"Freezing" and Gathering Supplies

We heard a word many times this morning that we never expected to hear from more than one person in the Amazon: "freezing."  Strangely enough, though the air is thick and humid (89%!) and the temperature at its lowest is about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the fans in our rooms get enough of a breeze going that some of us were unprepared for how downright chilly we felt in our hammocks.  By morning, different ones of us had gotten up and acquired hooded sweatshirts, blankets, and even one sleeping bag to cope with the draft.  Over breakfast, several people -- but not all -- actually used the word "freezing" to describe their experience of the night.  Wow.  Plan for tonight: more clothing from the get-go.  We're not turning off the fans, because they help to disrupt the mosquitoes who might otherwise hang around and feed on us.  No matter what, we learned one very important thing: we LOVE our hammocks!

Some of our readers are saying to themselves, "I could NEVER sleep in a hammock for a whole night, let alone for a whole month!"  We understand why you might think that, but we actually did hammock training, practicing how to position our bodies in the hammocks (diagonally) so that you can lie flat instead of in a backbreaking "V." We also worked with our ropes and loops to get things positioned just right for maximum comfort.  We also taught each other some tricks that allowed us to sleep on our sides and to distribute our weight in the best possible way.  We have really picked up some skills quickly in this important element of our lives in Brazil. We're sure our desperation to get real sleep after our 30-ish hour sleep deprived travel odyssey has nothing to do with our quickly developed talents.  

Despite our complete commitment to getting meaningful sleep, we had a few obstacles that were pretty difficult to overcome.  One was the two (relatively cute) dogs that live on the grounds of our guesthouse.  They just stay outside all day and wander around the plants and behind the buildings or just sit out in the front yard. In the night, they decided to start barking.  And barking.  And barking.  When we went to find out what they were barking about, we learned that they were digging holes and egging each other on.  It took a long time for them to tire of this little routine.  One thing that slowed their enthusiasm for their digging job was our second obstacle: a big sudden downpour that included some pretty gusty winds.  It rained HARD, which we think is a part of everyday (almost) life here.  It's no surprise that it rains in the rainforest, so we just need to get used to the weather outside changing in the night.  Despite these challenges, we were pretty successful in catching up on our rest and we are going to make a similar commitment tonight to get ourselves fully on track.  

After our breakfast of eggs, fruit, bread, juice, and coffee, we headed to the central open market in downtown with our local guide (and newfound friend) Lorena.  She is acquainted with our driver 

Maia due to her work with a local tourism agency and she speaks excellent English, so she was a perfect escort for us as we explored downtown Santarém.  

At the market, she showed us the awesome fish that the Amazon produces, some of which were as much as three feet long.  Maybe longer.  She told us about the prehistoric creatures that got trapped in the freshwater zone when the two oceans divided into The Atlantic and Pacific and showed us the unbelievable fish species that resulted from that moment (and that look quite prehistoric, we must admit). We also checked out the meat market but it is a bit gross, to be honest, even for those of us who are hardcore carnivores.  

We hustled through the meat market pretty quickly and then encountered probably our favorite section of the market: the natural remedies area.  Lorena knew a lot about local practices and could pick and choose from among the vast selection of options to show us some of the most useful ones that were there.  A couple of us have slightly scratchy throats so we got a local remedy that we just apply to the outside of our necks to turn things in the other direction.  (We'll have to report in later about the effects.). A few other things sparked our interest, including a salve that seemed a bit solid.  Lorena remarked that because it was "cold today," the salve was not quite as fluid as it usually would be.  It was something like 77 degrees but with the humidity and we were all dripping with sweat.  "Cold" was not a word that was coming into our minds.  

After the market, we ran some important errands to get things together for our time in the community upriver (Anã) that is our primary destination.  We needed laundry soap and a new battery for our water purifier, among lots of other small things. We ran around all over the place and sometimes had to go to several places to get the particular thing we needed.  In a few cases, the thing we got was not the thing we needed.  We’ll try again tomorrow.

