My First Day in Brazil!

Today was amazing.  I woke up early and was able to watch as we pulled into the port at Manaus before breakfast.  I had an FDP on ship at 10am, which was a conversation with a playwright named Dare Clubb.  It was really interesting to get to hear his perspective on writing and types of theater around the world.  At one point he (or one of our teachers) mentioned “not knowing what you are doing is key to being a good writer.”  So it turns out I am on the right track!  Yes!

After that I met Liz and Matt for lunch.  We ended up picking up a few more people before going to INPA.  I don’t remember what INPA stands for, but it was a wildlife reserve.  There were seven of us by the time we left so we had to take separate taxis.  Josh, Liz and I made it to the wildlife reserve first, which was strange sine we didn’t leave first.  Eventually the others showed up and told us that their taxi had broken down.  I had to get back to the ship at 5pm for another FDP, so Liz, Josh and I (since the others were broken down on the side of the road somewhere) had a few hours to look around.  There were lots of monkeys (I couldn’t get a good picture since they were up in the trees), manatees, turtles, and a ton of weird looking bugs.  It would have been for fun if we were not preoccupied with trying to figure out what happened to the rest of our group.  It was still a really cool place to see!

I (along with Josh and Liz) had to leave early so I could make it back to the ship in time.  Since none of us knew Portuguese, it was a little difficult getting around.  Eventually someone pointed us towards where there were some buses parked.  We walked over to them, but the drivers were not there.  A guy who had been across the street came to talk to us (though there was no common language), we showed him on a map where we needed to go and he told us to wait for 5 minutes.  We sat on a bus and waited, after a little while a driver came over and started up the bus.  We were on the bus for an hour and a half.  I am not sure why, I think the driver though we wanted a tour of the city, which would have been fine if I had not been running really late for an FDP.  We made it back to the ship at 4:57 and there was a big line to get back onto the ship.  There was no way I could make it to the Union in time to meet up with the group.  I talked to the field director, who was standing near the gangplank and she let me join the group when they boarded the bus.  I few minutes later and I would not have been able to make it at all.

The FDP was called “Eating the Amazon.”  I think spectacular might be the right word to describe it.  We visited a cooking school in Manaus, where we got to spend time with the chefs, watching and helping them cook us an amazing dinner.  The place was called Senac, I highly recommend it for people visiting Manaus!  We had two different kinds of fish cooked in different ways along with several other delicious dishes.  They gave us recipes to try (I will try to post one when I am not so tired) and certificates saying that we studied at the school.  At least, I am assuming that’s what they said since I can’t read Portuguese.

                Now I am back in my cabin for the night.  I locked my key in my cabin for the first time today, (figures I would do that when my roommate is away) so I had to pay a dollar to get a temporary key…  Anyway, tomorrow I am going on a riverboat overnight tour!  I am really excited, but I have no idea what I should pack…