Brazil
Moira on
15th October after trip tp Manaus.
Jane's version of events.
Jane on
18th Oct in Salvador
Late notes from
Moira
Back to Peru
On to England
Moira, 15th October, Hola from Brazil
Hi everyone,
There is a problem with send messages and it some times takes 10-15 mins to send.
We have just come back from a pleasant but disappointing trip from the Brazilin Amazon, Manaus. There was promise of seeing animals.
The five-day trip included 2 nights at a lodge and two nights camping in hammocks with the last day surviving in the bush.
It was not quite what we wanted but hoped to see some of the forest with the days camping. No luck!!!!!!!
I though Manaus was a little town on the Amazon and it turns out to be this enormous city with at least 1 million people. The city grew as it became a duty free town. Now with Internet, not so many people are travelling to Manaus.
The other aspects of the Amazon that I did not expect were the white sandy beaches. On our first night in Manaus, we had dinner at a beach on the Amazon near a big sound bowl. We watched a local band play and people do the latest dance movements.
The next morning was Jane’s birthday so we had a bottle of French wine and strawberries on the Amazon where the two rivers meet, one being dark brown and the other a light brown. From here we went to the lodge for our 5-day trip.
Jane frequently appears to have “close encounters” and on our first day camping while walking thorough the jungle, Jane stepped on a snake. I was following her and apparently gave a squeal (says Jane) and yelled that there was a snake. When the guide came to see it, the snake turned out to be one of the most poisonous snakes in the Amazon. I was more concerned that the snake may attack me if I walked around it. It was difficult to walk any further as the snake was well camouflaged and everyone was busy looking on the ground.
We did not see any other animals, very few birds, and no piranhas.
I did not have a good night sleep as I hate sleeping on my back plus and we also had a chorus of snorers.
We flew out the next morning at 5.00 am for Salvador. It took us all day, as there were 4 stops with one-hour flights in between.
We are certainly sick of the Varig in flight meals, as there was little variation after each connection.
Salvador is another party town.
Well hope all is well and give my love to everyone.
Love Moira
Index...
Jane, 15th October,
We have been incommunicado for more than a week now, out in Amazonia!!
Birthday morning was spent on a boat at the meetings of the Rio Negra and the Solimane (????) rivers where it becomes the Amazon River, Manaus, Brazil. There we were sipping white wine and eating strawberries!!!!!!
Champagne was too expensive but the wine was a Barton-Guestier from France. The Darvalls were connected with this vineyard at the time of the French revolution (one of them was married to a Barton, Banjo Paterson being a progeny). The Bartons had to leave France for safety reasons and they put Guestier in charge of the vineyard. It was Barton only before, but afterwards he became a partner or something like that. Quite fitting to be drinking this one!!!
Afterwards we spent the day getting to a jungle lodge (road and boat) for a five-day trip, three days of which was a survival in the jungle affair. We did have hammocks and that was great because there was no way I would have slept on the ground having trodden on their most poisonous snake they have in Brazil during the trek in!!!!! How many lives is that!
I only knew I had trodden on the snake when Moira gave an excited scream having seen the thing lift its head after I had passed. I guess I stunned it!!!
We are now in Salvador (centre of Afro-Brazil). Wow!!!!!!!!!!
Brazil is even more expensive than home. We are moving into a cheap and nasty hostel tomorrow in the hope of saving money to spend on other things.
Tonight we’re off to watch an African candoble ceremony somewhere out of town, and then it is a search for all the variations of Afro-Brazilin music and dance for Moira. There is music everywhere, even more than Cuba or Mexico.
We’ll go to Rio in a week, for 5 days, and then head to London on 28th October.
Having great fun not understanding Portuguese and now find ourselves communicating in either Spanish or English - more Spanish is spoken here.
Much love to all
Jane
Index...
Jane, Slavador 18th Oct
Sorry, a brief one, I have about 15 emails to reply to even if briefly and it is $7 an hour here in Salvador. This is the capital of Bahia state, the main Afro-Brazilin area (and I think capital of music and beautiful bodies!!!).
It is a beautiful colonial city that was originally the capital of Brazil. It reminds us of Havana a little. It is also expensive here, roughly dollar for real. I don't know how most of the people survive.
There are plenty of kids on the streets to finish your meals, etc. and there is no need for doggie bags. Most eating is out on the street at night-time so the kids hang around.
We have a few more days here and then back to Rio for a week followed by London on the 28th October.
I’ll write after I have reduced my email list!!!
Love to all
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Belated notes from Moira on 17 November from Italy.
Hi George,
This has been a marathon.
We are in Italy after visiting friends and family in London.
Our 3 weeks in Brazil was a bit expensive as we predicted.
We bought an air pass, as Brazil is as big as Australia and it would take us a few days to travel from the Amazon to Rio.
The main cities we visited were Manaus, Salvador and Rio.
My memories of Brazil is beautiful people with beautiful bodies (mainly in Salvador), plastic bra straps (so the women can wear the skimpy tops), uplift moulds to show some cleavage, no topless or nude bathing, capoeira, capirinhas (their rum and lime drink which can be quite deadly at times), and fruit juice shops in which you can buy any type of fruit and or vegetable juice with added supplements for body building and vitamins, and very salty food.
Manaus is on the Amazon and we tried the Amazon experience from the Brazil side with little luck.
Salvador is the main centre for the Afro Brazilian culture. The Afro Brazilians have been able to practice their religion openly in the past 20 years and this has become a tourist attraction.
The ceremony is the Candomble that involves women going into traces. That is the only part of the ceremony which tourists are allowed to view and tends to happen in the evening. The ceremony starts early in the morning.
Jane and I had another successful event with our guide!!!!!! Our guide for the Candomble claimed to have studied the ceremony for a number of years (possibly behind red eyes). In the dance part of the ceremony, women stand on one side while the men stand on the other. Well there went the explanation of the ceremony!!!
It wasn't until midnight, that he suggested we leave the area as a few people had been drinking and it had become dangerous for us. The ceremony had not finished by that stage.
The other spectacular sight is watching people perform the capoeira. We saw a group competing on Saturday and later watched the Bahia Dance troupe give a spectacular display.
Pelorenho is the tourist and party centre of Salvador. There is lots of music, dancing and eating on the streets. We paid to go and see Olodium, the local drumming band which none of the locals could afford to go and see. One or two pieces of their music were fine and the dancing was choreographed (what we termed as SA line dancing).
Other than that we visited the local beach scene with little luck as far as pollution goes, caught a ferry to Priaia Pituba only to find more pollution. It was great being out on the water.
We have lost faith in the guia as we decided to visit as must visit town of Cachoeira expecting to spend overnight only to find we did the town in half a day. The bus ride out was interesting as most of the bus drivers think that they are in a grand prix.
Rio is just like the gold coast but there is business close to residential. I can image the Sydney coast area looking very much like this in a few years time. High rise apartments along the fore shore. Apparently they have reclaimed some of the beach to include a 4-lane road and a walkway.
We stayed in Copacabana and kept humming Peter Allen’s song 'When you go to Rio'. Our disappointment was that there was little music on the streets as in Salvador but our visit to the not so savoury north side of Rio to a Saturday market gave us an insight into the music.
The markets are known as the Sao Cristovao Fair and the main music that featured was forro, much like zydico music of Louisiana.
Back on the water again as we caught a ferry over to Ilha Itaparica and visited the Barra Grande next to Club Med. We did not swim as again there were too many plastic bags and the water was not too clear.
I had another attempt at trying surfing at Saquerima (a beach north of Rio) which proved to be too difficult unless you had a board.
Moira
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