Getting cellular service again...

So back on the blackberry's writing this blog..
It is Saturday at about 7 pm....and we are in Alter Do Chao laying in a room at this very cool jungle all natural hotel, we are about 2 stories high so we can see trees completely surrounding us...not too much animal life to see BUT you hear everything at night... Sometimes if you let your imagination run...then you can totally imagine jaguars hunting right outside or perhaps there's the tarantula making its web to spoil a poor bird's life or maybe the tree snakes that make there way out at night might slip through the crack under the door and BAM!
A quick stat on the Amazon: 6 Million sq km and the river represents 17 percent of the world's fresh water and as of last year it surpassed the Nile to be the longest river in the world. Basically new scientists tracked the start of the river deeper into the mountain jungles of Peru.
So how does it feel to be in the heart of it.... well it is at times sureal, at times scary as hell, exhilirating, other times monotonous in particular if your locked on a river boat for 50 hours and all you see in the distance is hundreds of millions of trees lining the edge, BUT most of the time it just feels good..maybe it has to do with all the fresh oxygen we're breathing or catching a glimpse of a parrot or a 1 inch warrior ant, or maybe it's just knowing that we are able to experience this in our lifetime especially when you know that in 50-60 years at the rate of deforestation... perhaps the very jungle spot we are writing this blog from turns into a metal and glass office building to make way for the civilized men and women that have found virgin paradise and decided to move in... But that implies having money to live and buy food that is imported which naturally means that people need money thus jobs need to be created and that means that industries can start to move into this paradise and set up shop, creating jobs that lead to money to buy homes, cars, food, entertainment, that the new settlers consume...
I say this all because it is happening and you can see it by witnessing all the small towns that are emerging along the stretch of the longest river in the world... Of course at this point they are only small towns but in a few decades I guarantee that there will be towers of concrete, steel, glass dotting the AMAZON RIVER.
I hope it stays virgin forever...
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Waiting to get to Alter do Chao

Still waiting to get out of Santarem...the sun is getting very strong now...I always forget that we are so close to the equator and the sun burns like you wouldn't believe...
The bus is coming.. Again, as soon as we leave this town there is likely no cell coverage (thus no blackberry email) so we will not be writing until Sunday when we catch a flight to Belem...
The mouth of the Amazon River..

We have some good edited video but need a fast internet connection to upload...
Remember we will be broadcasting LIVE once again on Monday, March 3 at 12:00 PM EST from Belem Brazil!!
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

after nearly 50 hours on the boat we've arrived

At an internet cafe in Santarem, Brazil. The trip itself should not have taken so long on the Amazon River, but the boat happened to stop at everyport to load and unload goods, food, boxes, cars, bikes, everything and anything you could imagine.

Makes sense since this is the only way to get around in the jungle, ROADS do not exist is most of them!


we're trying to power up the blackberry's since we ran out of batteries on the boat...hopefully soon, we'll write from them.

We are leaving this little port town and heading to the "caribbean of the Amazons", a smaller town with clear water about 1 hour from here. It's called Alter do Chao!.

There is no internet at that place, so we may have trouble communicating if the blackberry's don't get cellular coverage.

We will be back in this town (Santarem) on Saturday night because we are catching a flight to Belem. The "Mouth" of the Amazon river into the Atlantic ocean. We figured we would cough up the money and fly instead of doing another 50 hours in the river boat.
The boat is very cool and all (IN THE CABINS....NOT the hammocks room) but all we seem to do on the boat is drink and eat....the hangovers on the boat are not that fun!!

we'll do all we can to connect, but otherwise it might not be until Sunday afternoon when we get to Belem.

PS.
Please don't be afraid to send us messages, it's always fun getting them. hint hint....Margie, Dennis, Mom!!!! ;-))

Not sure if the pic goes through but here goes..

Milena... We feel bad that it is 13 degrees in NYC... Cheer up guys..since we're here suffering in the mid 90's!! ;-)

Now all you folks reading this... Get back to work!!! We have to hang out some more and relax!!
Oh yeah we stopped at this port just now and bought another dozen beers.... Always great in the hot weather!
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Rest, relaxation, and a GPS device

It is 11:50AM from where we are in the Amazon river (that is 1 hour ahead of NY E.S.T)and we are chillin in the air conditioned cabin, writing and reading. Outside became unbearable with the heat and the humidity...
The screwed up thing is that it gets very cold in this tiny cabin and pretty soon we'll have to put on sweaters and sweat pants or open the door and warm up...
If we open the door the insects get in and not to mention all the prying eyes to see what we have inside the room... There are so many sketchy people here it's scary.
I am going to send this blog update without a picture attached since it appears the cellular network may not accept the pic. I'll try to send the pic from my phone but separately...
By the way we are near the river town called Parintins (GPS coordinates :
S 02 degrees 36.061
W 056 degrees 44.004
)
Later
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Amazonas Star

Nunca esperamos que en la mitad del rio Amazonas ibamos a tener senal alguna, ayer no tuvimos pero hoy amanecimos con senal.



