Recife, Brasil
From Manaus, i took a 5 day trip up the Amazon River on a ferry called The Amazon Star. The Amazon is a huge river, supposedly the largest in the world. This means that there is a section we came to where u could see land on the left side of the boat, but off in the distance to the right, there was just the horizon which made it seem like we were on the ocean. the trip included 3 meals a day - banana or slice of watermelon, bun, & coffee, for breakfast; rice, noodles, beans, stewmeat, & water, buffet style for lunch & dinner. brazilenos are also fond of smothering their food with manioc meal. Manioc meal looks like crude cornmeal, but is a lot tougher to chew.

In spite of the kind & generous email advice of Mr. Volker Poelzl, whom i contacted prior to initiating this project, & having read his article "Travel in South America by Boat", i still managed to get into a bit of a mix-up. It goes like this: firstly i speak essentially no Portuguese, and understand even less. on Monday, i bought a 1st Class ticket for the boat. the ticket was for a departure time of 12 noon, and the agent even wrote down on paper to make sure i understood "12:00pm". Mr. Poelzl´s article mentioned the necessity of a hammock. in front of the ferry terminal were over 50 vender booths. i surveyed all of them & not a one was selling hammocks. i also didn´t notice anyone getting off any of the ferries with a hammock. so the next day, i go through my phrase book, & thought i figured out how to write out the question in Portuguese "Do I need a hammock on the boat?". i return to one of the ticket agents, slip the note under the window, she reads it, then looks up at me absolutely puzzled. so i say "hede?" ("hammock" in Portuguese), & after exchanging gesticulations & facial expressions & bad Portuguese on my part & minimal english on hers, & after she smiled, & raised her arm to make one final gesture, i interpreted this to mean "Dude, no worries. U have a 1st Class ticket. This includes a hammock, or maybe even your own private cabin." (WRONG!!!) So, like i said, my ticket says the ferry leaves at noon. Wednesday, i get to the terminal & board the boat about 11:15am. get checked in, go upstairs to the First Class area, & low & behold, there they were, hammocks
! so i found one i liked, set my backpack & cornet in the designated area for luggage, & swung in my hammock ´til noon, then 1, then 2, then 3... Now, all this time there are people boarding the ferry, & setting up their hammocks. To the left of me were 2 vacant hammocks, & to the right of me 1 vacant hammock. At about 15 minutes after 3, a guy enters my area, with apparently his wife & 2 kids "claiming" (as i´m surmising from his Portuguese that i do not understand), that he bought all 4 of these hammocks, that they belong to him & i need to leave. so one of the ferry employees comes over, escorts me off the boat, and about 15 steps off the boat is a guy sellling hammocks. i buy one (turns out it was too small), return to the boat to the hammock deck & set mine up. i return to the guy, and say "desculpa" ("sorry"), & we shake hands. so, this means that, although the ticket agent emphatically insisted i understand the boat departed at noon, & even though my ticket was written with departure time of 12 noon, this guy & his family knew the boat was not leaving until at least 3:15pm, & not only that, got to the boat before me, to set their hammocks. Go figure.

arrived here in Recife Monday evening after a 20 hour bus ride from Belem.
I am now a short bus ride from Salvador & am trying to arrange lodging in Salvador before i get there.

i am currently at the "Shopping Recife", a huge mall, including restaurants with waiters in white jackets.