In the Amazon

When you have a dream, know that it is a dream and that reality is always more vivid. Who knows which you will like better-when I dreampt of the Amazon, some 10-12 years ago, all I saw was green- I imagined it was where the world began. In truth, I went to the Amazons with a heavy heart, filled with the pain of walking away from all of my friends and family in Vila Velha.
The more you love, the more you feel this weight on your heart. I have really learned to live in the moment-the entire time in the airport, everyone was teary eyed and emotional minus myself. Yet when I crossed the other side of the airport and could not see them anymore, it was a waterworks. The fact that I was leaving did not set in until I literally could not see them anymore. My emotion has become so complex and circumstantial-on the way to the Amazons I had the longing to be with my boyfriend, family and friends in Espiritu Santo, the desire to return to my real family back in the states and the intense curiosity to see what was going to come next and what new culture I was walking into now. This mixed with the overwhelming fact that my program was coming to an end.

It was humid in Santarem, Para. The state borders the state of Amazonas and shares the thick jungle and the Amazon river. By the port in front of where we were staying, clear blue water of the Tapajos meets the dark brown waters of the Amazon river. The Amazon is dark and brown because of all the sediment that mixes around as it flows.
It was not a hot hellhouse in the middle of nowhere where I was devoured by mosquitoes or attacked by monkeys. I stayed in a nice air conditioned dormitory with no bugs, a kitchen staff and a washer. Damn your stereotypes!
There again were a barrage of moments that could not be fully and rightfully explained in a blog entry, but my favorite moment was certainly with Geli’s beautiful family riding in a barge down the Amazon. Can you imagine? We ate shrimp, feijao torpedo(an African style dish that is very popular in northern Brazil that included meat and sausage) and we had cake for desert. We fished over the side of the boat and I didn’t catch anything-but they caught catfish and pirana. (Yes, I thought of Lara Croft) I napped on a hammock and let the wind rock me to sleep. It was beautiful to say the least.
(Feijao torpedo, rice with farofa...beans mixed in with pork and pork fat for the taste, it's an african dish that has become a stapl in Brazil)
(The dude who mans the boat coat a catfish, and a couple of Geli's family members caught some piranhas...i didn't catch anything, but fish kept eating my meat. They kept telling me to stop nourishing the fish so they could catch something.)
You can not swim to the Amazon river around here for many reasons…it is deep, there are sharks and piranas and other stuff. There may be other places where you can swim in it, but here we swam in the Tapajos, played water volley ball and a little bit of soccer on the beach Brazillians wear me out, man. It was an incredible day and my favorite experience was here because, like my mother, I love the sea-I could lay in a hammock overlooking the water my whole life.