A few last notes on Brazil
I was headed back to Porto Velho. We stopped in the next big town and I was told we had 20 minutes, so I got off to grab a bite to eat. As I was standing there, our bus pulled off, so I ran after it, but they waved over in some direction, as if to indicate everything is ok. I assumed the bus was getting cleaned, but then got nervous when the bus never came back and everyone started to get on another bus. I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that I had lost everything I had (except the important stuff, which I had on me), and thought, well, maybe this is a good thing…I don’t need all that stuff anyway. However, I was quite relieved to find out everything had been transferred to the new bus. Why go with nothing if you don’t need to?I slept most of the way on the bus, and it got in late…I got a hotel across the street from the terminal and headed back the next day for my last bus ride in Brazil, to Guajara-Mirím. A nice local man in the bus terminal gave me the advice to carry a Bible with me and read it…that way, no one will ever rob me. Interesting thought. On the way to Guajara-Mirím, we stopped in some small town and I watched them put a pig into a bag and onto the bottom of the bus. In town, found a really cute hotel and grabbed some food while I watched my last episode of Big Brother Brazil. It’s on nearly every night and it’s hard not to see it. I started to feel a little sad about leaving Brazil…2 1/2 months is a long time to be in one country…I had never been traveling that long in just one country before.
The next day, I checked out the town a bit, packed up my stuff, headed to the immigration office, and got my exit stamp for Brazil. I had a Brazilian phone card with credit on it, so I decided to use it while I could, and I called Fábio to see if he was alright. The conversation was quick (calling a cellphone is very expensive) and the connection was fuzzy. Pretty much, at the end of the credits, Fábio blurted out that he wanted to marry me, and the phone cut off. Woah.
I went to have one more misto and passion fruit juice (this was my favorite quick bite to eat), and contemplate a possible marriage to Fábio as well as my impending border crossing into Bolivia, focusing more on the latter. A number of people had been joking with me about how people in these parts speak a mixture of Portuguese and Español, called Portoñol, which is practically what I was speaking, and not to worry about my Spanish (I was convinced that I couldn’t speak it anymore). But, for some reason, I was really, really nervous. I can’t explain why. I don’t know why, but I was a wreck…
A few last notes about Brazil
I will continue on with Bolivia in the next entry. However, here are a few miscellaneous notes I made:
- Kids in Brazil drink coffee. This seems odd to me. They thought it was odd that kids don’t drink coffee in the States. Why don’t they? Is it the caffeine factor?
- Mom, Alissa, and Kafka…I sent you postcards from Manaus. Please let me know if you get them. The guy at the PO asked me on a date, and I never showed up (I decided to search out a bunch of closed museums instead).
- Earlier in Brazil, I noticed tons of places on the side of the highway called borracharias. In Spanish, borracha means drunk, and -aria usually indicates a place where they sell stuff. From this, I figured a borracharia was a place to get drunk, effectively a bar, and I thought it was strange that they had so many of these places on the side of the highways. Turns out, they were tire repair shops. The Brazilians thought this was funny.
- In smaller towns, there are a lot of postal carriers delivering mail on bikes, which I thought was a good way to do it.
- Napkins in Brazil suck. They are pretty much like wax paper.
- In reference to Americans, Brazilians (and spanish-speakers) call us one of the following: North Americans, American, or United States-ian. American is the least common, because, well everyone from North and South America is American. United States-ian is interesting…we don’t have a word for that.
- Normal bottles of beer are a lot bigger in Brazil, and they all come served inside a cooler thing, to keep them cold. God idea.
- There are a lot of turnstiles in Brazil, and most of them are very narrow and hard to push. They are most commonly found on buses and provide a nice laugh to spectators watching someone with a backpack on trying to get through.
- Brazilians don’t know how to give directions (over there, down the street (only to find out it’s a mile away)), and if they don’t know where something is, they still point you in some direction, which is usually wrong.
- Mayonnaise, ketchup, and toothpicks are the primary condiments found on tables, and they use these things for pizza.
That’s it for Brazil, for now…on to Bolivia. All of my photos have been uploaded, so check ’em out.
Tags: Brazil, Tag Index
Tania