Week 1 in the Amazon!!!!

Here are my entries from the past week. 4/14 – 4/20/08. Sorry to post all at once but we have had very little access to the internet. There are no hot spots like we have in the US and the internet is very slow on top of that! Enjoy!

4/14/08
Ola! I am here in Manaus. After a full day of travel we arrived here in the wee hours of 12:45 am. Yesterday's travel went smoothly for the most part. We flew via TAM (the Brazilian National Airline) from Miami to Manaus. I must note the disposable cloths on the plane used to cover the head support part of the seats were sponsored by PwC Brazil. What a surprise to see something like this on a Brazilian airline. The flight to Brazil was our first real taste of what our trip was going to be like as the airline staff and most of the passengers spoke Portuguese. In fact, the gentleman who sat next to me was a Rotarian with whom Mike and I enjoyed a few drinks and gave us some free Portuguese lessons.

After landing and going through customs we had finally arrived. However, we were the only things to arrive. Apparently our luggage had not taken this journey across the equator with us. At this point the only possessions I have are my passport laptop, camera, malaria pills, clothes on my back, and a Karate Kid DVD.

My host family provided me some clothes and essentials. I am staying with the Carbral Family. Luckily Fabio Carbral is my Brazilian clone so I am able to borrow a shirt and pants from him. Fabio and his wife Vera have 1 boy and 2 girls. They are taking great care of me and are helping me with my Portuguese. Learning Portuguese is very important since very few people here do not speak English. This morning Vera cooked me a wonderful breakfast with traditional Brazilian fare including a banana frita sandwich, Brazilian coffee, Amazonian fruits and few other things.

A couple hours after breakfast we attended the local Rotary club meeting where our team was introduced. The lunch was awesome. I ate lamb in rice; beef tenderloins wrapped in bacon, chicken in curry sauce, and mashed potatoes. I was so stuffed after both meals I had no room for dessert. We then left the meeting to tour Unimed, a large private hospital in Manaus. Our gracious tour guide was Dra. Jucelia Viana Chiche. She led us through the emergency room, pediatric observation rooms, triage, OB, and the pediatric ICU. The hospital was very crowded with sick children crammed into every corner of the hospital floor. Dra Chiche indicated that this was the time of year that the hospital is most crowded. In order to alleviate this crowding the hospital is in the process of building a new hospital wing which we had the privilege to tour. The new facility is expected to be open in four months.

4/15/08
Last night we ate at a large outdoor café that was overlooking the city. We ate with some of the local members of the Rotary clubs. This restaurant was known for their preparation of fish. I ended up eating some and I really did like it. Many of you know that I don't eat fish, but it is not quite as exciting as this morning.

Today started-off with a bang….. I will explain. In order to heat shower water, Brazilians use some type of electric shower head. It has exposed electrical wires that run from the wall to the shower heads. This morning while I was doing my final rinse, I heard this loud pop, bang, above me. I look up and see a shower of sparks falling down on me. So I held my head down for cover and dove out of this shower of water and sparks thinking that I was about to be fried. Then smoke began to billow out of the shower head filling up the entire bathroom. It looked like I started an electrical fire and the house was about to burn. Thinking that this might be a problem, I ran out to find some help. I found Vera, the 2 girls, with their housekeeper standing in the kitchen. While standing in the kitchen with just a towel on, I tried to tell the people (who don’t speak English) that their house is on fire. Vera then ran with me to the bathroom and shut off the circuit breaker. The smoke stopped and was told that everything was fine.

So after the small fire, I was picked up in a van and we visited a small ecological preserve. This was a great stop as we were able to spot some un-caged spider monkeys, Amazon manatees, alligators, electric eels, giant otters, and many turtles. I must note that I escaped death for the second time today as I had to dodge a small wooden sign that broke away from the ceiling of a security shelter. It was flying at us during an afternoon storm landing between all of us.

After the preserve, we visited the Federal University observed the programs operated for children with disabilities. Then we went to Amazonas University Specialty Hospital for Cardiology. We toured all the units in the hospital including X-ray, MRI, Tomography, Gamma Ray Suite, and Nuclear Medicine. At the end of the tour, we were transported back to our host family. In case you are wondering, my luggage had arrived and it was waiting for me in my room. I got to wear my clothes for our presentation and dinner with the local rotary club this evening. That's it for now.

