BRAZIL WITHOUT A CLUE
Discovering Brazil on a whim and three weeks to spare |
By Andrew Porteous
My friend Tim and I had three weeks vacation available that we had to use before the end of year or lose them. Tim left the decision as to where we would be going up to me. So, on a whim, and after an hour spent with the travel agent, I called Tim up to give him the news.
“Brazil,” he said amazed. “Wow, what’s that going to be like?”
“No Clue,” I replied honestly.
It was the truth, I had no idea what Brazil was going to be like. The flights had been a special deal and I wanted to amaze Tim with a destination that would be a bit different from the norm. One week later we met each other at Heathrow. Tim was already dressed in shorts and t-shirt, despite the outside temperature barely above freezing. Twelve hours later we landed in Rio de Janeiro, and figuring we’d play things by ear, we booked into a hotel for two nights while we sorted out what exactly we were going to do in Brazil.
We sat on the beach at Copacabana and perused the Travel Guide that we’d picked
up at the airport before our flight. The more we read, the more we realized
that three weeks were probably not going to do Brazil much justice, but we vowed
anyway to try and fit in as much as possible during our stay.
Later that day, and with a rough itinerary mapped out in our minds, we found a local travel agent and told him what we wanted to do. After getting over the initial shock of meeting two travelers who’d come half way round the world without any idea of what they were doing, he eventually sent us on our way with a list of destinations, tickets, and accommodation, sorted for the rest of our trip.
Our first stop was Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon, and a few hours flight
from Rio. After setting ourselves up in probably the swankiest hotel I’ve
ever stayed in (it even had a private zoo), we prepared to head into town to
find a guide who could take us into the Amazon. Luckily for us we didn’t even
have to go outside the hotel’s front
gates before we met a Japanese couple who
were themselves were returning from the jungle after six weeks. The couple
quickly introduced us to their guide, Paul. Tim and I quickly debated whether
we should snap him up or shop around for the best price first. In the end, the
fact that Paul had managed to deliver the couple safely back to civilization
unharmed proved to be the strongest argument for hiring him.
The only thing left to do was to haggle over the price. We met Paul the next day a local bar where was with his entire extended family. After treating his family to a few rounds of beer -- and after a few ourselves -- we didn’t think twice about handing over a considerable amount of money to Paul in the men’s washroom, while his two uncles kept watch at the door.
After crawling into our beds at four the next morning morning, we made our way to the jetty for a six o’clock getaway. Being slightly late, we were relieved to find Paul, his boat, and his uncles, still waiting for us.
