Posted 3:46 PM by laurie
Hello everyone. Well this is the end of my blog more or less and the end of a fantastic five months out here in Brazil. Since the last time I wrote I have been on the move up the coast and left my diary behind, which means it will be a bit harder to write this update (not that your bothered, your just reading!).

Well as I said I went and watched the boxing with some Scottish bloke. We watched 5 or so good fights but left after watching the guy I had been sparring with make a really good come back to win on points. He had been knocked flat with the very first punch of the fight and then spent the whole of the first round against the ropes. Some all out aggresion combined with good fitness saw him win the next two rounds and he was very very pleased when they raised his hand at the end. All good exciting fights and some of them were obviously heading to the pro´s, as it was also televised.

I left Rio the next day a bit hungover and forgot my guidebook which actually made things quite difficult. I took a 24 hour bus ride to Itacaré which ended up being closer to 30 and then stayed for a week surfing in Itacaré. We had excellent waves for a week and although the water was really crowded it was also really sociable and nearly everyone I met, I met whilst in the water. I was surfing for about 5 hours a day though and ended up sleeping a lot. I met a couple from Namibia who are circumnavigating the world in a really nice 36ft catamaran. I spent a lot of time with them and on their boat (although didn´t get to do any sailing). They were really interesting and he had been a professional diver for diamonds and made his fortune. It has got me more ambitious to buy a boat someday myself.

When the waves went messy I took another bus, this time just 7 hours, to Salvador. I stayed there for 3 days and changed my hostel for a really cool hostel which was just 2 days old. The owner was a crazy Argentinian who also ran the café underneath. I met some cool people and we spent most of the time playing draughts in the café and doing all the tourist scenes. We saw some interesting museums, churches and art galleries. But the biggest night out was to visit a Candomblé ceremony.

Candomblé is a religion brought over by the africans when they first arrived in Brazil. I´m not a theologist but it appears to have two distinct ceremonies and the one we saw was lighter of the two. It involved very rhythmical drumming and sometimes people singing as well. On the floor were loads of leaves and red flower petals. Sat around the sides of the floor were women dressed in big traditional style skirts, all with their eyes shut and a look of meditation on their face. After a while the chief/leader/priest would help a woman to stand up and guide her for the beginning while she shook to the drum beats. The shaking was in time to the music but at times they would nearly fall over and were quite obviously heavily in a trance. There were a few men dressed strangely as well with little axes that they kept tucked under their armpits. I felt voyeuristic watching it and can imagine that the tourists presence detracted from the nature of the ceremony. However it was still very much an authentic ceremony and afterwards we were informed about the other ceremony which we would not be allowed to watch. The other ceremony involves live animal sacrifices and evil spirits. Having already been offered a sacrificed snake I think I can do without that one!

I visited Porto Seguro on the way back and went out drinking with a few locals but it wasn´t worth staying. I then took another bus 17 hours back to Rio. It got a puncture though and insisted on waking everybody up with a really unrealistic film about a female FBI trainee who beat the sexist prejudices to save the day. She even beat the guys at pull ups! and at 8 in the morning after a sleepless night that just made me sick!

So back in Rio now and I´m really enjoying it. I´m staying with Thina and Jan for my last week, they have been fantastic throughout my stay and have really become my Brazilian family. I´ve got quite a few farewells to do and will hopefully have a few more good nights out and some more good waves. Looking forward to coming home, seeing everyone and getting into a routine again (the last two months of travel have been all over the place).
I would still like to live in Rio, some day, but I am not sure at what cost. It will be quite a major effort to move back here and will require a lot more organisation and critically a paid-job. Before anything else though I am going to have to earn some money in England as I have spent nearly everything I had saved. It has been money well spent though.

Tchau e obrigado Brasil

Posted 3:31 PM by laurie
Well I am back in Rio now but the last segment I wrote hadn´t been published so I just added it again. For the last week in Sao Gabriel de Cachoeiras I was having a bit of a nightmare as I had tried to get on a plane without my passport. Stupid! Yes you may well think so but in actual fact I had checked it all through and I was perfectly legit with a photocopy but unfortunately the copy I had didn´t have my entry/exit stamp. So I had to phone the hotel where I had left it and get it sent up to Sao Gabriel on the next plane! It arrived safe and sound thanks to a very helpful woman in the flight agency and I no longer felt like a prisoner!

