Brazil

OK, here goes with a brief travelogue of my trip to Brazil. I left on January 4th, flying first to Miami, then to Manaus, for a total of about 4100 miles. (Remember this number, as it is significant later...) Thence, a short flight to Pôrto Velho, where I spent the night of the 5th at a hotel. From Pôrto Velho, it's a six hour bus ride to Ji-Paraná (Rondônia on some maps), the town I was to work near. I arrived there on the 6th. On the map at left, Ji-Paraná is near the red '+'.

This is a bit of Ji-Paraná, as seen from the Hotel Transcontinental, where I was staying. The town is in one of the deforested regions of Brazil, and much of the surrounding land nearby is now used for grazing cattle. Ji-Paraná holds a wide range of experiences, from yuppie first world to third world. Horse carts like the one here are fairly common, and vehicles in general were used to their capacity. I saw at one point a family of four riding on a single motorcycle. On the other hand, however, most modern conveniences are also in evidence around the town (including the Internet service provider that we used). Throwing these conflicting images together into a weird dissonance, it was also not uncommon to see bare wood shacks with satellite dishes outside.

About 50 km south of Ji-Paraná was our radar site. Our commute was nearly an hour each way, mostly over decent paved road. Potholes grew noticably while I was there, though, and I imagine they only get worse through the rainy season. The radar site is on a ranch, and the second picture here shows the dirt road through the ranch. You can get an idea here of the deforestation.

Moth at the radar

On January 20th, I began my vacation. This meant another 6 hour bus ride back to Pôrto Velho, starting at midnight this time, then a plane again to Manaus. I spent the night in Manaus at the Hotel Alvorada, probably the sleaziest hotel I've ever slept in. The picture gives some idea of the quality of my room. I suspect that guests who stay longer than an hour or so are pretty rare.

I survived the squalor, though, and the next morning I left for the Ariau Amazon Towers, a resort built in the canopy of the rainforest near Manaus. The green '+' on the map shows you the location. It's on the Rio Negro (just before it joins the Solimoes to become the "full-fledged" Amazon) about three degrees south of the equator. The weather was not nearly as hot as I would expect. Maybe I was just lucky. My room at the hotel was at the same level as the top floor of the building in the picture, behind the trees on the right.

There are parrots at the Ariau.

But more importantly, there are monkeys. The monkeys are quite accustomed to people and will take food from your hand; most people interacted with them in this way. When the monkeys get food, though, they immediately run away, so that they can eat in relative peace. Rather than feeding the monkeys, however, I just watched them under calmer circumstances. I found that they were then more than willing to interact and play. By the end of my stay, I had had three different species of monkeys climb onto my shoulders, play with me, use me as a jungle gym, whisper in my ear, sleep in my lap, and even groom me! Shown here are wooly monkeys, but there were also squirrel monkeys, capuchins, and one elusive golden-footed tamarin.

On January 26th, I began my trip home. Because of full flights, my path home was a bit more indirect than my path down. From Manaus, I flew first to Sao Paolo (which is right at the Tropic of Capricorn, and hence about 20 degrees south of Manaus), then to Chicago, and finally back to Denver. Remember the flight down? 4100 miles from Denver to Manaus. The return trip from Manaus to Denver was closer to 7900 miles...

Ciao!