Day 4: Short Detour

When this trip was being planned, we kayaked (cheapoair to be specific) the round-trip to the Amazon and ended up transferring in Sao Paulo (which coincidentally was where we left our friend for his conference).

Our first flight was an 8:15am departure SDU-CGH on TAM (this was before I thought much of airline programs and forgot to credit all the TAM flights to UA...). We ended up at the airport early enough for the check-in agents to change our tickets to the 7:15am flights, with no SDC fee(!). On this flight I tried Guarana (the soft drink) for the first time after hearing rave reviews about it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Guarana is a soda flavored with the guarana fruit. I describe it as being a slightly apple/berry/fruity version of ginger ale (which doesn't really do it much justice).

After leaving our friend at the airport under the rain, the remaining three of us traveled to Ibirapuera park, where we wandered around the attractions (and noted the large Japanese population). To pass the time before our flight (from the other airport in Sao Paulo) we wandered through the Afro-Brazilian museum and sat in on an planetarium show (in Portuguese, so we just took a nap instead).


An artifact from the museum

In the late afternoon we made our way to the outer edges of the park to take a taxi to Sao Paulo's other airport. Our taxi driver had the Fla-Flu game (basically the biggest football/soccer game between two Rio rivals) on a small TV in his taxi, which we (and probably he) watched during the ride.

Our flight from Sao Paulo to Manaus (again on TAM), the capital of the Amazonas priovince, (GRU-MAO), was scheduled for for an 11:05pm departure, arriving in Manaus at 2:30 the next morning. This wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact we weren't scheduled to get picked up from the airport until 6:30am

Day 5: Actually To The Amazon!

Note: This trip to the Amazon was one of those crazy things you see on TV-we didn't set off by ourselves and camp throughout the wilderness. We used a reputable agency and had regular meals and a bed to sleep on and some semblance of running water, so don't get it into your head that we're crazy wilderness survivalists

After wandering around Manaus and grabbing breakfast from a street vendor, we departed from the port of Manaus to the cabin run by the agency.


On a boat that schedules service for crossing the river


A typical house on the banks of the river

After another hour of driving and another hour on another boat, we reached our home base for the next few days in afternoon. The cabin is located on the Rio Juma, which is a tributary of the Amazon.


Inside the cabin-everything I brought was packed into that red backpack


Outside the cabin

There was a small building near the cabin that had toilets, showers, and sinks with running water, though I feel like the running water was probably just river water. Alternatively you could also wash up in the river (and do laundry too, as I only packed clothes for 4 days)


This is what being 3 hours away from the nearest city looks like

Late in the afternoon we set out for our (one and only) overnight trip into the Amazon. After landing in a relatively secluded area we set about collecting firewood to make our dinner of chicken. Since it was the winter season in Brazil, the sun set during dinner time. We set up cots and covered them with mosquito netting before sleeping pretty early (especially being out in the middle of nowhere since there wasn't really anything else to do after the sun set).


The beginnings of our firewood pile


Parts of a chicken