In the days while I was waiting I found a local guide through IBAMA which is a nature preservation society. This guy was called Xurima and looked part indian but not fully. He was 60 years old and his dad was a portuguese bloke who had actually killed indians when they were pushing forward all the frontiers, his mum was an indian. Anyways, I ended up organising the majority of the things we needed like food and transport and we headed off into the northern hemisphere by about 40 km and then paddled up a river for 5 hours. We camped in our hammocks for a night at the side of the river (I was completely exhausted) we were paddling against a strong current and we had to keep on stopping to chop through trees and clear stuff which had fallen across the river. Just as we pulled into where we were stopping a semi-civilised indian (clothes and a shotgun) stopped to chat to us before he went off night hunting 2 hours further upstream. Next day walked up to some old volcanoes with loads of picturesque lakes and a huge feeling of isolation. We were more than a days travel from civilisation and there were no signs of human settlements as far as the eye could see. We stayed there for a few days and on the second day Xurima started shouting for me to come over and bring my camera. I ran over to find him hacking about in a bush with muffled shouts of "cobra". He pointed it out and I kept my distance and said I didn´t feel too comfortable with snakes. So he says "I´ll kill it for you!". Before I could stop him he was hacking into the bush again and all I could think to do was shout "CAREFUL" not really wanting my navigation to leave killed by a snake. He lopped its head off and then held the poor thing up, it was a about 2m and just about still as scary as a headless wriggling blood dripping snake. "you hold it!" "Fuck off!" For the next few days I was then scared of every bush I had to go near in case the snake god was ready to wreak it´s revenge. We trekked back to the river and our boat and it had been a bit of a dissappointing return without much to see. About 10 mins from the river though we walked straight into the path of about 100 monkeys having some sort of party. They were everywhere and were making loads of noise singing, shouting talking whatever it was and jumping from tree to tree. I tried to get a few photos but it was impossible coz when you got within a couple of trees they started to jump to other trees. So I just chilled out and watched the show. We then went back down stream which was the most beautiful part of the trip with loads of birds and time to look at the jungle as the current did all the work. Or nearly all the work, we still had to steer and this was a bit of a problem. We kept on having to aim for the boat width path we had made on the way up and frequently missed it! Xurima was at the back and so I took all the branches e.t.c. right on the noggin in the front. It was cool though and I was more worried about the old snake god than anything else. Xurima let his eye off the ball though and got clocked by a branch at more or less full speed. Sent him flying off his seat and he hit his head on the side of the boat. Hilarious!! ha ha ha! better than any "you´ve been framed". He laughed about it as well. We got a lift back from the road in an army truck which saved us about 20 quid. Back in Sao Gabriel Xurima tried to sell me a panthers head and the next day I got a plane back to Manaus and then on to Rio do Janeiro. Had two very heavy nights out here and tonight I am hopefully going to watch some amateur boxing. Headed to Salvador tomorrow and I´ll try to write from there.

Posted 2:34 PM by laurie
Well I am in São Gabriel de Cachoeiras now and I am more or less stuck again. However here is a lot nicer than Santa Isabela and I´ve got places to go walking and the people are a lot more friendly. Santa Isabela had started to get me down and I was really glad to leave. Not least because the people weren´t at all friendly and basically stared at me so much I tried to avoid leaving the hotel! I met some guy here who recognised me from Santa Isabela and he ended up taking me to a street party with some of his friends. The party wasn't the best I have been to but it was interesting to talk to him because I discovered (as I already suspected) that everyone in Santa Isabela hates Paulo the environment secretary! This would go a long way to explaining why I didn't get good reactions there, because I was always seen out and about with him and was also the only other white guy in town. Someone had actually hit Paulo to the ground not long before I arrived which also explains why he didn´t go out at night. The whole thing was a bit of a mess and Paulo personally wound me up with what he said "Pois ser, Lauren. Eu podia ter qualquer mulher aqui. Qualquer mulher. Qualquer.... qualquer" which translates as "Well Laurie. I can have any woman here. Any woman I want. Any.... Any". Fair enough he was drunk and he quite often did have ugly women (of which there are many in Santa Isabela) talking to him but there is an attitude of saying one thing and meaning another here. All over now though!