4/17/08

Hello! It is Thursday and I am on day 5 our expedition through Brazil. Yesterday, I was unable to update this journal because the day was booked solid and I had no time write. I want to let you all know that I am fine and that we are quite an amazing experience here. Yesterday, we focused on some of the culture in the Amazon region. In the morning we were given a tour of the Teatro de Amazona. This is the large opera house in Manaus that was built in the late 1800's with ornate pillars and architecture. At one point during our tour we had to place slippers over our shoes in order to not scratch the wood floors in the reception hall. Then we finally got a chance to exchange our US dollars into the Brazilian Real at the shopping mall. During the evening the Rotary Club took us to the Tropical Hotel for drinks and appetizers. We ended up leaving a little bit early because our driver, Francesco was getting tired and we had to be ready to go by 4am this morning. He has been our driver all week, picking us up at each of the host family houses which are located in various parts of the city.

The next day was to be our day to swim with the dolphins.
So as I previously mentioned, we were all picked up very early in the morning and we went to the Ferry crossing of the Rio Negra. We used the ferry to cross river and then traveled down a 2 lane road westbound for 3 hours until we arrived at our destination. Sorry but I don't remember the name of the village. Once we entered the village we were led to the docks where there dolphins swimming at the edge seeking food and people swimming and playing with them. To my surprise these were the dolphins we were going to feed and swim with. So we all eventually jumped in and starting feeding them fish from a shack that was on the dock. It was amazing because the dolphins were wild and not bound by any barriers so they were free to come and go as they wanted. So after the dolphin experience we visited Mira's (one of our hosts) parents house and drank some Cuppa da Socco (not sure of spelling). This is a drink made from the pulp of the fruit that was growing on the property. This must be popular drink here in Brazil as we have been drinking this everywhere. Its 8:30 PM and the van is here to pick us up for dinner.

April 20th, 2008

It is Sunday evening and I finally have this chance to write. Just to keep you up to date with our progress, on Friday we took an all day cruise down the Amazon River. This was quite an awesome trip as we were able to see the "Meeting of the Waters". The "Meeting of the Waters" is where the dirty brown water from the Amazon River meets the Rio Negra's black colored water. The water does not appear to actually mix for many miles. It looks like 2 distinct rivers that are running side by side because the color of the water from each river is totally different. After seeing the merging of the waters we had lunch at a deep lagoon reastaurant where we took a guided canoe tour deep into the jungle. We were floating under the tall tree canopies in the river in the flooded areas. There were these tree trunks that were the size of Escalades. It is the rainy season so the river naturally floods across the forest so there are trees and shrubs that rise out of the river out bed on the flooded banks. During the evening we went to a birthday party at one of our host Rotarian's homes for food and so drinks. After the party my host family took our team out to one of the Night Clubs where we saw a Brazillian Cover band. Most of the songs were in Portuguese however there was some "Dancing Queen" and "YMCA" mixed in. Mike and I got on stage and showed the Brazilians how to properly do the YMCA. You have to see the pictures….

Yesterday was our last day in Manuas so we traveled from Manaus to Santarem and arrived here yesterday afternoon. We will be here until May 5th. We are staying across the street from the University in some dorms in the middle of the City. Our hosts are Ron and his wife Vera. Both of them work for the University. Vera is the district governor of the Amazona Rotary district which spans over 2000 miles. During the day today we went to a village called Alter do Chao which is approximately 30 minutes away. This village is along the water and usually you can go on the beach but as I previously mentioned it is the rainy season and the beach is flooded. So we ended up walking through town along the water's edge and stopped for a few drinks along the way. We had an outdoor lunch at a one of the local hotels. From the hotel we took a small boat tour and our driver stopped at an island in the middle of river. On this island were a couple makeshift bars and tables. This appeared to be the most popular place in town and I can see why. We hung out, drank a few beers, and played some dominos before coming back to the village and drove back to the city. Its 7:15 so I need to shower before dinner. Good night!