Alter to Rio

After a 1 day layover in Manaus, which isn't much to write about other than it's hot and dirty, I got back on the boat. This boat was a bit nicer, less crowded, and bigger than the last. I boarded for Santerem to continue by bus to Alter do Chao. The trip was only 30 hours and I only met one guy who spoke English. Lots of time to write and be by myself. The dude's name was Daniel, Swiss, and luckily he spoke Portugese too. This allowed me to sleep on the boat for free that night even though it was docked and go into Santerem.
Santerem was also not much to write about. It did have a Santa Claus house up and some nice dock bars. Other than that, eh. I took the morning bus with Dan to Alter and was pleasantly surprised that the Lonely Planet book didn't lie this time. Oh, and funny thing about the bus - they have turnstiles in them that you must (trust me, I tried to go out the back and got yelled at and had to have a guy pass my bag over and stalled the bus a bit) exit through. There are plenty of Pousadas but only one hostel. Thankfully, the place, Amberque do Floresta was bad ass. I hung my hammock for $8 a night. It also had a very social and sharing environment. The owner had to leave a lot and we all kinda shared in greeting people and telling them the prices and showing them around and making sure the place was cool. It is definitely the best hostel I've stayed at yet.


The town itself is set on a tributary to the Amazon and is flanked on one side by rainforest and on the other, beautiful beaches that look like you're in the Caribbean. It is small though, there is usually only one place to eat for lunch open during the week and maybe 3 on the weekend. Same for dinner. The locals are very friendly too and don't really care that you're a gringo. In fact, some that I befriended said that we (the little hostel group) was not considered gringos. We were tourists, but that isn't a negetive thing like gringo (can also be a Brazilian) is. They do get gringos from time to time. Some came through on tour on Saturday. It also has very nice summer homes that are quite large. All in all, I had a hard time believing I was in the Amazon.
The first night at the hostel, I made friends with Itay, Israelli, and Joseph, Brazilian. I found out that they were interested in a ceremony were you drink Ayahuasca. Ayahuaca is a tea amade from 2 plants found in the Amazon region. One plant temporarily stops your bodies enzyms from destroying DMT, the other has a high concentration of DMT. DMT is a chemical found in every living thing including us. When your body absorbs DMT, it has psychodelic effects. Many of the tribes drink it for religious purposes. Anyway, I was curious about what these ceremonies consisted of so I went with them. After understanding what it was, what it did, and the reasons they chose to drink it, I decided to participate in a ceremony. The tea does not make you hallucinate, and it is a very personal experience. In fact, we were told that we were not allowed to talk to one another until the end, which was part of the ritual. The point being that it is your journey. So basically, there was just a lot of laying around and contimplating. If you'll notice from previous posts, my journey into the Amazon was much of the spirit of trying to see how far I could isolate myself and to see if there was anything to discover from it. It was appropriate then, that this culminated with this experience. I hadn't set out to do it, but it seemed almost to find me, to present itself at the exact time where it would have had a purpose for me to participate in the ceremony. It seems to be a theme of this trip so far, that things present themselves when they need to, not because you are looking for them. So ultimately, I learned some things and it was a positive experience that I'm glad I had a chance to participate in.
The rest of the week I spent doing some small bits of hiking (to the top of a nearby large hill where the views of the area are stunning), swimming (even did some skinny dipping cause the beaches are isolated. The river is not though and I barely got done when a boat rounded a corner before I had put my short back on so they got to see a naked gringo (I don't use it negatively, just to differentiate for these purposes) and then another came from way off to the exact spot I was swimming and pulled up on shore. Still don't know why they chose there though), laying around, and hanging out with the hostel group and locals. I did have to buy a new hammock because mine broke some ropes - it was quite used when I bought it. Love my new hammock and the lady was so excited to sell one to a gringo. I also ended up going to a going away party of a local named Mar. She was heading to Rio. There property was sorta a co-op with 5 or 6 people living on it. Beautiful, huge piece of land along a stream and the beach and all wooded. They all had their own secluded living spaces and most had a garden, living room, bathroom, bedroom and storage room all with open walls. The kitchen was a bit of a walk down a road and was basically on the beach. It was quite a nice kitchen with tiled floors and open walls and a dining table. After a lovely dinner they prepared of afish they caught, we all sat around playing music and they sung some portugese songs. Jon, whom I went with who was part of the hostel group, and I left at 10 and got dumped on. We actually took refuge at one point under tables that were on the beach.