Posted 9:19 AM by laurie
Hello everyone,

Well I have got to write a little sooner than I thought due to basic human kindness! I am in a tiny village halfway up the Rio Negro called Santa Isabela. I have been trapped here for the last 3 days with nothing, and I do mean nothing, to do. Basically I left Manaus this time without any dangerous encounters in the deadly port of São Raimundo. I boarded my boat and stayed in my well placed hammock talking to the woman next to me for three hours until we left the port. Her name was Vanah and was also going to São Gabriel de Cachoeiras to see her first newborn grandchild. She was really nice and also a stranger to river travel, so the two of us spread ourselves out as much as possible to put off new arrivals from placing their hammocks next to ours. It worked! and we had the most space on the boat! Also while we stayed in port swarms of people enter the boat and try to sell you stuff whilst blatantly waiting for an opportunity to nick something! Once we set off we collected our meal from downstairs and sat on the top floor to eat and look at the stars.

I sat next to a bloke who I had noted had an Annapurna badge on his rucksack and asked him whether he was going to climb Pico da Neblina. It was a good move because he was one of the only none locals on the boat and turned out he was a biologist going to set things up for a project in the forest near to Santa Isabela. The next few days were spent on the boat just soaking up the size and beauty of the Amazon. It is the most nature full place I have ever been and has got virtually no-one in it. Every 2-3 hours we passed a few wooden huts with caboclas (semi-indians) living in them but the rest of the time it was just masses of water lined with jungle forest. The water is pure enough to drink from the side of the boat and there is just so much of it I can´t describe what it is like. Anyways the locals on the boat killed a turtle and we ate it (nothing special but highly illegal) and were friendly but very wary of me. It was a massive culture shock basically that I hadn´t been expecting. Luckily Chico (the biologist) had already visited the area and knew how to handle them. He looked after me a lot and without him it could have been quite difficult. It is difficult to explain but the social interactions here are very different and it leads to a lot of not knowing how to behave on both parts. Chico was setting up equipment for further projects in the forest and invited me to help. So I got a jungle trip for free.

We went with the local Environment Secretary and 3 locals to stay in a cabocla community and then into the jungle and made a camp. I don´t have much time to explain it all now but it was amazing. The community happened to be having a festival and just to see how they lived on a daily basis was amazing (they grow and catch pretty much all they need and only buy clothes and the odd machinery). In the jungle we caught fish and cooked them on a fire (five huge fish over two days) and they were the best fish I have ever tasted. One of the locals caught a fish by walking up behind it in a rapid and hacking his machete into its back which was quite impressive to say the least! We returned and Chico caught a boat back down the river while I am waiting for a boat up the river. This area is pretty much the frontier of Brazil and as a result I am waiting for 4 days! Luckily the environment secretary knows everyone and has organised pretty much anything I have asked for. So a kind lady has let me use the only internet connection in the town for an hour! I´ve got to go but will write again in two weeks and will send some personal emails.

