The Amazon River

James — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:01:50 +0000

I just arrived in Manaus deep in the middle of the amazon this morning at 4:15 AM a bit battered and beaten by 6 days and nights on a riverboat headed upstream from the delta into the interior. sleeping in hammock on the crowded boat was not very comforable at all, and the bathrooms were fairly substandard, but what the boat lacked in quality and efficiency was made up for ten times over by the unbelievable sensory experience of the Amazon. oppressive heat combined with the afternoon doldrums where there is no breeze to cool you off. Then, taking a shower on the top deck in an incredible torrential rain beating down for 30 minutes. Surreal sunrises and sunsets, not to mention the full moon that just passed over. The end of the dry season means the waters are at their lowest points and the high water mark being a good 30 or 40 feet (10 or 12 meters) above the current point of surface tension.Yesterday reached the dubius climax of the trip when the capitain in a fit of pure brazilian logic, spite, anger (whatever you want to call it), just couldnt wait another minute for me to get back to the bottom of the dock along its incredibly steep and precarious bridge… [in stead of arriving in Manaus at 4:17 AM] decided he would leave me stranded behind during a minor express mission to find a bottle of water in a tiny amazon village. The story from folks on board coraborates my suspicion that capitan did indeed blow the “warning” horn twice as they were throwing the moors from the dock imediately without the customary 2 or three minute wait. Some brazilians and other travelers I had befriended on the boat begged him to wait for me, but he only yelled at them to go away and threatened to throw one nice girl who was sticking up for me in the water! So i had a bit of a drama act to run down the riverbank to hire a small motorized canoe to chase down the big boat that was over kilometer away! Everyone on board was watching the events unfold from the three decks of the riverboat. It was a great moment of intense drama for many of the passengers whose only other exposure to that kind of action on the trip was the daily dosage of evening novelas (brazilian soap operas) piped in by a ginormous satelite dish on the top deck. Throughout the trip, I became hugely popular on the boat and had conversations with everyone, met some interesting locals and a few other travelers and overall had a pleasant time getting to know the amazon bugs from the sweaty confines of my hammock.

I realize now that it will take two weeks before i arrive back to Cuenca, Ecuador. Mainly due to the extremely slow process of upstream river travel. Tomorrow I catch another boat (wednesday 11th october) at 6pm to Tabatinga/Leticia further up the Rio Amazonas at the triple border with Colombia and Peru. Hop the border to Peru and head up another 12 hours by speedboat to Iquitos, Peru´s version of Manaus (big amazon city further up the Rio Amazonas). From there i head up a tributary river called Rio Napo into Ecuador for a trip of unknown length to the small town of Tena. I heard the Napo is really low right now, so it might be a because the boats are getting stuck in the sand. With that in mind, this morning i went to look for a flight to Quito to speed up the trip, also to allow me to hang out here in the jungle for a bit, instead of being restricted to the random schedules of the riverboats. theres no direct flight to ecuador from here, actually nowhere in brasil has a direct fligh to ecuador, the price (via panama!) is outrageous and so my only option is by boat.

thats all the travel routing information i have for now. more to come…

namaste,

James

Grupo G.U.E.T.O.

James — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:13:40 +0000

Well I´ve been in brasil one week and have pretty much been exposed to only one group of capoeira. So based on my impressions thus far, I just want to get some of the thoughts out of my head that i´ve been running around with for the past few days. My goal is not to offend here, but simply to critique a couple things from an outsider´s point of view. One of the bigest things GUETO has been preaching is that capoeira is these days exploited for tourism. They are trying to distinguish themselves as a more of a cultural association and teach students appreciation for the arts and apart from capoeira, incorporate other aspects of afro-brasilian cultural dance like puxada de rede, maculelé, and samba de roda. They also told me that they dont like the group of which i was a part of in the US called ABADA Capoeira based on their style of play, and according to them, their goal to own the world….. so, my goal the past few days has been to attempt to let them see that critiquing is ok, but they could be much more useful to be happy of who they are and where they are going, and not put so much negative energy to badmouth other guy. As far as i can tell, every group has an external appearance as well as their internal practices. From the outside, and from what i´ve seen in their presentations, GUETO could easily be mistaken for just another extravogant capoeira show with their university and mall presentations attempting to sell their instruction to prospective students and families looking for alternatives to drugs etc. for their kids. Of course they are not just show, they have structure and good intentions as does every group of capoeira I imagine.

ABADA has their own style and their own method of teaching, perhaps different from the free-style vibe of Salvador Bahia. But to GUETO I say: calm down here, you cant negate their existence as one of the largest groups in the world…. even if they have emerged as the McDonalds of capoeira, their system of training, and instruction must be doing something right! A few members have told me that my abada t-shirt is not well received in Bahia and that i shouldnt wear my corda crua (a beginners cord in the ABADA cord system) because this color in general is the color of mestres cords, which is true. I´m fine to forego the advertising and wear and wear all white with no cord, however the constant negativity against ABADA as a group and persistent badmouthing of other groups that to them have lost something of the “true essence” of capoeira, I find it to be redundant, petty and even offensive. I explained to them to take it easy and step back and look at what they are saying and to whom they are speaking… Im not Brasilian and i dont care about petty bickering, machismo, and competition for new $tudent$ between schools. Furthermore, i reasoned to them that without ABADA I would have never been introduced to capoeira and its highly likely i wouldnt be where i am today, and perhaps wouldn´t even exist as a capoeirista. Unlike Brasil, in the exterior much of the time there is no choice of schools / methods / mestres, in fact there is only ONE school in my city. I understand that the dynamic between mestres and personalities here is a complex, living, changing situation, but i believe capoeira is a beautiful means for cultural exchange and its really tiring to see so much negativity intertwined with the art.

Elementalidad » brazil

The Amazon River

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