Adventures of Living Abroad

After taking a bus from Lençóis Maranhenses back to Sao Luis, I head straight to the airport to catch a flight to Fortaleza. From Fortaleza I hopped into a taxi and head out to Cumbuco, which is a small beach town about 40 minutes outside of Fortaleza.  I was looking forward to spending my next few days relaxing on a beach before heading back to the States to visit family and friends. Unfortunately, I didn't make a very important connection...Cumbuco is famous for kite surfing. What do you need for kite surfing? WIND. Windy beaches are NOT good for lying out and getting a tan which is exactly what I was hoping I would do.  I did give it my best shot though. I wrapped up my face and stayed as close to the water as possible because the sand was wet and less likely to blow around. I was one of the only people actually lying out on the beach. I stayed as long as I could before the constant wind and sand drove me crazy.  I spent a lot of time in the hammock at the hostel...

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park This area is very unique because although it is composed of large, white dunes, it is not a desert. Since it's location is just outside of the Amazon Basin this region gets a rainy season and causes a phenomenon of fresh water collecting in the valleys between the sand dunes.I learned that these lagoons even have a large number of fish that arrive after July when the water is at its fullest.  I stayed in the small town of Barreirinhas at a pousada run by an older woman who spoke only Portuguese. She was so sweet and patient with me as I tried to speak in Portuguese. She made sure I was picked up from the bus by a taxi and taken to the pousada since I arrived so late at night. She helped to arrange the excursion I went on and even woke up early to make sure the taxi would come on time to take me back to the bus.  The first day I was picked up in a 4-wheel drive truck that looked like this: We drove to the river and onto a flat barge th...

After the Amazon, I flew from Manaus to Sao Luis. I arrived there on Saturday and left Sunday evening. I stayed in the historical district in centro at a beautiful hostel. Unfortunately though, I quickly learned that the hostel should have invested more money into a new ceiling fan and air conditioning unit to help keep the mosquitoes from attacking me rather than a refrigerator in my room or a beautiful lobby area. After being in the Amazon for 5 days, I had no tolerance for those pesky bugs!  After settling into my room, the first thing on my agenda was to do some laundry. I really needed to wash the jungle and bug spray smell off my clothes, but when I walked around I realized most of the shops were closing. Of course they were closing, it was Saturday afternoon. Why would you want to work on a Saturday. haha. I returned to the hostel and explained my problem. I was leaving tomorrow evening and really needed my clothes washed. I had 15 pieces of clothes and the hoste...

Day 5 Part 2 and Day 6 – Manaus – Back to Civilization What a great feeling to be back to the world of air conditioning and hot showers! It felt like such a luxury! And it was compared to what we had for the last 5 days… We showered and took ourselves out to a nice restaurant to try some fish called tambaqui for dinner. Delicious!!! The next day was July 4 and we celebrated the US’s Independence Day by watching the Brazil play a game in the world cup and enjoy some delicious freshly squeezed juices.

Day 5 Part 1 – Pink Dolphins We didn’t head back to Manaus until the afternoon so we spent our last morning out on the river spotting pink dolphins. Luckily the guys didn't come with us. We cruised out to a spot that Joshua said is known to have many pink dolphins. After a few minutes, we started to spot them! Joshua said there were probably hundreds of them in this area.  He also told us that it was a safe place to swim. I didn’t believe him until he dove into the water. I still wasn’t quite sure, but then Katherine dove in and I thought, why not!? So in I went…. We also stopped at a local school. I was so excited to get to see what their school looks like! It was nicer and had more technology tools than I imagined it would. This was the first school in that area and the government provides free transportation for children to get to school.  The school bus...wait I mean boat :) After lunch it was time to head...