Nuestra primera noche en Amazonas Star fue fantastica, el barco donde nos trasportamos rumbo a Santarem. Estaba un poco preocupada ya que nunca habia pasado mas de 4 horas en un barco, pero la noche fue genial.



Ayer despues de una espera de mas de 10 horas salimos a las 5 de la tarde en direccion a Santare. Inicialmente nos ibamos a acomodor en hamacas pero cambiamos a camarote ya que no representaba tanto dinero pero si es mil veces mas seguro.



Teniendo en cuenta que tenemos el minicomputador de jeff, los dos blackberrys, el GPS y como 100 tipos de memorias con un monton de aparaticos q nisiquiera se para que son, solo el computer guy Jeff lo sabe.



Hoy no tenemos itinerario, solo disfrutar de la hermosa vista del rio mas largo del mundo (desde los ultimos estudios hace unos meses)

y tambien de la hermosa naturaleza en sus alrededores.



Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

River boat for 2 days along the Amazon...

So we are off to the beautiful quaint town of Santarem which is about 2 days on river boat from Manaus (the capital of the Amazon in Brazil).
We were going to stay in hammocks but once we saw the crowd eyeing all of our stuff (literally they looked like they were about to mug us...) we decided to pay up for a cabin room. The hammocks were in a big room sharing with about 100 other people. The cabin might not be the safest either since the locks can be opened with just about anything, but at least we can keep a better eye on our things.
Fact is, that since we are carrying expensive equipment, we are trying to avoid these types of inviting temptation to get robbed.
Had Paula and I been traveling with only clothing, it would be totally cool, but with my cameras and computer, gps, blackberrys, etc, we look like a feast to some of these folks.
I mentioned to you that we had already been relieved of some of our belongings! I can sort of understand them because, a camera, or sneakers, or a cool shirt or jacket can be the equivalent of a month of work for a typical worker. The base salary here is about 200 dollars a month, so I can see how appealing a digital camera really is. Can you imagine a laptop or something like that!
Anyway...talk to you guys more if the blackberry~s get service or on friday when we get to the next town along the Amazon River.

I want to say hi to Martin C., Edson and their family! Thanks for your kind words.

I do want to let all you guys know that we have met some very cool people in the past 3 weeks. We hope soon to talk a little about each person in the coming weeks.

Gary B. (guide from Leticia) we owe you that contact in Peru, we haven~t forgotten!

Nuestro dia en Manaos

Hoy estuvimos conociendo un lugar muy interesante encontro das aguas, el encuentro de las aguas. Es el lugar donde se une el rio Negro con el rio Amazonas. La union se puede apreciar completamente ya que las aguas de Amazonas son muy cafe por el lodo y el rio negro el cual hace alusion a su nombre.

Despues llegamos a un pueblito de pescadores donde a la hora ya estabamos de regreso a la ciudad.

Ahora estamos nuevamente aqui en la plaza principal, junto al Museo Amazonas donde como en toda plaza estan puras parejas besandosen, nosotros no podiamos ser la exepcion.
Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

The amazon river splits in two for miles

We are crossing over this section of the Amazon river that has literally split in two pieces running parallel but not mixing...it is the coolest thing. On the right is clear water and on the left is murky, muddy water.
The pic here does not do it justice, but perhaps you can find on the web "encontro das aguas amazonas" to see better pics.
It has something to do with water density, speed, temperature, etc

Paula's blackberry is not working..It looks like the SIM card is not being accepted from here...strange since my phone is exactly the same one.
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

By the way...more blogs

So the blogs that I tried to write from the Ciudad Perdida when we were out of touch nearly 2 weeks ago have finally been uploaded.

Check the dates in the blog section going back between Feb 15 and Feb 18 since they are now not on the initial home page but in the archives....
Later.
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Writing...just because we now can

Hello to whoever is reading this...likely its the same few dozen that have been writing messages to us in the past few weeks...REALLY thanks for your interest and support..it is nice to know that other people find this as unique as we have found...that is travel to unkown places and try to describe as best as possible and perhaps inspire those to make it out here...since we will be traveling and hopefully updating this website regularly until the mid-end of May, it gives us some time to get the routine a bit more organized!

We want to update all the time but sometimes technology inhibits us and other times its the mere cost of doing it that may affect our decision..

Remember, this is just Paula and I (Jeffrey) taking a trip and trying to have you all follow along with us. We have pretty much budgeted to spend about 100 dollars a day and have been sticking very close to this...

