Amazon, Brasil
When people think of Brazil, the first thing that pops in to their heads is of course the grand Rio De Janeiro; Salsa, Carpirhinia and Coca Cabana Beach. Don’t get me wrong, Rio is everything and more what you expect but Brazil has an array of wonders to explore.
We ended up in the heart of the Amazon rainforest for a volunteering job. The closest city – Manaus was about 80km away, but the interesting part is that the closest city to Manaus was 700km away. There are no proper roads in and out of this jungle city, everything has to be transported either by a plane or boat. During our stay in Arawak Jungle Hostel we learnt how to live in a room with a tarantula called Pepe and how to fish, prepare and cook pirañas right there on the beach. We had the most wonderful time; swimming with river dolphins, meeting an indigenous tribe and celebrating Christmas Brazilian style, which was all thanks to Wagner and his family making us feel like home. The hostel we were working at was only 5 minutes walk from the beach where Brazilians would spend their weekends away from the city. To this day I don’t know how they were able to swim in the Rio Negro because the temperature of water was pretty much the same as the temperature outside, which made you feel like a chicken wing swimming in a boiling pot of soup.
The pictures below mainly show the beautiful surroundings of the jungle and a road we would have to take everyday to get in and out of Arawak. I just loved how it meandered along and how the wildness of it made you feel you’re the only people in the world. Everyday at 6pm the day would stop for everyone as it was the time to look up to the sky to watch the sunset like you’ve never seen before.
Tips for Brazil :
– Don’t expect anything to go smoothly, people of Brazil work on “Brazilian time”.
– If your budget is limited avoid eating in restaurants, always try to find a posada with a kitchen so you can cook your own food as supermarkets are very affordable.
– Cashasa is a local speciality drink, there is no escape from it.
