June 27,2007: Look Kids, It's Big Ben!

A little late to the post ... I must admit, leaving Brazil was relatively anti-climactic. We were in a mad rush to complete our financial sustainability report on the Mamiraua Institute, our recommendations for becoming self-sustaining, and our presentation on our findings. We were down to the wire - thank goodness our presentation was pushed back ... and then back ... and then .... well, you get the idea. We were to present to our 4 main stakeholders, two of which were in Belem and were unable to attend in person, one didn't show up, and the fourth spoke only Portuguese ... which would have sucked for her, given that all of the materials and presentation were in English. We zipped up all of our materials and then shipped them off to somewhere. Anywhere. We were done!

Here are some amazing pictures Maiken took out of the window on our way back to Manaus -

Anyway, we ended up spending 1.5 days in Manaus, one of which was Stephan's birthday. Before I get to how we celebrated his birthday, I need to explain how frakking fantastic it was staying at the Ibis Hotel in Manaus. It had HOT, RUNNING WATER. CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING. And a RESTAURANT that served food prepared in ways OTHER THAN FRIED. Oh, and the Universal TV station which had movies in English.

When we arrived, we all took hot showers. I have never had a shower feel so amazing before in my life - I couldn't get out. And to sleep without a mosquito net was ... well, sad, as I loved my princess trap. But still, thinking about it now, I still get this warm, relaxed feeling.

So, Stephan's birthday. We had been all over Manaus already, so we ran a few errands, i.e., helping Steve purchase a hammock that his wife would like (I love the fact that Maiken couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase a hammock either - I don't think the two of us left anywhere without purchasing something).

We told Stephan that he could choose any activity that he wanted for his birthday; lucky for us, he wanted to go see the waterfalls. To make a long story short, we made a wrong turn out of the gate (right outside of Manaus) and ended up driving 2 hours in the wrong direction. And, here's the car, with Steve pissing in the background. I'm sure he was excited about this picture.

And the scenery along the way ... as you can tell, there were a crapload of potholes, so an entrepreneurial Brazilian spirit I'm sure is making a killing. Funny, yeah?

Anyway, our night ended up at the Pier, watching local Brazilian dance and eating fried mozarella and drinking beer. Ah, Stephan ... welcome to 31. It's a bit over-rated.

After a whirlwind 24 hours of travel, the bird has landed ... in LA ... somehow. Although now this news is old, I got into Berkeley on Saturday night at 1am on the 9th, packed up for LA until 3am, went to bed; woke up at 9am, got in the car at 1pm, picked up a freaked out Jackson at 3pm in San Francisco and started my road trip down to LA ... with a howling cat. I arrived at midnight, started work at 8am the next day ...

June 6, 2007: Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head Continued ...

So, you must think that I am kidding about the amount of time we spend talking about showering here ... here's proof that we spend most of our nights discussing different shower strategies -

Note, you may not be able to see the image, but the sound is hilarious enough.

Ciao for now, as we are heading out tomorrow to Manaus ...

June 5, 2007: Ants in My Coffee

Morning Rituals
We are fortunate that our hotel provides breakfast, as I think I've mentioned before. Mostly bread, butter, variations of dishes with manoc and tapioca, and fruits that I'm scared to try.

Milk is often boiled and served in a thermos, as most is not pasteurized properly. The cute, little old woman who manages the breakfast station usually leaves a little plate that captures the droplets of milk that don't make it to your coffee cup. The really agressive ants manage to always infiltrate the milk dish. I cringe to think that they have the ability to crawl up the thermos and enter my morning salvation.

And then there's the low-hanging fruit for the other ants with little concern for their caloric intake: the sugar bowl. Every morning I try desperately to strategically spoon the small grains of sugar that have not been claimed by the ants. To no avail, I consistently have additional protein during morning ritual. Mmm. Not so bad.

The Little Black Dress
Every morning on our way to the Institute to model revenue-generating activities (of which we are increasingly doubting the implemention), we drive by several small shops that carry some interesting clothing items (those whose goal is to expose muffin tops and quadruple boobs, which are usually out and about and large and in charge).