LOZA

Posted 9:35 AM by laurie
O.K. So I am still in Manaus after having a few problems trying to leave but have just bought a ticket to leave and will now spend 5 days on a boat headed to São Gabriel de Cachoeiras. Basically I tried to do this last Sunday because this place is in the middle of nowhere and maybe I might be able to organise a trip up the Pico da Neblina (which is the highest mountain in Brazil). So last Saturday I organised at the docks which boat I would be going on. I arrived at about 5ish coz the boat was set to leave at 6 but they said they were having problems with the boat and would need to change the stock to another boat. It was all very confusing and I felt quite edgy about the whole situation. So I resolved to wait a while and see what happened. I was the most friendly I have ever been figuring the more people like me the less likely they are to do me over. It got dark and I really wasn´t too happy about the situation so eventually I asked how safe I was and they assured me it was fine but that the boat probably wouldn´t leave until the next day and so I would have to sleep there that night. Luckily a few people were headed back to town and so I got a lift with them and resolved to return the next day.
Had a good night out on Saturday and chilled out on Sunday. Then Sunday night I took a taxi to the docks to get on the same boat. It was getting dark and figured I had timed it perfectly. However when I got there the boat had already left and all the people who had been in the dingy little bar were different. Everyone was acting strangely and I had the same feeling that I had had at the start of the night before only worse. Some people tried to convince me that there was a boat leaving "just round the corner" and started firing questions at me, blatantly scoping out how they could mug me. I had to stare one guy out with eyes like the devil and keep my cool while I walked to the taxi which I had asked to wait a while. Once inside the taxi some guy was grabbing my arm through the window and the taxi driver was visibly nervous as well. We drove off safely and I thanked the driver for sticking around and thanked my lucky stars. He then told me that there was another guy walking towards me from behind who had just lifted up his T-shirt and had a pistol in his shorts! Far too close for comfort and very big lesson learned.

Anyways since then I have been organising a second trip which is gonna be a lot safer. Things move quite slowly here and I was a bit shaken up since the last attempt so just had some lazy days. The hostel is really cool because it is mainly brazilians and they are really friendly. The trip I am intending to do is about 10 days trekking and you go near quite a few indian homes but don´t see too much wildlife. It is really expensive to do it from Manaus (about 800 quid) so I am hoping to get it for a lot less when I arrive in São Gabriel.

Hope to have some amazing stories to relate back in about 3 wks time

LOZA

Posted 11:02 AM by laurie
Hello again. Well yesterday I was absolutely knackered, having had only 3 hours sleep before facing the hustle and bustle of Manaus. This place is very hot and humid and full of people. Near the docks is pretty filthy and pretty noisy. Yesterday I saw some bloke throwing live pigs from his boat into the river. He then swam after them caught them by the tails and directed them into the shore! Very amusing to watch! I had been accosted by a guide and he took me to a hotel, it worked very cheaply but he wouldn't leave me alone. I have now given him the message that I am not interested in his tours and he is cooling off a bit.
I have organised a boat (without an agency which is a lot cheaper) and leave tonight in 4 hours time. Two local girls who are also staying in the hotel (it is like a cheap B&B and lots of locals live there) helped me buy all the things I needed quite cheaply. I went out with a dutch girl last night and met some locals who she had already met (she is a bit odd but we had a good time). One of these locals was well interesting, a guy from Syria, he had travelled and lived in half the world without legitimate passports and was finally settling in Brazil. I met another guy today from the bahamas who is also here without a visa for 14 years. They were both saying how accepting the people have been and how easy it is in terms of avoiding immigration. Still don't think that I would be too interested in doing it though.
So the boat I am on is locals only and I have got a massive hammock, clothes, food, money and no plans. Hopefully I'll find a cheap jungle guide in Sao Gabriel de Cachoeiras. If not I'll have to turn round and come back! Which will mean 8-9 days wasted! I'll let you know what happens soon.

LOZA

Posted 11:02 AM by laurie
Hello again. Well yesterday I was absolutely knackered, having had only 3 hours sleep before facing the hustle and bustle of Manaus. This place is very hot and humid and full of people. Near the docks is pretty filthy and pretty noisy. Yesterday I saw some bloke throwing live pigs from his boat into the river. He then swam after them caught them by the tails and directed them into the shore! Very amusing to watch! I had been accosted by a guide and he took me to a hotel, it worked very cheaply but he wouldn't leave me alone. I have now given him the message that I am not interested in his tours and he is cooling off a bit.
I have organised a boat (without an agency which is a lot cheaper) and leave tonight in 4 hours time. Two local girls who are also staying in the hotel (it is like a cheap B&B and lots of locals live there) helped me buy all the things I needed quite cheaply. I went out with a dutch girl last night and met some locals who she had already met (she is a bit odd but we had a good time). One of these locals was well interesting, a guy from Syria, he had travelled and lived in half the world without legitimate passports and was finally settling in Brazil. I met another guy today from the bahamas who is also here without a visa for 14 years. They were both saying how accepting the people have been and how easy it is in terms of avoiding immigration. Still don't think that I would be too interested in doing it though.
So the boat I am on is locals only and I have got a massive hammock, clothes, food, money and no plans. Hopefully I'll find a cheap jungle guide in Sao Gabriel de Cachoeiras. If not I'll have to turn round and come back! Which will mean 8-9 days wasted! I'll let you know what happens soon.

