The last day in the Amazon rainforest began pretty early, we woke up to a breakfast of crackers with Guiaba jam, freshly cut pineapples and coffee with milk and sugar.
We then headed out to a settlement of the Amazonian natives. Some of us felt a little uncomfortable infringing on their settlement as curious tourists but it looked like by this time they were used to a lot of tourists anyways. We got to see farms where Mandioc and Pineapples were grown, I had never seen a Pineapple tree/plant/bush before. Its like a small bush with Pineapples in the middle, its something really unique especially if you've thought "Where do pineapples come from ?." We also saw a fruit from which it was possible to extract a red paste to be used as face-paint. The locals had a small store where they were selling some merchandise, that seemed like the only thing they would get out of this deal.
We then headed back to the lodge and hung out there for a little bit, just watching soccer, eating lunch. I felt a sense of quiet and happiness. It felt like us, the group of 15, had really bonded over this short 3 day experience in a new country in the middle of the rainforest and it was something that made me feel really happy, this was a special experience. Roger from London, Zoran from Croatia, Erin and Kano from Canada, Lisa and Andrea from Miami, Nic from Orlando, Jan from Germany, Mic, Josh and Scott from D.C and the four of us, we didn't know if we'd ever run into each other again. We chatted with each other over a delicious lunch about our next plans, where we were headed to and what games we were watching next,
After that it was time to head back to Manaus, we collected a group tip for the guides and gave it to them. We then got into one of the super-fast boats we had arrived on and headed out back to the harbor. It was a 40-50 minute ride and throughout the ride I could just not stop thinking about the serenity and the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. To me, it felt like a different planet, it was unlike any other place I had been to, water everywhere with stretches of Forest in between. A kind of a separate world with its own rules and laws, living there is a universe away from having a desk job in an American city. A place that I would highly recommend you check out if you get the chance.
On the way back to Manaus we ran into an Indo-Kazakh (Vikram and Dina) couple who were living in Bangalore. Me, Boochi and Keerthi were chatting in Tamil when Dina interrupted us with "Are you guys speaking in Tamil ?", that was how it started. It was fun for me to meet someone from abroad who was living and working in India, especially a girl(since India doesn't stand out as the safest place for women these days), and get their perspective about India. When I was in India 5 years back, there were not a lot of foreigners who lived in Madras. Dina told me Bangalore now had quite a few foreigners these days, especially those who moved there from Spain to teach Spanish and decided to stay on afterwards. I found that very interesting and to be a good sign for India's development. She did mention a couple of problems w.r.to the cultural change and "a lot of staring" which I can only hope will improve with time.
Brazil were playing Mexico that day and we asked the cab driver on the final leg of our journey to turn on the radio for the game. We obviously understood none of the Portuguese commentary but the word that all we tourists were looking for was "gooooooaaaaaal", that never happened. Brazil managed to draw with Mexico and a lot of the locals were disappointed with the result. The Mexican goalie had an extremely good game.
That night I had access to wifi after almost 3 days, I spoke to the GF, typed out a couple of blog posts and spent time in the hostel. Walker and I headed out to the square for a short while that night but we decided to turn in early, the excitement of the last couple of days would take a long while to die down :)
We then headed out to a settlement of the Amazonian natives. Some of us felt a little uncomfortable infringing on their settlement as curious tourists but it looked like by this time they were used to a lot of tourists anyways. We got to see farms where Mandioc and Pineapples were grown, I had never seen a Pineapple tree/plant/bush before. Its like a small bush with Pineapples in the middle, its something really unique especially if you've thought "Where do pineapples come from ?." We also saw a fruit from which it was possible to extract a red paste to be used as face-paint. The locals had a small store where they were selling some merchandise, that seemed like the only thing they would get out of this deal.
We then headed back to the lodge and hung out there for a little bit, just watching soccer, eating lunch. I felt a sense of quiet and happiness. It felt like us, the group of 15, had really bonded over this short 3 day experience in a new country in the middle of the rainforest and it was something that made me feel really happy, this was a special experience. Roger from London, Zoran from Croatia, Erin and Kano from Canada, Lisa and Andrea from Miami, Nic from Orlando, Jan from Germany, Mic, Josh and Scott from D.C and the four of us, we didn't know if we'd ever run into each other again. We chatted with each other over a delicious lunch about our next plans, where we were headed to and what games we were watching next,
After that it was time to head back to Manaus, we collected a group tip for the guides and gave it to them. We then got into one of the super-fast boats we had arrived on and headed out back to the harbor. It was a 40-50 minute ride and throughout the ride I could just not stop thinking about the serenity and the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. To me, it felt like a different planet, it was unlike any other place I had been to, water everywhere with stretches of Forest in between. A kind of a separate world with its own rules and laws, living there is a universe away from having a desk job in an American city. A place that I would highly recommend you check out if you get the chance.
On the way back to Manaus we ran into an Indo-Kazakh (Vikram and Dina) couple who were living in Bangalore. Me, Boochi and Keerthi were chatting in Tamil when Dina interrupted us with "Are you guys speaking in Tamil ?", that was how it started. It was fun for me to meet someone from abroad who was living and working in India, especially a girl(since India doesn't stand out as the safest place for women these days), and get their perspective about India. When I was in India 5 years back, there were not a lot of foreigners who lived in Madras. Dina told me Bangalore now had quite a few foreigners these days, especially those who moved there from Spain to teach Spanish and decided to stay on afterwards. I found that very interesting and to be a good sign for India's development. She did mention a couple of problems w.r.to the cultural change and "a lot of staring" which I can only hope will improve with time.
Brazil were playing Mexico that day and we asked the cab driver on the final leg of our journey to turn on the radio for the game. We obviously understood none of the Portuguese commentary but the word that all we tourists were looking for was "gooooooaaaaaal", that never happened. Brazil managed to draw with Mexico and a lot of the locals were disappointed with the result. The Mexican goalie had an extremely good game.
That night I had access to wifi after almost 3 days, I spoke to the GF, typed out a couple of blog posts and spent time in the hostel. Walker and I headed out to the square for a short while that night but we decided to turn in early, the excitement of the last couple of days would take a long while to die down :)
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