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.