WELCOME TO THE AMAZON

Helloooo to my lovely fan club. After AN AMAZING trip to Brazil, I feel I could write for hours on the various people, places and culture I experienced. I have 3 disclaimers before I type away…

1.     Per Jilly’s request, I am going to try to break up the blog posts so that you can hear from me more frequently… some of you are apparently “chomping at the bit” to hear about my adventures! (am I really that cool?!)

2.     If you send me emails, let me reassure you I LOVE GETTING THEM! They honestly make my day at times when I am feeling a bit homesick or feeling disconnected from the world. Please keep them coming, but understand that it could take me a long time to respond as my list of priorities goes as follows:

1.     Emails to Andy and Jilly

2.     Tanning (I got to come back darker than Zonnie!!!)

3.     Writing my Blog

4.     Socializing

5.     Homework, Going to Class, Studying (oppps… probably should move that up the list!?)

In between all of this, I try to respond to my ever-expanding inbox… just so you get and idea, coming back from Brazil I had 30 emails waiting for me ;) So you should probably feel pretty special if I respond to you in somewhat of a timely manner…

But actually in all seriousness, I am really trying on keeping the blog updated so I can reach the most people …

And now for what you have all been waiting for, my BRAZILIAN Exploration… it was incredible. As I said in my last posting, I scheduled my trip through SAS (Semester at Sea) in which I would be traveling not only through the Amazon, but also to Rio de Janerio… although my trip was not exactly as I had thought it would be (I’ll explain throughout the post), I still had an unreal time.

Day 1- Amazon River Experience

The ship docked around 7:00 AM in Manaus, Brazil, and we were able to get off around 8:00 AM. Since I was on a scheduled SAS trip, I reported directly to the student union where I met up with my trip mates for the following 4 days. Let me be frank from the start that I ALWAYS have butterflies walking into the union before meeting up with my travel group… here is a brief sampling of thoughts that enter my head:

·      Will these people appreciate my humor?

·      Do I actually know anyone here/ how long will I have to make awkward chit chat?

·      Anyone to play a little game of Jew geography with…(but actually, I think this is my favorite question--- I have been raised well hahah)

·      Are these people going to judge me for wearing the CK uniform of a white Hanes V-Neck, Nike shorts, and perhaps if they are lucky, Mr. Hat everyday?

And the list just goes on… to my satisfaction, there were a few familiar faces in the crowd hip hip hooooray!

So one of the disappointing things I was referring to above was that apparently our so called sleeping in hammocks on the Amazon was no longer on the itinerary, and instead we were taking a red eye connecting flight to Rio on the evening of the first night. At first I was really upset that I wouldn’t get to sleep in hammocks, but after much deliberation I came to understand Travel Lesson #1 (list will restart per country) if one wants to maximize their time within a country, traveling at night is the best way to travel.

Alright now for the actual activities… we didn’t end up leaving the ship until more like 9:00 AM just because they had a bunch of trips leaving at 8:00 so they had us stagger off the boat. We were greeted by our 2 tour guides and immediately taken to our boat, named: Jesus A Razro Das Minhas Vitorhas--- I am noticing a theme with the religion aspect of my trip, first my tour guide in Dominica named Moses and now Jesus the ship! I’ve got Mose and Jesus on my side!!!

Once aboard we were given a tour of the city of Manaus by boat. Interesting facts about Manaus:

·      80% of transportation in Manaus takes place by boat

·      They have gas stations in the water… how cool is that?

As we continued on our journey, we were told about the weather in the Amazon… they mainly have 2 seasons:

1.     The rain season which lasts from January- May

·      Generally the Amazon will get about 2 meters of rain (this is about 6 feet of rain!!!)

·      The rainy season is really important in helping the bio diversity in the Amazon

·      The 2 rainiest months are February and March (good thing I was in the Amazon ONLY on January 31^st--- I was greeted with a sun shine day, however my friends who were in the Amazon for the entire time were not so lucky as they experienced some of the rainy season!)

2.     Summer time lasts from July/August- December

·      This time of year there is about 90% humidity

·      Generally the temperature is about 38 degrees Celsius (yikes, I don’t know how to convert this number--- remember I don’t have access to google!!)

The most amazing part about the weather in the Amazon is that within the next few weeks the water level will continue to rise! Instead of cars, these families have boats and often will take their boats into the city when they need to go shopping. For example, we saw a family who had just come back from buying a refrigerator.

We were then taken to the meeting of the rivers, by far one of the coolest parts of our Amazon adventure. Unlike other bodies of water that come together and mesh into one, the Amazon River and the Rio Negro will not blend… This is a result of different speeds, temperatures, and densities of the water. Look at the picture below to see how cool this is, when looking at it in person, you literally think that the brown water (which is the Amazon) is just sand until you get really close and figure out it is a body of water!!!)

After taking pictures, or I should say multiple pictures as we can’t hide the fact that we are tourists and therefore need to take pictures from just about every angle, we were ready to continue on. The rest of our tour consisted of a ride on smaller canoe motor-boats (sadly, didn’t get to take a kayak out in the Amazon), lunch, and finally a look at the lily pads/ crocodiles!

