Brazil

We just pulled out of Manaus, a city 1,000 miles up the Amazon River in the Amazonas region of Brazil.  Manaus is a large city that developed because of the rubber trade in Brazil.  Rubber trees were grown in the Amazon and their sap was used to make rubber for car tires and many other things.  Because of this, Manaus was a very important city until rubber production moved to Malaysia.  Today Manaus has 2-3 million people living in it, and is famous for it’s opera house, which was imported from Europe during the rubber boom.

We had to travel up the Amazon River for three days in our ship to get to the city.  When we got there I got to walk around Manaus, and visit the opera house and many other places in the city.  I also went on a trip to a small village called Acajatuba, which is on the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon near Manaus.  We had to take a motorboat for two hours up the river to reach the village, and when we arrived we were introduced to the families who lived there.  We each got a family to live with for the two days we were there, and got to eat with them, and sleep in hammocks in their houses.  They were all extremely nice and welcoming, but it was difficult to talk to them since they only spoke Portuguese and I did not know many Portuguese words.  Even though we did not speak the same language, we still communicated through hand gestures and some similar words that we both knew.  It was a great experience, and I’m so glad I got to know my host family in Acajatuba.

While we were in the village we also got to play soccer with the children who lived there, and go out in boats on the river to go piranha fishing, as well as caiman spotting.  Caimans are like alligators but they live in South America and have slightly different features.  They can grow to be up to 27 feet long!  Our guide caught one that was about three feet long, and we got a chance to hold it!  We also went on a hike through the rainforest, and learned about many different plants that are used by the people who live there.  There are so many useful plants in the rainforest, and many of them haven’t even been discovered yet.  Unfortunately, a lot of Brazil’s rainforest is being cut down and these species are being killed.  It’s really important to help preserve the rainforest so the plants and animals can continue to live there.

While we were in the village, I also got to see the school.  Children come from the surrounding area to go to school in Acajatuba, which is very lucky to have its own school.  Before the school was built a few years ago the village children had to travel for over an hour by boat to get to a school much farther down the river.  The Acajatuba school has elementary through high school students all in one building.  It’s summer in Brazil right now, so the students were not in school, but we got to see their classrooms, and I’ll try to post some pictures.

I was really sad to have to leave the village once I had gotten to know my host family, but we headed back to Manaus, and I got more time to explore the city.  I got to go shopping in a market with handmade crafts, and visit the fish market, which had hundreds of different kinds of fish for sale at stalls.  Everyone in Brazil is very excited about the upcoming World Cup in 2014 because it will be hosted by Brazil.  They say that Brazil is going to become more and more important in the world in the near future.  I really enjoyed visiting Brazil, and I hope I get to come back sometime!