Brazil Series

We are in Brazil to celebrate Hardik's 30th birthday. It has been a thoroughly enriching experience, to say the least. We went from a full blown city to the depths of the Amazonian jungles. I am sore beyond description, my legs are swollen, I haven't slept a full night's sleep in days, been bitten by mosquitoes and yet I have never been this thrilled.

I am at a loss of words to describe a trip where I've  been in close proximity to beings/things that include a fabulous local Brazilian singer with a voice that could shake up an entire bar, perfectly sculpted Samba dancers, and baby Cayman alligators. We took 8 seater vans seating 15, a moonlight ride in the Amazon rain-forest, saw one of the newest wonders of the worlds, fished for piranhas, drank sugarcane juice at midnight. This just begins to describe the firecracker that is trip has been so far!

Rio De Janeiro
We started off the trip with a visit to a local bar since we absolutely had to see soccer in a country where saying that people are devoted to soccer is an understatement, especially when Brazil. I've never seen people so passionate about the sport, their country and so expressive about it. Sadly Brazil was out of WC 2010 the day we watched. To our shock, we see ambulances whizzing past which is strangely very common among the locals. Dedication, I tell ya!

We lived right on Copacabana beach. This being their low season, Copacabana was an absolute delight. The crowds were much lesser, almost unfamiliar when thinking of Copacabana. We could see the favelas, the slums of Rio from the other side of the beach, the vendors would come sell us stuff and we would cumulatively ward them off with our broken Portuguese.  The newly renovated Christ the redeemer statue lit yellow and green at night was stunning. We watched a Brazilian favorite, the Samba show, had amazing fresh fruit juices, coconut water, all interspersed with soccer matches. One of the nights, we went to this place called Rio Scenarium, a bar which  has local singers performing, loads and loads of Brazilian antiques, absolutely beautiful and something I've never seen before. Our last day in Rio ended with a trip to the local farmer's market and the hippie market. The farmer's market was a total delight with tapioca crepes and totally novel tropical fruits. We picked up some Brazilian fare at the hippie market and some coffee which one cannot leave Brazil without.

Foz De Iguassu (Iguassu Falls)
Our next stop was the stupendous Iguassu falls. The city in itself is a very small one centered around the falls and the power plant, the plant being the biggest in the world in power generation. We visited the Itaipu Dam on day 1 there. The tour of the dam, though not our ideal choice as engineers, in terms of how much we would have liked to see, was nevertheless a very interesting one. We went to the Argentine side of the falls the next day. Words cannot describe the beauty of the 270 falls that form the Iguassu. I hear that Niagara falls short in comparison to this natural wonder. I am thoroughly speechless with the sights that the falls have in store for us. My personal favorite moment was when we hit the devil's throat. It is a humbling experience to see the creator's handiwork. Very well preserved and maintained by the South Americans. The next day, we visited the Brazilian side of the falls which had the panoramic view. We ended the trip with a 50m high rappelling drop. Total adrenal rush and surreal at the same time.

Manaus
As I write this, we've just spent half a day in the Ecopark in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. We went to see the wooly monkeys and the lone red faced female primate. Ended the day with a great dinner and a moonlight ride to sight some Cayman Alligators. Our guide took a few of us and brought back with him a baby alligator (shreeik even now thinking of it). The stars are unbelievably clear which was what I enjoyed more. There is something terribly, incorrigibly wonderful that the romantic in me loves about star gazing. That accompanied with the sounds of the Amazon has finally inspired me to sit down and blog this trip finally. More coming as we wrap this amazing trip up in two more days.

Needless to say, Day 2 in the EcoPark was just spectacular. We started off with taking a hike in the Amazon forest. Our guide Antonio, showed us plants which had medicinal powers, plants used by jealous wives to poison their cheating husbands, made handicrafts with palm tree leaves (yes, we brought back some), had us climb trees which were smooth as a bald man's head and showed us how the tribes made telephone calls using tree signals. It's amazing what the forest has to offer to it's inhabitants and all that needs to be done is some trial and error to figure her out.

We spent the rest of the day visiting the village of an indigenous tribe. These folks pretty much live a very basic life, using money on sugar, salt and rice. Everything else is cultivated near their homes. Pretty basic. There were 4 families with one of the families consisting of the leader of the tribe. I find that he is by no means a sinister or angry person. On the contrary, he is in great spirits as he performs for us, the rituals of the natives, playing their musical instruments, as the ladies of the tribe join along. They pose for pictures with us, and show us their hand made crafts. Very artistically done, the money is used to sustain the tribe. To me, the thing that struck most was that, the leader is not playing the role of a dictator but one of a person who gives direction to the tribe while letting them grow. When I told the leader that I would like to look at another tribal mask in another row, he very courteously pointed me to the lady from anothernfamily who owned that part of the fare. Very fair. :)

The last day in the Amazon was just as interesting. We sailed to the meeting point of Rio Negro and Rio Solemoes, the former being way more acidic than the latter, thus creating a very clear limit line between the black Rio Negro and the brown Rio Solemoes. We stick our hands into the water to compare the obvious temperature difference between the two rivers. The two rivers at this point become the Amazon. 18 miles wide at it's widest point, the Amazon sustains birds, insects and marine life and flows it's way down to the Atlantic. We then move on to see the floating houses by the tributaries of these rivers. The people living in these houses are fisherman who also grow their own vegetables and fruits. The lifestyle is meager, the families are big and the people seem happy as they wave to us passing by. I see a frail old man with his ribs showing, smiling and happier than the magazine pictures of Lindsay Lohan as she bounces in and out of rehab. The people seem staunch believers of God as in obvious by the only floating house that is maintained in perfect shape, the church. One of the village boys jumps up a tree and drags a sloth down for us to see. Almost as cute as Simba, the sloth holds on to dear life as the boy manhandles the little thing. All this for some Reals that we hand over to the kiddo.

On the way back, in the ferry, everyone is silent. As I watch the moon and the clear lit sky bounce off of the Amazon, my silence is due to the past 10 days that run like a movie reel in my head. I want to blog my thoughts right then but I decide against it to be able to enjoy the last 30 minutes of the rainforest. My thoughts range from the city of Rio in it's touristy bounty to the Amazonian floating houses overflowing with people (who have pets too!!). Travel is such an eye-opening experience at times. Makes one realize how different our lives are from our neighbors, people in the next city, state, country and continent. The needs and wants vary in astounding proportions, the things that make one happy are not even close to being similar and the gifts that one has been given as a human being, not fair at all. Yet there is faith in one higher power, trust that life today is better than yesterday and if not, will be better tomorrow. I am enlightened and leave Brazil knowing so much more and feeling so much more luckier in what I have been given in life. I leave Brazil, hopefully a little wiser.