I athought I'd leave on Wednesday so that I'd have a day or two to check out Belem before flying to Rio. So I booked a flight and crashed early. However, I found out that the boat didn't leave on my time. It was leaving on Friday and supposed to take 48 hours. If everything went perfectly, I'd get in at 2pm to Belem and fly out at 4pm. Hmmmm. Couldn't change flights because it was expensive and could only take the boat. It was time to fly by the seat of my pants and let the world sort out whatever it needed me to do.
Turned out I caught a boat out at noon. And, while there were set backs like it colliding with another boat because they were driving backwards down a short side river where we plopped off some folks, we made better time than we were supposed to. This boat was different than my other ones. Not so much in the sense physically. Sure it was a bit bigger, with more people who were rude and threw there garbage overboard, and with the worst bathrooms yet, but this time I was ready to be done. I was going to complete my trip down, but I felt like I already accomplished what I came for and wanted to move on faster than this. Also, there wasn't anywhere on the boat that didn't have 100 people around, so I never had a second to myself. I did make some friends that were Brazilian who took me under their wing and had an adorable little girl. But on this boat there were zero English speakers. That started getting to me too. When I order a sandwhich and I am close enough to the word, don't act like you don't know what the fuck I'm saying, you don't need a Brazilian to repeat the exact word I just said for you to get it.
There were a couple of noteworthy experiences from it though. The first was that on the last full day, every hut we passed would send out a boat of kids who would flap their hands and "whoooo", which would then elicit the response of throwing clothing, food, toys off the boat for them to pick up. It was quite sad and I realized that the people on the boat think they are better than them. There is definitely classism going on. I don't know the words they are saying, but I definitely understand they are talking shit about them when they see them. Second, I got into an uncomfortable situation with a guy from Suriname. Neither of us spoke enough of a similar language to communicate, in fact it took about an hour before I figured out he was telling me he was from there. He invited me to drink a beer with him so I agreed and he bought it. The boat cost about $40 more than I though it would so I only had enough to buy 8 sandwiches on the boat and could not afford to buy any beer. I thouht that would be the end of it, but then he bought wine without really asking. After the awful wine, he then wanted me to buy something. I kinda understood that is what he meant but was trying to play it off like I totally had no idea what he was talking about. After about 20 min of him repeating the same thing I told him I would buy him 1 beer since I only had $3 left. He wanted some expensive boose and I wanted to go to bed, so I gave him the money. A girl came up to me and in broken english told me not to hang out with that guy. I was already realizing that, so I thanked her and took the next opportunity to disappear.
Anyway, the boat made it to Belem ahead of schedule so I not only had plenty of time to make my flight, but to see Belem. I took in some local art and their local market. The market was sweet by the way and it was about 5 city blocks long. I bought an awesome lunch, some great juice, and some fresh brazil nuts (they come out of a thing that looks like a coconut and still need to be de-shelled).
Now, I am in Rio. Spent last night getting molested by a gay bar manager. I came in right as they were closing (it was a specialty beer bar with an amazing selection of beer from around the world, so it closed early) and they were like, "take your time". After a couple min, the manager came over with a beer and joined me. He spoke Spanish, so we started talking. I asked him which he was drinking and he poured me an entire glass. After a bit, they closed shop, but now the bartender joined for a beer, so naturally, we had to have another drink. A shot? Why not. Then another beer. Anywho, this went on for about 2 hours. I started getting suspicious that he was hitting on me so I told him about Ivy to no effect. I was getting the vibe to get out, so I took a piss and as I left the restroom I was accosted by the manager. The other dude went in to the bathroom. They had poured some Black Label Johnny Walker that I was going to take with them but now it was time to bail off this toilet. So, I took the shot and got the fuck out of there. I'm not sure why people feel that I need to be accosted. Yes, I am implying that it has happened before. Last year an older woman decided that it was a good idea to accost me and another friend in front of her husband.
Anywho, today I had some good food and took it mellow by mainly laying on the beach. I find that unless you get in right after lunch to a place, you can't really make any plans or don't have a good grasp on what is worth doing. So today was that day to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my time in this massive, crazy, fun city.


Oh, by the way, Alter de Chao's local hamburgers come with a slice of ham on them too. It is really really fucking good.

D