LOZA

Posted 10:06 AM by laurie
Since last time I wrote things have been happening quite fast and I am now in Manaus. I went to Ilha Grande (Big Island) for a week in between my shifts at the hostel and had my first holiday from Rio. I stayed at a hostel the first night, it was really chilled out and I heard some interesting travel tales from Guyana. I ate a lot from the help yourself meal in preparation for what I was planning the following day. I then checked out the following day and "borrowed" a bed sheet from the hostel. I went to the center of Abraão, which is the largest village on the island, found some friendly people that worked in a surf shop and picked their brains. I was planning on spending some nights off in remote parts of the island (which basically includes the majority of the island) on my lonesome. The surfer who ran the shop had actually lived for four years on part of the island where no-one goes. I couldn´t understand if this was because of his army training or for his army training but he was a wealth of information. We planned what I was going to do and his girlfriend lent me a water purification pump. I then bought a hammock a mossie net and loads of food.

I walked to the other side of the island which took all day walking quite quickly. I passed through a few police check points which nerved me a bit because a lot of the island is nature reserves and you aren´t technically allowed to walk there. Luckily Brazil is very relaxed about this sort of thing and they didn´t ask for permits just saying I had to be back by 7.30pm. I eventually arrived where I thought would be a nice place to stay only to discover that it had a few houses there. I wasn´t too sure if they had people staying in them and as it was far too late to be returning the way I came I wasn´t sure how they would react to me being where I wasn´t supposed to be. So, I walked on to the next beach which was another hour and meant I arrived at as the sun was going down. As luck would have it this beach moved into a different type of reserve which I soon discovered was even more of a no-go area with a big sign saying NO ENTRY. Too late to worry about! I got to the beach and it was beautiful and far too inviting and rapidly getting dark to worry about anything more than where I was going to sleep. I searched in vain for suitable hammockable (is that a word?) trees but to no avail. So I tried to get a fire going to keep warm, no luck there either. I ended up sleeping on the beach with my hammock underneath me as a quickly sodden groundsheet and a solitary bed sheet and mossie net to keep me warm. It was the coldest night of year I reckon and because I stupidly moved three times, one of which on to the sane (which was wet) I got very cold. I hardly slept a wink and woke up shivering and teeth chattering. As a measure of how cold the night had made me I walked to the see to clean my trainers in the morning and the water felt like a hot bath! Anyway mistakes learned I had to quickly return as there was no way I fancied my second planned night! Also I wasn´t too happy about where I was.
I walked until the afternoon and stopped at the first civilisation with people. I ate hot food and felt a million times better. I met some german guys who were walking the same route I had done with a guide and we walked the last couple of hours together. Their guide informed me that if I had been caught I would have spent a night in jail as they are really keen on dissuading people from doing this sort of thing. The rest of the week passed uneventfully and I walked up the parrot peak on the island a few days later when my legs had recovered.

I then did 6 shifts in a row to get out of the hostel earlier than I had planned with them and bought a ticket to Manaus. I am now in Amazon central popping malarials and getting ready for some more forest adventures but this time with a guide and hopefully with a little bit more warmth.

I might not be able to write again for a while so please don´t expect anything for the next 6 weeks.

Not long now,

LOZA

Posted 1:52 PM by laurie
Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote. Well unsurprisingly quite a lot of things have been going on in Rio but I have missed them all. I was sat on the toilet when someone locked it from the outside and gave me a months worth of food and drink and said "we'll let you out soon". I've just got out and headed for the nearest internet so here is what could have happened had I not been trapped in a toilet.