At one stop, most of us waited in the van while Shawny and Lorena pursued a tech item. Things went on a little longer than anyone expected and so we cranked up the ‘90s tunes and fired up an impromptu dance party in the van.  We also played a few games that we are going to adapt in Anã next week.  

We came home for lunch and had more fried chicken and a local fish called tambaquí, along with beans and rice, salad and fruit.  From this point forward, we think we can stop saying that we had beans and rice and salad and fruit for lunch (and for dinner) because it is just a given that those things are at all of our meals, except maybe breakfast.  

After lunch we might sometimes take a brief “sesta” or rest, but not today, because we had more errands to run.  Also, our local driver, Maia, had an even more important job to do: pick up our last two teammates: Jesse (our other instructor) and his son Gui.  We all left the guesthouse and headed downtown while Maia made the airport run.  

We crisscrossed through the downtown area going block by block and looking for a famous Braziian product: Havaianas flip flops.  They sell them in shoe stores and even in pharmacies all around the downtown area.  But the styles and sizes and inventory are different everywhere, so it can be quite the treasure hunt to find a great pair for each of us who wanted some.  About half of us were successful and the other half will no doubt keep trying.  

At one point our big group noticed a natural medicine storefront and about half of us diverted into it while the other half went to the bank to get more cash.  We had a plan to reconnect but the plan didn’t work, so we each started back down toward the river with a suspiciously similar goal: to get some of the great ice cream we’ve heard that Brazil is famous for.  After a few messages between the two groups, we all landed at the same ice cream shop and had our fill of Amazonian flavors like acai, cupuaçú, maracujá, coconut, and Brazil nut.  Along with all of these, a lot of us like the one called “floco,” which is basically a variation on chocolate chip that is otherworldly.  

Jesse and Gui finally connected with us around the hammock market, and now we are complete!  Jesse and Gui aren’t quite complete, as their bags strangely did not come with them on their direct flight from Brasilia.  Weird.  We had one other missing bag from the big group’s arrival yesterday that also didn’t appear today, so we are all lending and loaning things to all three of them to carry them over until tomorrow when we think all of our bags will rejoin us as well.  

We came home and had dinner that led into our evening reflection about the human connections we are already making with the people of Brazil.  We told stories to each other about interactions we are having and what we are learning about ourselves and about Brazil based on these interactions.  In particular we noticed how warm and welcoming everyone has been to us, even though none of us (not counting Jesse and Gui) is very good at speaking Portuguese.  Everyone who has tried feels very encouraged by our hosts and even the strangers we are meeting out in the streets.  We noted that visitors to the US with broken English might not be so lucky and we even vowed to be more welcoming hosts in our future back home.  We also decided to work more language tutorials into our everyday lives and assigned the camp/water/reflection chore team to take up this job. 

We are aliens in this place but we are getting some moments of clarity that are very surprising to us, especially because they are occurring so early in our trip.  Even further, we haven’t gotten to our primary destination yet.  We made the error of staying up and having fun together much too long tonight, with the last stragglers staying up until almost 1am.  Oh well.  It was worth it!

While the DIRTies were touring Santarém, they were lucky enough to visit one of the bustling fish markets.

Lorena, the DIRTies' English/ Portuguese tour guide, shows and talks about the fermented fruit murucí. 

The photo captures one of the stands the DIRTies visited and the fruit that was present. 

Malia looks out onto the expanse of the Tapajós River.

We saw dinosaurs today! Just kidding – those red fish laying there are actually just prehistoric. They ended up in the Amazon River during the formation of the Andes Mountains (which came up through the ocean). Thus, these fish were isolated and never evolved past their original state. 

“These are the most dangerous fruits in Brazil. If you’re walking along not paying attention, BOOM, you’re dead” – Lorena, our Santarém tour guide. 

According to Gui, “If one goes down, they all go down” - you can obviously see why!