The Hunt for A Jungle Tour
4 August 2005 (Thursday) – Manaus, Brazil
I collected my passport from the Venezuelan Consulate first thing in the morning. Yesterday, the guy had said he would give me a 30-day visa. To my surprise today, he gave me a 60-day visa. Great.
I celebrated it by eating good Chinese food at Restaurante Mandarim. Heh…
Now, do people wear tacky clothes and SO the stores stock them? Or do people wear tacky clothes BECAUSE the stores stock them? I have seen so many trashy stores in many parts of Brazil now, especially in Porte Alegre, some areas of Rio de Janeiro, Belem and Manaus and they do not turn my stomach anymore. And here, store after store, you would see a guy whose mouth is permanently attached to the microphone, continuously talking with the background of tacky music. He seemed to be the DJ of the store as he shouts and jives up the atmosphere with his… ahem… wit and humour. And gosh, the number of tacky plastic hair-clips being sold out here?? Unbelievable!!!
So, seriously… do people who live in a world surrounded by tacky things know that the things they are surrounded by are tacky, I wonder?
I then suddenly had the idea to inquire for the prices of a short 2-day-1-night jungle tour and see if I wanted to go for one. I wandered up and down the centre and popped into travel agencies as I came upon them. The prices offered were a huge difference, from R200 to USD245!! I settled for something in the middle with a company that had a jungle lodge with private room and bath and I managed to bargain down to the same price as another company but with that company, they sleep in hammocks.
Gosh, what have I done? I certainly did not plan on doing this trip! But I really hope it is worth it. I know it will be difficult to see wildlife on such a short trip, but at least, I want to learn something about the jungle.
That night, Beatriz took me to the Amazonas Shopping to meet her mother as we would all be going out for dinner later. Her mother, in turn, was meeting her friend to discuss something for her upcoming birthday party this Saturday. Her friend was really strange. She sat there, not smiling, not acknowledging anyone around her. She reminded me of a frog, with her mouth sat in a downward curve, her glassy eyes looking at everywhere else except at those people with her. When we left and headed for the exit, she was walking nearby. At first, I thought it was a coincidence that this woman was walking alongside us. But it turned out, she was leaving WITH us, she was driving us to the restaurant… and yet, she did not look at us, she did not pay attention to the conversation, she did not bother with us at all! Even at the restaurant, she did not talk to anyone at all. And she is supposed to be the best friend of Dona Bia, Beatriz’s mother? Really odd character! I call her Auntie Frog.
And as for the food… it was fantastic – rodizo do pizza. It is the churrascaria of pizza, where roving waiters with pans of pizza kept coming round to our tables to download the slices of pizzas onto our plates. Superb pizzas indeed!
Tags: 04) A River Runs Through It, Manaus
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