Anyway, I noticed the cutest little black dress in a shop. Our timing is always off, as the stores are open only from 8am to 6pm, which we miss due to our work schedule. We finally have the opportunity to check out the dress one morning, and as we approached, i felt my nose cringe ... The dress shop was part of a meat market. That smelled. Like raw meat. And you could see. The meat carcasses the size of a medium-sized person hanging from hooks.

And the kicker was, the dress had sold the day before.

Wanted: Chinese Takeout
Be careful what you wish for ... Although we try not to make a habit of it, Maiken and I have a tendency on occasion to talk about what we miss. Most often, the discussion surrounds types of food or the temperature we wish our shower was set to. One day, we ventured to say how much we would love to have chinese takeout while watching our favorite Brazilian TV show, the tele novella. The tele novella is a night-time soap opera. Keep in mind that I only know numbers and Portuguese, but somehow I understand exactly what's going on, i.e., Matheas just got dumped by Camilla, who decided to marry another rich guy.

The next day, following a suggestion of one of our clients, we dined at this little fish place that did have a little bit of an interesting smell. Once you adjust and order, the fish was extremely good. And at $5 reais (roughly $2.50 USD) for fish and beer, you can't beat it ... until the next morning when you realize that your clothes smell like fishy chinese takeout, and now your entire clothing collection smells like it.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Showering in the Amazon is not quite what it is cracked up to be. I think we spend half of our morning discussing the new strategies we tried to mitigate the amount of cold water dripping down our backs. I realized early that there is a limit to our water benefactor - sputter, sputter, spit, spit ... and the water shuts off.

I am the lucky one who usually gets caught in the non-shower, fully covered in soap. You rarely have a choice other than to stand there with your eyes closed, hoping that the soap does not penetrate your eyelids and make your eyeballs burn. During the reprieve of the icicle shoots dispersed through the shower head, your body compensates with additional heat ... you start warming up.

And then you squint your eyes tighter because you feel the soap gradually conquering the eyelid baracade. Then, you are flanked - not only are your eyes starting to burn (and its second defense - tears - move into action), but you feel the cold water spitting again. You have moments to dispell the hopes of warmth while the water returns to its former glory.

A New Species
It is not uncommon in the Amazon to discover a new species; in fact, it happens often. I just never expected to find a new species in our toilet.

Perhaps out of sheer laziness, we never opted to switch dormitory hotels rooms to rid ourselves of the unpleasant odor that would eminate from our bathroom. Or, perhaps it was out of hope that the smell would magically disappear by the toilet fairy, if we left her a glass of clean water on the sink.

Nevertheless, we had the brilliant idea to dump bleach in the toilet ... in the shower ... in the sink ... on the floor ... anything we could to rid ourselves of the decaying poop smell in our room. After little success (outside of feeling giddy from the fumes of the bleach), we decided to go where no man has gone before - we dumped bleach in the contraption above the toilet that forced the flushing.

We must have awakened the sleeping smelly giant, because he metaphorically spewed forth much additional odor. No monster, no matter how stubborn, can defend itself against powerful Brazilian bleach. We hope that we have rid the world of an undefined parasitic black cloud that hovers in bathrooms all over the Amazon.

Fazer o que.

May 26 - May 27, 2007 - Part IV: Fried Green Ham

All work and no play ... Given that the Reserve at night is fairly quiet, and there are roughly 20 people situated in an area that is the size of Maryland, you have to take advantage of civilization when you can (outside of the village shops, of course). The Eco-Lodge has a small bar - yes, a BAR. No one who stays there really hangs out there, but we did ... and you can see the results of that night below ... After 3 caipirinhas apeice (basically a straight, rather large martini made with cachaca (cheap-ass liquor with a kick), lime and sugar), it's easy to make faces like this ... Not that Maiken and I aren't quite as good as the boys.

Being the good sports that we are, when we returned to our own floating lodge, the research station, Maiken and I offered to make grilled cheese, as the only items we had left to eat were the whitest bread I have ever seen, and warm cheese (type yet to be determined). Needless to say, Cesar had to laugh as he ate it, as the bread was mostly burnt and the cheese unmelted.

The next morning, we were expelled indefinitely from the kitchen, as one of the house maintenance crew made us tapioca pancakes, to save them all from our lack of cooking skills.