It is in fact very hard to determine an amount of money because at times there are reasons to spend more for a tour, event, extreme sport, high flying activity, that extra beer, the special 'only found here' food, a fat bed to sleep in that is bug free, or occasionally the replacement of a misplaced (a.k.a. stolen) item...

-------------------------------+

SIDE NOTE: we have had 1 pair of men's trail Northface sneakers, 1 green EMS quick drying fabric t shirt, 1 Northface (red) quick dry zip up sport jacket, 1 Cannon digital camera, various kids toys and clothes, all somehow taken from us...

I just hope I can keep my laptop and the other cameras all safe over the next couple months!!

-------------------------------+

In the end our budget is only a guide but we do need to keep it in check...so hello to budget hotels and the "menu del dia" !!!



I write this to you as we do battle against killer mosquoitos, miniature roaches and a 3 inch spider that came up behind the bed in our 15 dollar hotel in Manaus, Brazil....hmmm .... maybe we don't skimp on the hotels all that much... huh??!!

Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Felizmente en Manaos

Habia recibido comentarios no muy buenos de Manaos, que muy sucia, insegura, que los hoteles eran costosos y no tan buenos...

Pero nuestra impresion fue otra. Una ciudad super grande y bonita me senti como si estuviera en Bogota.


Llegamos y cogimos el bus y andamos por mas de 40 minutos, yo la comparaba con Leticia que son 10 calles y estaba muy equivocada.

Encontramos un hotelito en el centro, bueno y lo mejor economico. Salimos a dar una vuelta por la plaza principal, que bonita. Tiene un aire a ciudades pequenas de Espana.


Definitivamente queremos aprender portugues, es indispensable, aqui la gente no habla ni espanol ni ingles y como vamos a pasar un mes en Brasil seria bueno aprender algo diferente a OBRIGADO osea gracias en portugues


Manana saldremos temprano a preguntar todos los datos para coger el barco hacia Santarem por el rio Amazonas. Pero primero conoceremos un poco mas de Manaos.


ZORA si lees este mensaje enviame tu correo que no lo tengo, como siempre me escribes por la pagina no lo puedo ver. Gracias


Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

VIDEO - Live from Amazon

Hi there...so this is not showing any crazy animals or plants or flowers, it's just Puala and I....
We have had so much trouble finding an internet connection for this...We are in a bigger city so soon we can upload some more cooler stuff...this is in front of the hotel room:

Quien creyera q en Leticia esta haciendo frio y lloviendo

Quien creyera q en Leticia, queda en todo el rio Amazonas, tengamos q ponernos una chompa porq hace mucho frio. Ayer empezo a llover como desde las 6 de la tarde y no ha parado. Cantaros y cantaron de lluvia.

Menos mal y los dos dias anteriores nos hizo un buen tiempo, pudiendo disfrutar de la selva, el rio y todo lo bonito q hay alrededor.

El jueves fuimos a la isla de los Micos, la experiencia super. Saca uno dos bananos a cada lado y se le tiran mas de 10 micos al mismo tiempo, por el pelo, las manos, la cara, en el proximo video lo veran lo gracioso y divertido.

Despues de los micos fuimos a hacer Canopi. Canopi es el deporte q consisten en subir a los arboles por medio de cuerdas a alturas de mas de 50 metros.

Para mi fue un reto personal porq odio las alturas, le tengo el fisico pavor a la altura. Pero lo logre, al principio subiendo me fue muy bien, no senti tanto vertigo, pero cuando necesitabamos hacer la otra face q es de tirarnos en una cuerda de 120 de ancho entre arbol y arbol a mas de 50 metros de alto va vi grave.

Al principio casi q me pongo a llorar porq sentida mucho miedo, pero despues me gusto tanto q lo lo hice y varias veces. Jeff no tiene ese problema el si es muy valiente.

Despues del canopi fuimos a un recorrido en una canoa por la selva, senti muy poco de temor porq hay caimanes, cerpientes, e insectos los q quiera. Gracias a Dios solo vimos insectos, por q los animales grandes salen depues de las 6 de la tarde.

Conocimos a alguien muy interesante, el guia su nombre es Gary despues de terminada la aventura nos conto muchas experiencias en la selva. Estuvo perdido 15 dias en el Amazonas con dos amigos mas. Tuvimos la oportunidad de escuchar unos cuentos increibles de la selva.

Al otro dia fuimos a ver los delfines grises y rosados del rio, tambien visitamos varias comunidades.

Definitivamente Leticia es un destino excelente para visitar, es economico, exotico, divertido, de mucha aventura y de facil aceso a Peru y Brasil. Es un destino q todo el mundo lo deberia tener en cuenta para conocer, alejarse del bullicio de las ciudades y descontaminar los pulmones.

Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile