Humid, humid Amazônia

I spent recently 2 nice days in Amazônia with a friend of Rodrigo Pinto called Guto (Augusto) and his girlfriend Fabiana. They are from São Paulo but moving into Nova Airão soon to live there. They are building a project close to the village to offer a luxurious suite of jungle lodges on the side of the river Rio Negro (which is half of the Amazônia river in fact). They will build close to 20 rooms in bungalows with air conditionning and hot/cold water shower and many other services such as a swimming pool and a tarantula-inhabited bar to take a dinner after a big day of jungle adventure.

We stayed in a R$ 35 hotel which was very clean and modern. I passed the first day with the friend and we went on their forested land to use the GPS and get some position information. The second day I took a break from jungle-walkings and went to the harbour to swim with the dolphins. Those Amazônian river-dolphins are quite scary (when you are in the water). They are very cool when you feed them with fishes from the docks, and caress their head, but once you are swimming in the water, to see a 3-meter long creature touch your feets was not the best experienced I had in my life. They have a fucking scary face with insane eyes, and (as most animals) they are probably more stupid than you can imagine. I was affraid to kick the head of one when swimming and after get bitten on a toe by those bastard, but finally nothing happened (maybe because i stayed 5 minutes in the water only). But it was an experience that I will remember for a long time.

Amazônia was quite nice and different, but i would not stay there for a long time. The weather is totally killing, hot and humid and you get a little bored rapidly of the forest. I definitly prefer beach towns and dryer climate.

Fortaleza and beyond...

I arrived by plane yesterday ni the morning in Fortaleza, a nice and friendly city on the Atlantic sea with some cobblestones streets looking like a real postcard. The streets are the worst i saw for biking since the beginning of my trip, dusty and bumpy and full of holes, and lot of traffic, but I like it more than everything i saw ni Venezuela (again with Manaus). There is a Brazil touch that you can feel in any places you go.

I had some troubles to sleep yesterday so i took the day easy and decided that i will leave tomorrow, saturday. I will try to bike a one-shoot-120km to Canoa Quebrada, a small city between Fortaleza and Natal. It's been so long since i biked that i am starting to miss it, incredible! I am sure it will be nice, but i know the road is long until Salvador.

The hostel prices in the Lonely Planet are totally out-of-date (even if it's only 1 year old). Everything i saw in Brazil, Manaus and Fortaleza was close to the double of the price. All the youth hostels are close to 30$CA, which is totally incredible for the low-season and a third-world latni country. I don't understand what can explain such a great difference. The drunken idiot that wrote the book was probably unable to convert the currencies in a decent way. Well, i plan to start using my tent here, because the nights are a *little bit* colder and i should be able to find Petrobras gas stations equiped with showers where sleep in security.

For all the freaks that follows this blog, a big CHEER and...

JOYEUSE ST-JEAN AUX QUÉBECOIS. BUVEZ, PISSEZ ET VOMISSEZ PARTOUT. C'EST LA FÊTE NATIONNALE. QUE DIEUX VOUS BÉNISSE ET QUE VOTRE ÂME SOIT SAUVÉE Á TOUT JAMAIS. Je blague bien entendu!

Magellan

I am at the half of the Magellan book, that i received from a french guy that was in Santa Elena, VZ. I exchanged it against my lonely planet book of Venezuela which was not useful for me anymore. I have to say that the book is interesting and even if old (19th century), it is easy to read. This man was a total dictatorial conquistador, probably like the others. But as the author say many times, you always remember the good things from a hero. The executions and other blood-bath are always forgotten. It is nice tom discover how much this expedition was longer, much more dangerous and risky than the previous ones like from Christopher Colombus. Well, more freaky news to come as soon as possible...

A man on the road.

Between Ciudad Guayana & El Dorado

After spending some quiet and relaxing times in Puerto Ordaz, I decided to move south towards Santa Elena with my bike. I biked in magnificient landscapes but there was so many days of rain (tropical downpours). Althought the road was not as magnificient as the segment between Cumana and Maturin, it was quite interesting. I saw many nice cult sites and road signs "pierced by bullets", as you can see on my flickr account.

Amongst the worst thing I experienced on that road, beside the wounds I developped between the legs because of irritation is the El Dorado city. The worst and most ulgy ramshack town I never saw in my whole life. A central place with a lot of lazy latinos drinking beer all day long, watching at you when you arrive with the bike. The hotel was a kind of poor-place house with available rooms for rent but already inhabited before and full of graffitis, coffee and food traces on the walls. The hotel was filled with dirty smilling prostitutes and there was no showers nor lavabo in the room. To conclude, the corners were full of big spiderwebs. Everything to develop a passion about the city. I promised to myself to never return there.

To prevent my wounds to get infected and to avoid sleeping in other crappy places like El Dorado, I decided to take the bus until Santa Elena the next morning. Probably the best decision I took in my life.

Santa Elena and beyond...

After some 5 hours of suffering, freezing in the air-conditionning bus to Santa Elena and after asking many times to the driver to stop the air (but always without success), I finally arrived in Santa Elena, at the bus terminal. I took the bike and went in the rain to the center of the city, at the beginning of the night. I finally found the Posada Michelle. The best place I stayed in all Venezuela, without any doubts. A nice youth hostel with many travellers and clean rooms! The prices were also much below the expensive Venezuelan "standards". I was finally able to meet at least 1 traveller and drink a beer, not alone this time. A true improvment in a country empty of hostels.

Santa Elena is a real nice border town with many Brazilian shops and flags everywhere. I began to feel the passion about football here. I really enjoyed watching the games with the people of the hostel everyday. You can feel a real stress about scores and rivality between countries. People are really involved in that and it is just great.

I met so many nice people at the posada during the 7 days i spent there. There was the Czech couple, Jan & Sylva. Altough their laptop was stolen in the bus, they were always smily and friendly, and Jan watched the football games and played cards with us in the nights. Sylva wanted to go at the same tour than me, the Gran Sabana 2-days tour, so we talked to Richard Mata (a tour guide) and decided to do it. The first day was a sight-viewing day with the Toyota truck. On the second day we went to do some horseback rides in the Sabana. Really funny! There is some pictures about that on my flickr account. The first day was rainny, all the time so I was not able to take amazing shots of the "Quebrada de Jaspé" and other sighs, unfortunatly. The second day was sunny and amazing. We saw at the middle of the horse trip a nice waterfall where we went to swim. The water was just OK, not too hot or too cold. I enjoyed a lot!

There was also the crazy guy from USA called Rob, at the posada. This guy had a long resumé of everything. He went to Slovakia to work there, was knowing a lot of famous people in the showbizz and knew many dice and card games. He was very humoristic and its was always fun to speak with him and spent time with him too. AND HE WAS TRAVELLING WITH HIS 2 CATS. Lots of problems he had, especially when taking the plane or buses. I realized how simple it is to carry a bike, compared to this!

There was the Israeli girls, stucked in Santa Elena, waiting for their papers to be completed to be able to return in their country. They were not speakiong good english nor spanish, but we were always able to communicate wih them. They were most of the time on telephone, to deal with local authorities. Tal liked a lot oreo cookies and she could eat that, because it was Kasher food.

I will not talk about everyone, but I met many nice people. A french couple, some switzerland guys, England blokes, etc. Most of them were leaving for the 6-days Roraima trek. I was too lazy to do it and prefered to heal the injuries of the legs, instead of making a trek, although it could have be fun.

Manaus the nice city

I am now in Manaus (BR). This city is so amazing. I trully feel the football fever here. There is hundreds of Brazil flags everywhere in the street, shops and houses. People are really proud of their country and they are happy and lively. Much better than Venezuela at the moment! The city is really humid and hot but i enjoy it at maximum. The architecture is more pleasant and complex and the building have something more like the "Havana" style.

I am sure i will spend a lovely time in Brasil. I plan to take the plane soon to Fortaleza directly, (instead of the boat to Belem, and bus from Belem to Fortaleza). It will be less assle and more direct. From Fortelaza i will bike until Porto de Galinha (50kim south of Recife) where i will meet my little pretinha from Salvador, Natali. After that i should continue to bike until Salvador. Probably around 1500km of distance. So around 1 month of bike i guess.

JS

Various Reflections

The People Of Venezuela

Thanks to any lord, since I'm in Venezuela, the most interesting stuff for me are the inhabitants. In every cities and villages where I pass, people are always friendly and offer any help possible when they see that I'm looking for something. Several time, the people warned me about dangerous places to avoid and what to see, etc... I just can thanks them for all the support i received yet. Many people stopped by car when they saw me, and began to talk, and ask many questions. A man helped me in Maturín to find the bike shop. A woman helped me in Puerto Ordaz, when she saw i was searching on my map on the side of the street. Some men stopped around Upata, with their pick-up, and gave me support about distances and places to stop. It's fun to talk with them, and wait to see when they will begin to talk about Chavez. They are 100% with him or totally without. There is no middle but it is always fun to see them get involved in the subject.

I enjoyed a lot my night in Santa Fe, with the group of people at the house of the "Captain", on the beach. We were sit at the table, 6 people, drinking (in an always full) glass of rhum & coke, that the captain was carefully filling up each time it was at the middle. There was crabs everywhere around us, the waves at 2 meters from the table, under the shinning stars. Lots of salsa music (funny this time). Moments like this are unforgettable.

The lawless country

Here the cars are reaching incredible speeds, especially on secondary roads (where i bike most of the time). The police here don't make prevention nor gave penalty tickets. They only make some control on fixed places on the street. They stop the cars, sometimes look inside to verify for suspicious stuff. But you will never encounter any patrol doing speed verification or control. This weak system make the people drive like insane childs, without any judgement posible. The car, trucks and buses reach impossible speeds, like 150km/h on very small and curved roads. I remember while i stayed at the firemen stations, the boys there explaining me that every nights they went out and pick-up dead corpses along the highway and secondary roads, on accident sites. Every nights! The mortality due to car accident is very high, and i can understand it. In any good society, you have to put CONSTRAINTS, RULES, PENALTIES to make the people respect an order and stay mentally sane. Once you remove those rules, the people become like animals and stop thinking. The same for roadside pollution or music control in cities. Here you have no penalty for throwing shit by the window, so every people get rid of the beer when driving. There is no control for the music too, so you can hear damn salsa until 2-3am in the night. LAWLESS country. I begin to understand that even if we always complain in Canada about rules and government control of everything, it is the best way to keep the society in a decent way.

Pedro Juan Gutiérrez

I recently finished to read one of the most amazing book I've read for a long time : "Trilogie sale de la havane" by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. I recommand this book for any people that like the "Cartman" style of talking from South Park, mixed with the tropical flavor and dirt of Cuba, sex, drinking and cigars. This man is simply funny to read, but the content is pure-raw, dusty and direct stuff. He writes shorts stories about his everyday life and anecdotes from the people of the Cuban society. So excellent and probably one of the only book i laughed a lot while reading it. I am just impatient to get the next one from Gutiérrez, "Animal tropical". Probably the best book I bought in my life with "Sur la route" from Jack Kerouac.

About Ciudad Guayana...

I'm about to leave for the Gran Sabana, tomorrow morning, and I'm still in Puerto Ordaz, the nice western part of the "Ciudad Guayana" city. This city differs a lot with the eastern part, San Félix. Puerto Ordaz is a very rich place, different from all what I've seen yet in Venezuela. It looks a lot like a normal North American city, with clean streets, rich suburbs, big cars, parks and hollywood-style palmtrees in the streets. I really feel in another country here!

The typical Venezuela is like other Latin America countries, full of trashes on the side of the street (plastic bags, broken glass bottles and any dump possible), with nervous people always horning their car in an undescriptible chaos. Here everything is just different, and more civilized. I like this. Another great thing about Puerto Ordaz is that you don't spend the whole day to listen to Salsa music at every street corner, making you totally insane after some hours. Here people seems calm and relaxed. The panaderías shops are clean, no flies walking everywhere on the food, and no sticky feeling under your shoes when you're walking. Great!

San Félix is the total opposite, and is only separated by a river and a puente from Puerto Ordaz. This barrio is the typical third world environment, with poor man's houses, made from "adobe" bricks and with the metal roofs, full of holes. There is nothing to understand in this. Puerto Ordaz is getting bigger and newer everyday, with new constructions and it seems that all the money for cleaning is spent here, instead of San Félix.

To conclude, Puerto Ordaz got many things, like big shopping malls (bigger than what we have in QC for sure) and nice streets and construction, but the price is also very high. You will not find hotels under 25$US by night, and the food is also more expensive than the rest of the country. There is so much extremes here, from the cheapies villages falling to ruins, to the modern expensive cities, weird! With 80% of people living in total poverty, how can a city get so modern, i still have trouble to dig this.

Change of subject. I made a list of the most popular songs i listened on my IPod duing my trip. It is totally uninteresing but i felt to do this hehehe. So if you are not concerned, just go to hell and close this web-page :)

In the (I guess) priority order, the most amazing songs were:

1. Ojos De Brujo - Corre Lola Corre (from Techarí album)
2. Shpongle - Beija-Flor (From the EP)
3. Manu Chao - Hamburger Fields (Live @ Glastonbury)
4. Pigs In Space - Visitors (Part 1)
5. Oasis - Don't Go Away (Acoustic Live Version)
6. Dub Trees - Return Of The Native (Album Version)
7. Chingon - Malaguena Salerosa (Kill Bill 2 Soundtrack)
8. Chambao - As De Corazones (Endorfinas En La Mente)
9. Rush - Resists (Live @ Rio De Janeiro Acoustic)
10. Nacha Pop - Lucha De Gigantes (Amores Perros Soundtrack)
11. Audio Chemistry - Long Long Arms (Unusual Suspects 2 Compilation)
12. Shpongle - ...And The Day Turned To Night (Eclipse Compilation Version)

More news to come, from Santa Elena de Uaíren, probably in 10-12 days.

-JS-