of wonky and awkward because everyone was having them pose and take pictures with them - it felt kind of zoo-ish. But then George explained why they visit this village and I felt better. Iberostar used to use the forest near the village for some of their trekking routes. About 3 years ago when they were going through that trail, some of the village men were waiting for them. They said they wanted to share their culture and also that it wasn't fair for Iberostar to use their lands without contributing in some way. So now the cruise always takes their tour groups to the village to learn, and for the tourists to buy the handicrafts the people make. 


George told us a little history while the English speakers were gathered in their small church. This tribe was actually originally from Colombia. But when gold was found near their original village, gold diggers accidentally poisoned the river with mercury. Their shaman didn't know how to cure them, so many of the villagers moved south along the river until they reached Manaus. The Brazilian government then granted the tribe their current lands. 


The children performed some of their ritual dances for us. They were adorable. 

George showed us around more of the village. He said that even though the tribe is basically Christian now, they believe that when people die, their souls go into the forest. If you were a basically good person, you get to be a cool tree like acai. Basically bad people turn into poisonous mushrooms.


It's not an impoverished tribe, just a simple one. They have houses, a clinic with a nurse, and a school. They also have a generator for electricity which they turn on for 3 hours each day. They have 2 TVs for the village - they only like to watch the news, soap operas, and of course, soccer. The school was interesting. They learn Portuguese as their first language, but in school they are also learning the dialect and culture of their tribe. Traditionally, theirs is not a written language. So one man from the tribe is trying to basically write everything down and turn their language into one that is written so they can better preserve their culture.

Then we went to the village market to buy their crafts. Mom bought something from every stall since they said each one was run by a different family. Manda and I got necklaces with sloth claws on them. 

I loved being in the village. It was such a beautiful place. The people seemed so happy and their kids were super playful. 

and beautiful :)

It reminded me a little of being in Chiquila, though this had a much smaller population (60 people? Maybe a little less).


We got back to the ship at the perfect time to watch our last sunset from the upper deck.

Then we had the Captain's Farewell Dinner, which was spectacular. They had a lot of very beautiful displays of food. 

I finally got to eat some Tambaqui, which was delicious. But then they also offered lobster, which I got, which was also fantastic. I ate way too much.

After dinner, we had a folk show called Boi Bumba. It was dance routines that illustrated important rituals or animals in the forest. One of the rituals they showed was terrible - in one tribe, in order to become a man, a boy must stick his hand in a glove with 20 stinging ants and dance around for an hour. But if that wasn't bad enough, they have to do it 20 times! I'm not sure what the time frame of that is. Oh yes, and the ants are poisonous. So the ritual also serves to grant the boy immunity from that poison in the future. In the meantime, their hands swell up awfully from all the stings they receive. 

The whole show was really cool.

Amazon: Caiman Catching!

3/10

Last night was the. best. It's impossible to capture how cool it was with the photos we took.

We went caiman spotting. We left at 9:30 - after it had been dark for a long time. We were driving fast in the tenders in the dark with only a small light at the back of the boat and George's flashlight at the front. It was actually chilly outside, and the spray from the tender was misting my arm. On the horizon, there was lightning in the clouds.

It was surreal speeding through the dark on the river. It was scary and exciting, but not in the way fear can be lingering or disturbing. It was immediate and thrilling.

George told us he was planning to catch one and told us not to talk until he did. He started signaling with his flashlight for the driver to follow his beam. Once we slowed down, I saw what he saw - a caiman in the water. Immediately after I registered its presence, George leapt into the water - nearly on top of it - and grabbed it. I already had a mini-crush on George, and his bad-assness during all of this solidified it. He brought it back into the boat with him and held it aloft while he told us about her. This was a "baby" - still quite small and only 9 or 10 years old. She was a black caiman - the kind responsible for any (rare) attacks on people. Caimans live until they're around 90 years old, can grow to 5 meters long, and don't stop growing until the day they die.

George brought her to the back of the boat so we could see her teeth up close and touch her tail. Then, one by one, we went to the front of the boat to hold it and take pictures. Men could hold it by themselves, but women weren't allowed. Pshaw. Manda was so afraid to hold it. Everyone laughed at her nervous face and she went up there and applauded her when she held it. I held it last - it felt so cool! I could feel her breathing. I was surprised by how smooth her belly felt.

We finally released her back into the river and moved on. We found another type of caiman that never attacks people. We just observed it because it was nearly 5 feet long. We also saw a giant iguana at the top of a tree - we could only see its tail.

We were right in front of the forest, and we turned off all the lights, cameras, and the boat motor. We were plunged into darkness. After a time, however, your eyes adjusted somewhat and you could tell the sky was lighter. The blackest was the jungle in front of us. We stayed very quiet and listened to what George called the mystery of the forest. You could hear so much wildlife. It was especially spooky since we hadn't yet moved 10 feet from where we spotted the last caiman. This was really the only time when the Amazon felt like what I had imagined.

Amazon: Wednesday

3/9

The Amazon is taking a little bit of a toll today. Andrea woke up with a rash on her face - we don't know why. And we had some unfortunate bug encounters in the forest.

This morning, we went trekking through the forest on foot. We had to wear long sleeve everything. It wasn't as hot as I expected, but the humidity as intense (100 %). Toward the end, everyone was so sweaty and my glasses kept fogging up. It was a 2 hour hike, but it wasn't very strenuous.

The trees weren't as tall as I expected, but we did see a couple huge ones. The tallest we saw was 140 ft. We saw another tree called Carapanauba ("mosquito tree" in the indigenous language) whose bark or sap is composed of quinine. Tea made from the tree is a cure for malaria.

We didn't see any animals besides bugs and one frog. I didn't really expect to since we were a big, noisy group. The worst was when we all accidentally stepped on a huge ant nest. They were biting ants and they swarmed into our shoes and up our pants right away. You couldn't just stamp them all off. I got bit twice. Mom had it worst - she got bit at least 3 times that drew blood on her legs. We came across the ants one more time, but our guide warned us, so we ran through with no problems. When we got back to our rooms and changed, Mom found yet more one live ant in her pants. The trek was really interesting and fun, but I definitely like the boat tours better. It's funny - you might expect to see more cool things by actually going inside the jungle, but we saw way more animals from the boats.

I went to a fish lecture and learned some disturbing things about Amazon fish.
- The tiny fish that can get inside you from any orifice isn't found on the Negro thank goodness. If it climbs inside a woman from below, it stays and sucks blood out of her uterus. The only way to remove it from anywhere is through surgery.
- If the freshwater stingray here hits you with its stinger, you are in horrible pain for at least 24 hours. Apparently, the best remedy is for a naked woman to straddle the infected area. It wasn't clear to me if that's just a superstition, or if it really works like the jellyfish and urine thing.

We just went for a boat tour through the Tres Bocas archipelago. It was really cool - much better than the trek. We saw a ton of birds - egrits, macaws, parrots, a toucan, and a bunch of others I can't remember. Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out great because the birds were far away or flying. I learned that Macaws and parrots mate for life. When their mate dies, they stop flying and starve themselves.

toucan!

We boated through a very narrow channel - it was especially jungly, and I got whacked in the face with a bunch of branches.
I really like the way this area of the Amazon smells when we're in or near the forest. It's like being in a forest after the rain, but more pungent...it's hard to describe. You should go :)