6º coisa mais fantastique- Amazon

"Que mochila mais cheia de pinduricalho, mano!!!"

My experience in the Amazon State, Brazil








In October 2006, I was selected to take part on a temporary Unicef research team. We were responsible for visiting 36 schools within Brazil which, despite located in municipalities with poor socio-economic conditions, went impressively well in a Ministry of Education National Test last year. I ended up responsible to visit 4 schools in the Amazon State, North of Brazil.

In this region transportation is not easy. People usually travel by boat on the many rivers over there, but that can take up to 1 week. There are planes for the most important cities, but no more than 2 or 3 times a week. I spent up to 5 days in one single city, which was good to get really involved with the communities.
The lifestyle, food, are quite different from the rest of the country. I had a cultural shock in some moments, as when I am travelling to a different country. The most difficult thing is that there is something in their food that I just can´t eat. Every single time I tried their regular food I threw up afterwards.

I got flowers from the kids of one school I visited in Sao Paulo de Olivença (picture above) and just for carrying it from there to my hotel I got there in an allergy shock, I could barely breath.

It was a very beautiful experience. You are surrounded by beauty every single moment. From the airplane, where u can only see a green world under you, just interrupted by curve rivers to different and amazing flies that bits you, specially at night. I used to say that the most beautiful sunset in the world was in Brasilia, now I think it is over here. They are happy, beautiful, you can see poverty, but they are not miserable, no one starves here.

My first step was to flew from Brasilia to Manaus, the capital of the Amazon state, which is amazingly beautiful. It was a rich city in the beginning of the century for rubber production, until we lost production to South-East Asian colonies. After that, the state had fallen into serious economic.The state is named after the Amazon river, which is formed by the conjunction of the Solimoes river and the Black river. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen is where these rivers meet, near Manaus.

There is one thing about Brazilians: a huge family connection. Everywhere we have a cousin, a person somehow related to the family. So, some hours before heading to the airport my Mon managed to find out a "family" there. They are just great, I am very pleased to have met them and we are good friends now. They have helped me a lot, especially in the very beginning.

My next step was to fly from Manaus to Tefe, and from there take a boat to a third city, with no airport. On a regular boat it can take up to 12 hours, but on a speedy boat it takes only 2 hours. It is quite expensive and you have got to meet the right people, and they introduced us. The most famous "farinha", a typical food from the region is in this city, called Uarini, which means "golden flour from the virgin land" in the indigenous language.

Then I have been in 3 more cities, they are very similar. Small cities, by the river, not much to do, beautiful, calm, green, lots of birds, flies.

That is pretty much it. I just wanted to tell u all that I met in this trip and previous ones about this region in Brazil that everyone is curious about. It is beautiful, interesting and also not easy. As a balance, I highly recommend it.