January 23-28, 2011

It was the numerous riverboat adventures.  It was the vast waters and colors that portrayed a feeling of unity.  It was the eating with the locals.  It was the giant lily pads.  It was the amount of Cayman/alligators.  It was the structures, monuments, and city sights.  It was the immense amount of poor and underprivileged indigenous people.  It was driving the riverboat, canoe, and kayaks.  It was the bus rides through the most beautiful land I’ve laid eyes on, untouched by Homo sapiens for miles upon miles.  It was the lack of electricity, fresh water, and food among the villages.  It was the children whom had never seen “white people”, or westerners ever in their entire life.  It was the love that everyone showed to people who were obvious not their countries inhabitants.  It was the riverboat, to bus, to ferry, back to bus, to riverboat, to canoes to get to where we stayed in the Amazon Rainforest.  It was the 200 ft. tall tree house we slept in hammocks in for 3 nights while doing community service.  It was the nighttime alligator spotting, boa constrictor catching, and destinations into the unknown, with Jake and our tour guide.  It was the baths we took in the Amazon River every night we got home from work in 114-degree weather.  It was the meeting of the waters.  It was the local businessmen and women whose faces lit up when they say a group full of students coming to support their hardworking businesses.  It was the 20 minute long canoe ride to work every morning through the black river that appealed to all of my senses.  It was the monkey that lived at our village.  It was when this monkey would lie in my hammock with me and acted like a human being.  It was the interactions with the students, tour guides, and faculty (whom included John Rosenberg).  It was the children who were way younger than us, that we played soccer with every single day at work, and interactions with these children who knew no English… not too mention my Portuguese isn’t rather strong either.  It was jumping off of our 2-story riverboat every single day after a long day of work into the Amazon River.  It was the painting of the children school, the building of the bridge, and the incredibly delicious coffee that made my taste buds never want to drink coffee from home ever again.  It was the fish markets that smelled atrocious.  It was the late night Samba street party in the city, which was something that I never even knew, existed.  It was not only these things, but many more, which will be reflected in the pictures and videos we took throughout this entire week.

To say the least, Brazil was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly, exceptionally extraordinary.  On the way to Ghana, I’ll be at sea for nine days.  Super stoked about taking on the Atlantic waters.