Firstly I have moved house. Staying with Martha had been a great time but she was always quite interfering and after 2 months I fancied a change. So I went to visit my only gringo friend out here, a chubby aussie called Cam, it just so happened that the hostel he was staying in needed a new person to work/stay there. So it was perfect timing and it also saves me accomodation money. I work 3 shifts a week. All I have to do is stay there for 6 and a half hours in case anyone turns up and wants to check in or if any existing guests have any questions. However I have mastered my "look dumb" face and it is very rare that anyone asks me anything! Actually it is a really sociable job and probably the hardest part is avoiding getting stuck in conversation with a lonely person. When you are working in a small hostel there are few places to run to and few excuses to break off a conversation. Generally it is a major bonus coz I get my own room with a little balcony, toilet and outside shower. I am really into cold showers at the moment and at night I find it quite exhilirating to get naked and freeze my todger off whilst hoping not too many of the neighbouring tower blocks are watching!

I met a girl called Flavia through a friend on Ipanema beach she is 24, a career woman (she has already made a profit from her own business) and is showing me a good time in Rio. On our third date we went to a wedding for one of her friends who I had already met. It was a bit full on for the third time I had seen her but all her friends were really friendly and I had a top night. The wedding was amazing. It started off in a church deep inland in the city (the city just sprawls as far as the eye can see) and then we drove to some country club. We parked in the car park and then jumped onto a mini train (like in disneyland) to get to the club area, that's how big the grounds were. Roses were hanging down under the canopies of the patio, loads of candles, everything in white and heaps of waiters. All the food and drinks were brought to us by the waiters who were unbelievably polite. Then there was a disco, bouquet throw and a few speeches. It was an unbelievable experience and probably unbelievably expensive as well.

Still surfing when there are waves and have been surfing quite well lately. Also did some boxing the other day and surprised myself with how much fitness I managed to find. Only lasted three rounds though and had to do nothing for two days afterwards! Didn't use a gumshield either and now have some holes in my gums, Hi mum! hope your enjoying reading this! Still reckon that I gave him plenty of pain for the following day as well. Been playing loads of BBall as well, which is a little bit safer. Speaking of safe I climbed the sugarloaf mountain (second most famous landmark in Rio) the other day and it has now been shut down because a big rock has come loose. Part of the reason I am doing so much sport is because I am going to the charities a lot less nowadays. Also if I am working in the afternoon it doesn't give me enough time to go anywhere but local in the morning.

I have spent a lot of time looking for jobs but it has been really difficult, to be honest, at times I have sort of given up. Back looking again now though, although I don't hold out much hope (yanks can keep there positive thinking I'm being realistic!). So the next plan (still in its infancy) could be to go to portugal to carry on the portuguese and hopefully have more success with jobs (at least there won't be the visa problems). Quite glad that I have been careful with my money up until now as it leaves more options open to me. Also been thinking about buying a boat and sailing to sweden for the summer to catch some swedes. Or maybe walk round the north west of Scotland. I am headed to the amazon soon (3 weeks or so) and will decide if I want more of the "good outdoors" after that.

Bingo! Yes I have also been to a charity bingo. It was full of old women as one would expect (probably about 200 of them, had I been younger it would definitely have reminded me of Roald Dahl's The Witchs". I think that a lot (make that all) of the women who went are really rich. It is sort of like a hollywood wives thing where they all work in local charities to fill in their time. I guess that puts me in the same boat really. It was good fun and I learn't how to pronounce the portuguese numbers.

Not sure what I will be doing next but I tried to extend my visa the other day and had some problems. The "filho da puta" at the policia federal wouldn't give me the full 90 days and insisted on just giving me 60 days. So that means that the plural 'you', will see me sooner than you think. I have actually booked my flight for the 24th of July so think that means I arrive on the 25th of July.

Hope that you are all happy, healthy and gearing up for the british summer.
c u soon
LOZA