The starting of my adventure..., 22.12.02

Fernando de Noronha, our Brazilian Galapagos!

Hi everybody,

For the ones who dont know it, i am travelling around South America. I am now in Belem, north of Brazil, gateway of the Amazon. It was not easy to get here though. 35 hours of a bus trip from hell (Recife-Belem). Scorching sun, air conditioning broken. Children screaming when not vomiting around. Seat by the stinking toilet. A road riddled with
potholes, a maniac driver and the impending danger of our bus being runsacked by bandits - it didnt help to keep hearing the stories of previous robberies when people on the bus were made to strip down to nothing in case they had hidden money under their clothes!

With this story running through my mind and being flang side to side from the maniac driver, i started to imagine ways of outdoing the bandits in case they struck my bus!!! It was when i finally spotted a place to hide my passport and money. I found a small compartment underneath the seat infront. 5 hours later when i was awoken for the meal stop, reached for my valuables to find them gone! "How??? My God, someone had stolen them while i was sleeping". As i started panicking, got my torch and crawled the floor looking for my money belt. And then, Thanks God, a miracle happened. I found it at the feet of a man sitting infront. Seems i didnt have enough cash to fill the compartment!!! Finally at 2.30AM we arrived in Belem for more hours of shock & horror.

At the docks i had to go from dodgy boat to dodgier boat trying o secure a place that i could at least breath in a 5 DAYS JOURNEY through the Amazon. The options were slim: one hammock among 1000 others in a room the size of a shoe box or a 4 bedded cabin that resembled solitary confinment. Not to mention the boat that sunk one day before killing from 7 to 300 people (the story tellers couldnt reach an agreement!). I am not ashamed to say that myself and a friend ended up paying 3 times more for "an exclusive air conditioning suite with our own rounded bed and TV" -at least it was how it was described to us. We couldnt check it. Oh dear.... ripped off???

Well, we will know it soon. Tomorrow we will start our boat journey to Manaus. I have just got back from Ilha do Marajo (the largest maritime-river island in the world at the South of the Amazon River. Beautiful, beautiful with its buffalos, red birds and uninhabited beaches) and will check the boat NOW. I hope our only worry will be not to be lynched by the 1000 people suffering in the hot, stenching overcrowded pit below us!

To be continued...

Love to all and an amazing Christmas and an even better New Year, full of love, peace, joy and whatever you wish!!!!

Jackie

Jacqueline Calabria de Oliveira * Tel Aviv * (03) 546-9218
jacquelinezara@hotmail.com

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