Amazon Bound...

For a mere $200, I have purchased a flights to Manaus (a city of over 1 million in the heart of the Amazon) plus five nights in a hostel and a flight from Manaus to Belen (A city at the mouth of the Amazon, just South of the Equator). To get such cheap travel, I committed myself to a layover in Sao Paulo where I'll arrive at 1am, and will remain until my flight to Manaus departs roughly 24 hours later, putting me in Manaus around 4am. Probably wont be fun, but still worth the several hundred dollars I'll save...

With the next leg of my trip decided, I've been able to focus on enjoying Porto Alegre. The highlight of most nights is a nice meal, ranging from sushi or pizza (perhaps the best pizza ever) to churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) which seems to be a popular choice among the group. Several visits to local churrascurias has been more than enough to counteract the last four months of my "quasi-vegetarianism". I think I'll be happy to indulge in big, meatless salads again when I get back to the states.

MEAT!!!

The days of extravagant meals are likely to come to an end, coinciding with the end of my $25/day "allowance" from NSF this Friday, plus the fact that I wont have others to join me for dinner at nice restaurants. Come to think of it, I suppose I wont have anyone to join me for much of anything, which may make 20 days of bus travel and beach time pass rather slowly. To entertain myself, I just bought two novels, "The Kite Runner", and some spy-related book. I cringed at the prices as I signed the credit card receipt which revealed prices twice that of the US$ sticker price. At $55 for the two, I expect them to be the best books I've ever read. (Did I mention I don't really like to read?)

Saturday was a fun day, which began with a trip to a large, beautiful vineyard which produces superbly mediocre wine. After some wine tasting and visit to a buffet-style restaurant for lunch, we headed to a museum containing an impressive collection of old cars, and some other random collections of antique movie cameras, type-writers, radios and clocks. I immediately thought of my father's various collections, which dwarf those at the museum. I felt a strange sense of pride as I imagined how my dad's 1930's Kodak B camera could overtake the display cases, yet also wished that action figures appreciated as surely as early-model Fords.


After the museum I ate some pizza before going to Patrick's house to pre-game before some dancing at an Irish pub. On my way into Dublin's, I was struck by just how American so many people appeared to me, particularly a group of girls I saw exiting the bar. Amazingly, they were joined by Ian, a friend from Berkeley who is also spending the summer in Brazil. (insert cliche about it being a small world here). Dublin's featured a great live band which played classic American rock (pronounced "hock" in Portuguese) and made for some good dancing with my new Brazilian amigos.

This week will include more enthralling PPDM lectures and discussion, a hair cut (I'm praying that all Brazilian grooming doesn't include wax), a trip to the Federal Police Office to extend my VISA, and enjoying one more week of having stable, long-term (3+ day) friendships and being able to communicate in English.