To finish up the weekend, we ended up at a Brazilian waterhole ... it's quite likely the most surreal moment I've had in a while; at first, I thought it was just the river re-directed into a "pool"-type area, surrounded with a bar, grill station, Pepe Morano cheezy Brazilian music, lots of women who should NOT be wearing brazilian bikinis, and of course, plastic chairs and beer. Turns out that the water is actually from a natural spring. This place is in the middle of nowhere; you drive for miles and then here's this popular hang-out for all of the locals. Food was unbelievably cheap - for a skewer of chicken, rice and beans, it cost $3 reais (or $1.50).

Probably the funniest event of our afternoon at the Tefe watering hole was that they ran out of chicken, beef, rice and beans when we ordered. So, we were left with sausage and manoc flour. I've never eaten so much sausage in my life.

Anyway, here's a picture of Stephan and Steve making their incessant crazy faces - seems to be a trend here for some reason ...

Well, that's all for now, as we are going to struggle all night to finish up our project for presentation tomorrow at 3. I do have some other posts to make, so hopefully I'll get to them at minimum late tonight when I'm stir crazy and slap happy.

We are on our way out of Tefe on Thursday (it worked out well, as nothing will be open due to a Catholic Holiday); the plane only leaves to Manaus two times per week. We will be in Manaus until Saturday (that flight as well is limited) and then we will be back in Berkeley late Saturday night ...

Ciao for now -

May 26 - 27, 2007 - Part III: Ain't No Holla Back Girl

I struggle to find the words to accurately describe our time in the Mamiraua Reserve; it is truly an amazing place. I doubt the pictures do the Reserve justice. The beauty in the Mamiraua Reserve (as compared to the Amana Reserve) is that it is a flooded forest, in which during certain seasons, no land can be seen for miles. Only approximately 1000 tourists are allowed into the Reserve annually, as not to disturb the delicate ecosystem. The picture below is amazing - it shows how the river remains extremely calm, so calm that it may be difficult to tell what is a reflection. I can't help but mention - this river is a PERFECT waterski lake ...

We are not quite sure why Cesar let Stevie Ray drive the boat ... but Steve was on a mission to find monkeys. I just figured we had the three boys on the boat - we really don't have to search too far to find monkeys ... Note, we still carry the paddle in the event that the engine decides to crap out again.
As part of its eco-tourism efforts, the Institute that protects the Reserve assisted the local communities create an eco-lodge to provide a source of income for the local population. It is a floating lodge, with amazing food, caipirinhas (which I'll discuss later), and eco-tours. We stayed at a research station about 1/2 a mile away from the lodge.
Me sitting on the dock of our research station; we called this the princess chair. God, it was gorgeous.
We were fortunate to be able to take a canoe ride through the rain forest; the "trail" via canoe can be hiked during the dry season. As you can see, Maiken tried to trick the mosquitoes into thinking she was part of the rain forest with her camoflage ... It didn't work. They are too smart for that. And, they seem to know exactly where you aren't covered with Deet - your earlobes and behind your ears. Lesson learned.

Again, these pictures don't do the forest justice. Plants and trees literally just grow out of the water. The larger picture below is one of my favorites. I absolutely love how you can't tell where the trees begin and end. On our canoe ride, we were able to see a spider the size of a baby's head, which kind of freaked me out. The monkeys (squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, and the red-faced monkey) were the most adorable - unfortunately, they moved so quickly that it was hard to get a picture of them. The howler monkey, which is actually quite small but carries a big presence - it literally "howls" to protect its territory. At first, it's strange, but after a while it's funny. I think we have all mastered the howler monkey's howl. In fact, we often wake each other up with the sound of the howler monkey ...

The the reflection of the sunsets over such calm, tranquil waters is breath-taking. The next two are also amazing shots.I will say, that we celebrated our trip through the Reserve with some cocktails at the Eco-Lodge ... but more on that later.

Also, it's Stevie Ray's birthday today! He has finally joined the club of the +30, or twenty-ten. We can now invite him out with us old farts. Don't worry, Kenia, we'll make sure that he doesn't vomit.

Ciao Ciao for now - or as Menaka would say, Chalo.