A Rundown

I have not had the most internet use these past two weeks and have neglected this blog a bit too much, so I will try to make up for it here by giving a quick explanation of what I did and thought of the previous two cities (Porto Velho and Manaus).

Porto Velho:
Ate pizza with the whole group and met my host for the week. Eventually got situated in my room and slept rough (I always sleep rough the first night in a new place) and got up and fought with the door to open because it was stuck (probably because I ran the A/C too high), and then preceeded to break the shower somehow, as it would not turn off. I was told none of this was my fault, but it was me or Murphy and either way I was the last one to touch it and I've played hot potato enough to know the rules. Ate, and was swept away with John (who would be coming over to this apt every morning for a ride) and Alton who is being hosted by what becomes our weekly driver and happy host Fernando Fernandes, "a man so nice they named him twice," as I became fond of saying. Side kicks/fanbase for the week (I'll apologize here for name butchering) was the motherly host of Haeuda, and the local rotarian son Vitore, who along with Fernando "dois" (Fernandes) came along on most of our adventures. This was the personal part of my week and since the highlights of the different things we saw have been pretty well covered, I'll spare you all the doubling up of things and just move forward.

Manaus:
I enjoyed the city of Manaus and the people who hosted us, the events were fun and different, and no one was anything but gracious and giving. We met lots of people who spoke English and lots of people with interesting stories and situations. The group was, as previously hinted at, taxied around by a single driver for the entire week. This is understandable and certainly an acceptable situation since we spent every day going to the same events. The problem with this is that with a single driver you put 5 GSE folks + 1 driver in a car and with the 5 of us staying at 4 different homes you had a drive consisting of minimal of 45 minutes (this would mean no traffic and hitting all green lights and missing no turns etc), and usually the loop to pick folks up took around 1:30 one way which meant long trips in the car around the city, and a trip home, if you were at the end of the line was quite a trip. The roads are lumpy and although overall the drivers are better, there is a lot of traffic (reminds me of Atlanta) and the roads are confusing. Anways, we had some wonderful events along the way and all of the clubs were different and interesting and as long as I forget the riding around for 6 hours a day in a minivan on bumpy roads I have to admit having a good time.

The Boi-bomba was the first massive cultural experience and since I was pretty exhausted when I saw it all I will use Wikipedia (as the explanation here is pretty solid for this) to explain what it is that I witnessed.
Boi-bomba:
Bumba Meu Boi or Boi Bumbá is a popular regional festival which takes place annually in North and Northeast Brazil in Parintins. Traditionally held over the last three days in June, since 2005 it has been set as three days of the last weekend in June. It tells the story of the death and resurrection of an ox. This event also pits the two famous Samba Schools "Caprichoso" with the colors blue and black bull and "Garantido" with the red colors and white bull. Each side tries to tell their version of the story with music, dance, animatronic float(parade), and songs. The two sides are so strongly divided that streets can be clearly be seen to be color divided. The town of Parintins is the only place in the world where Coca-cola ads are in blue. (Everett note: I saw these blue ads in Manaus, and I kind of doubt it is the only place in the world).

My experience of Boi Bumbá was basically a giant canival type event with literally thousands of people dancing in syncronization with each other depending on the song being played. It is an impressive sight to see, and standing amongst it left me awestruck (for William and Carolina I used this in context).

Here is a YouTube Video that shows some of it.

Now we are in Belém and more will come of this week shortly. Maybe even by me.

-Everett