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Archive for March, 2006

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A sizeable gash…and a heartbreaker

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

The night ended soon after my Big Bang. We all filed downstairs to our hammocks, and Fábio gave me his blanket to sleep with, which I tried to resist, to no avail. The next morning, I laid in my hammock forever, before finally getting up to go to the bathroom. There was a line, but I took a minute to look in the mirror. Ah! The gauze was completely full of blood! No wonder everyone was looking at me really freaked-out like. I went back to my hammock, brought out my trusty first aid kit and cleaned myself up with a nice, clean gauze, much smaller than the last one. I also got a good look, for the first time. Ick. It was pretty ugly…split open right on the bottom of my chin, nice and swollen – a sizeable gash. [read on]

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A boat ride that ends with a BANG

Tuesday, March 14th, 2006

I had gotten to the boat a little later than I wanted…there were a good amount of hammocks already up, but not nearly as many as there would be.  I wanted to find a space where I was not really landing on top of anyone – even though it’s common practice, I’d rather not be the one to initiate it.  I did find one good spot, slung up my hammock, and sat in it to read until we left.  The dock was kicking, playing all sorts of great Brazilian hits (it’s not hard to learn them all), and I heard a song that I liked, so I started up a conversation with the guy next to me to ask what the song was.  This was Fábio. [read on]

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Warm Belly Water

Monday, March 13th, 2006

I made it back to the hotel without any spewing-in-cab incidents, which is always a good thing.  Soon after arriving, though, I came to realize that the Sprite I drank in an effort to calm my stomach did not do the trick, but was glad to be throwing up in the comfort of my own hotel now.  I found on my bed a note from Vanessa, telling me that my police buddy showed up that morning and was slow to leave, even with her refusal to speak Portuguese to him.  He also drew me a map of the Amazon river with the three main cities along the river (trust me, this was the most generic map you’ve ever seen…like drawing a map of the States, labeling New York, Chicago, and LA, as if that explains everything).  I turned the lights off (for once, glad for no windows in a hotel room), and tried to sleep. [read on]

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Unfortunate (but nearly inevitable) bouts of sickness

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

After the carnaval party, I found Vanessa, who apparently had contracted something from the water and was throwing up…not good news. Many locals had gotten sick from swimming in the water due to all the rains washing the bacteria into the lake. I guess I didn’t get sick because I had been swimming a bit further away from town. This put a little bit of a damper on the rest of the stay…the next day I walked around the town a bit, but definitely didn’t jump in the water. The last thing I wanted was to be throwing up as we got on a boat for the next two days to Manaus. The good news was that it only lasted one night…many locals had been sick for a week or so. [read on]

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Jungle beach

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

Three days on the boat passed rather quickly; comfort and boredom were not issues, though we were excited to get off and be somewhere.  We got into the waters of the city of Santarém, and, well, just when you think you’re there, you have to wait a while longer.  Such is the nature of traveling.  We had two men in uniform climbing up onto the boat (which was quite humorous to watch, them with their shiny black shoes on, in comparison to the barefoot, raggedy-clothed kids we had crawling up over the days previous); someone said they were looking for drugs, but I suppose they found nothing, as I’m sure the hour or so we waited would have been extended greatly if they had. [read on]

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