The canoe motor-boats can fit10 people plus the man to navigate the boat, the advantage to taking these boats is that they are lower on the water and are able to get closer to the vegetation of the Amazon. We all stayed pretty quiet during this point of the tour as we were taking it all in… As for me, I was getting in touch with my Eliza Thornberry side… sadly, none of the animals would talk to me. Arrrggg perhaps they didn’t recognize me? Not to worry, I will have another opportunity to connect with the animals in South Africa, this time I will actually wear my proper safari attire!

Here is a picture of my friend Justine and me on the canoe boat.

The best part of the boat ride you may ask? Well of course our boat ran out of gas, thus a TOTAL KLEIN MOMENT (TKM). Other TKM include: camera batteries being dead at the most picturesque times, not realizing you need real copies of your birth certificates when flying internationally (thus not being able to go on vacation circa 1999), and well the list just goes on… a trip truly wouldn’t be complete without a TKM. For my twitter fans out there, please hash-tag your experience of TKMs…

By the way, your probably wondering, how did I end up getting back? Oh, well that’s the boring part total un-dramatic, we simply connected our boat to another boat and then were back in business. LAME.

Once we got back to the marina, we were served an amazing buffet lunch. My favorite part was the delicious fresh fruit for us ranging from bananas, pineapple, mangos, honey due, and more. Yum yum yum… just for those food lovers, another picture of my plate. I don’t think I won the clean plate award, but got pretty darn close!

Our tour concluded with a “hike” to the lily pads and the crocodiles. Please notice yet again my use of quotation marks here, yet this time they are included to mock the hike… to be completely honest, I was disappointed by the description that the trip gave me about experiencing the “wild life of the Amazon” because it felt like I could have been anywhere… the hike itself was 5 minutes at most and once we got out there, although it was really cool and I don’t mean to sound like a brat for complaining could have taken place at Animal Kingdom (not that I have been there, so who knows if I am even legitimate to make this reference! Oppps…)

At this point, I would like to mention Travel Lesson #2--- when traveling, you can’t beat yourself up with what you didn’t see/ experience, but rather be excited by what you did see/ experience. I say this because after coming back to the ship and comparing notes with friends I got a upset that I didn’t “rough it” in the Amazon… however within that thought I ignore the fact that I got to experience Rio, something that they “missed” out on. I must realize that I am in these countries for about 1-6 days, yet there is no way I can possibly cover every place--- I must pick and choose. I also have to remember that one of the major advantages about coming back to the ship as opposed to just a normal travel experience is that you always get to trade stories/ see pictures of what others did for their time within the country, so you are actually learning even more! Note to self: constantly read this travel lesson before and after each port, as this is something hard to wrap my mind around…

Our Amazon adventure ended with a “sit-in boat protest”… I know I know it sounds ridiculous, so let me try to explain myself in a bit more detail. We ended the lily pad tour around 2:30 PM, but were told we wouldn’t be leaving the marina until 4:00 PM… and were given “free time.” Mind you we had seen and done everything this marina had to offer, so none of us wanted to just chill here anymore. Additionally, the rest of our itinerary consisted of leaving for our flight to Rio at 8:45 PM… many of us had to pack, eat dinner, and with any extra time were banking on getting to see the city of Manaus. Hopefully you are still following me… at this point I would like for you to imagine 30 tired, hot (yes we were actually in the Amazon, thus it was legitimate to say you were roasting!), American students who wanted to get the hell out of here, but are told they have to wait for an hour and a half… I don’t think so (I can get you home from Chicago?!--- sorry reference to the Klein family only)

So what did we do? Well of course, we all got on the boat and demanded that we set sail… of course it wasn’t that easy to get our tour guides to comply as they first tried to give us the excuse that another boat was tied to our boat so we couldn’t leave, then said that they had to get permission from Semester at Sea to allow us to leave, but finally we were convincing enough I presume, or more like they were sick of arguing with us, thus they allowed us to say our farewells to the amazing Amazon.

When we arrived back at the pier, a group of 8 of us decided to explore Manaus. After taking it in for about 2 hours, I think it is safe to say, I didn’t miss out on much, as Manaus has nothing on Rio. The city was hustle bustle, but it was a little too much hustle bustle, that the whole time I was nervous I was going to be pick-pocketed… rumor has it (and might I add that the rumor mill on this ship is HUGE) that in the first night alone 2 Semester at Sea participants were robbed. One got his wallet stolen and a girl had her necklace ripped off her neck. This brings us to Travel Lesson #3- when told NOT to wear jewelry DON’T wear it… it will only draw attention to you, when you already stick out like a sore thumb! Additionally, it is way better to be over cautious than under cautious in foreign countries--- it may be dorky to wear the money belt but it’s worth it, never bring all your cash out at one time, and if possible, try to keep your money in multiple places on your body.

The 8 of us found a real authentic, top of the line, one of a kind, drum roll please ITALIAN restaurant… hahah I find myself funny. How American of us? I know I know, insert the roll of the eyes here, but we were all hungry and tired by this point and were sick and tired of the fact that people in Brazil speak PORTUGUESE not SPANISH, and therefore our request for good Brazilian cuisine was being lost in translation. Our meal was nothing special, but certainly a nice change from ship food (please don’t get me started on our almost inedible food on the boat).

Alright, that wraps up the time in the Amazon. Hopefully that will fend off some of my fans as I don’t want to lose anyone to my s-l-o-w blogging abilities! Teheh

Xx CK

By the way Pop-Pop, I looked high and low for the amazon.com headquarters, but it was no where to be found… I guess you really can’t judge a company by its name--- false advertising!