More photos

Nati has even more photos on her blog. Here´s the link: http://diasmulticolor.blogspot.com
Enjoy!

Photos of Olinda, PRE-Carnaval

Here´s some pictures of Olinda, where we´ve been selling, Carnaval costumes, and hoardes of people. The tourists haven´t even showed up yet and the practise party leaves the streets so crowded you can´t walk down them. Take special notice of the shoddy, wire-repair job to my glasses in the last photo. I´ve been super-gluing them for over a month now (they break again only when a juggling apparatus knocks them from my face) and decided to try something new. I super-glued them again this morning.

Recife and Carnaval Madness

I´m in Recife, or to be more accurate, the smaller community of Olinda on the fringe of the city. Its right on the coast and very, very beautiful. The main part is on a hill and reminds me very much of Montmartre in Paris, with lots of art, cobbled streets and cafés, only far more colorful, with far more palm trees, and a view of the sea. My camera is still on the fritz or there would be pictures.We came here because we heard that it was the place that had the Carnaval of the people, the biggest street show that you don´t have to pay for, but it quickly became obvious that that just means its going to be a big, dirty party.
Almost every house in the neighborhood is renting out rooms or the entire house for the event at incredibly high prices. Therefore we will be heading further South on Monday to look for a more tranquil place to celebrate. We were lucky enough to find a lady whose house is ready for rent now. She´s renting out individual rooms, but since the Carnaval is still 2 weeks out, we´re the only ones in it, and we cried her down to about $10 a day for the both of us. So we have a house to ourselves with a slightly obstructed sea view, for a steal.
I was exhausted when I arrived after hopping from town to town on buses, looking for the ¨right¨ place to stop, and sleeping on a windy beach when we couldn´t find it, so its nice to be still for a minute and work a little and rest a little. But I´m itching to get back to a beach town. City beaces just aren´t the same.
So far Jericoacoara is the standard to which all other beach towns are compared to. Nowhere since has been as isolated and tranquil while still having all of the comforts of any other town. Most of the ones we´ve been to since are too touristy or expensive or ugly or various combinations of the aforementioned. And they all have paved roads. I want sand roads in my beach town. There´s lots of coastline left though.

Beach Bum

I´m on the coastline of Brazil. It is long. I will see much. I hope to use my camera again, but the life of a beach bum is a lazy one. We shall see. I went to Jericuacuara, am now in Fortaleza to restock on supplies to make things tourists like to buy, then we are going to Canoa Quebrada. Then to other beach towns. Bums.

The Road to Bethlehem

We left the boat to Belém as a group of 10 after sleeping aboard while the boat was docked because of a late arrival to port. The crew got us up and on our way early so they could start swabbing the decks and whatever else it is that boat crews do. We soon dropped to 8 due strictly to the impatience of travellers unaccostumed to groups. Here´s us on the boat in artsy black and white and us leaving the boat in vivid color.














The 8 of us found a place to stay altogether in one room like a big family. Nati was the only lady and so I christened us Blanca Nieve y los 7 Dwarfs (I forget the Spanish and Portuguese words for dwarf). We were a Brasilero, 2 Argentinos, 1 Colombiano, 2 Italianos, 1 Frances and me, the American. We assigned dwarf names but I´ve forgotten them all. A Turk and a Finnish girl are the 2 that left us. The truly international crowd of young roust-a-bouts.















This is the room we shared that I eventually got us kicked out of thanks to an argument with the wicked witch that ran the joint. I tried to be nice, but the witch had it coming. This is a story I´ll save for when you buy me a beer.












This is Nati and our friend Rokko demonstrating the proper way to sit in a park in Belém. You are not to sit or stand on or near the grass. Nothing but your butt may come in contact with any flat surface besides the ground. Feet and especially backs are strictly prohibitted. No spitting, throwing objects at mangoes in the trees over head, and no laughing alound. Any misconduct will result in immediate whistle-blasts, stern looks, and strong hand gestures indicating fault due to the fact that foreigners don´t understand speech and locals know the rules.

And these are misc. pics of Belém.

Misc. Pics of Amazon Boatin´

The first picture is the view from the abandoned restauarant that we freely set our hammocks in during our stay in Alter do Chao. Some people pay hundreds of dollars for a view like that. The rest of the pics are a random assortment of common sites from the boat. Sunrises, riverbank activity, and men with pink umbrellas.