AMAZON EXPERIENCE!

I am sorry in advance if this entry gets a bit long. I have had a request from a follower/fan (obviously I have fans) to put more feelings and personal growth comments in my blog entries. Therefore, I am going to do so but I can guarantee a long novel entry this time around. I left off with my last entry after my first day in Brazil, where I walked around the town of Manaus with a Brazilian police officer; I’m reiterating how cool that was by mentioning it AGAIN. I am going to tell you all about the last three days I spent in the Amazon in this novel I am about to write.
Samantha and I started our journey to explore the Amazon three long days ago…it all started with a riverboat ride! This riverboat was a two-floor boat with freestanding plastic chairs that you would put around an outdoor table, so you can imagine how comfortable they were. The tour guide from our hotel was on the boat giving us a play by play of Manaus’s and the Amazon’s history. I’m not going to lie to all of you; I may or may not have fallen asleep for a part of it. OOPS. Our first stop on our water tour was the meeting of the waters! I’m being honest when I tell you it was one of the COOLEST natural phenomenon’s I have ever seen in my life. I stared at the black and white waters meeting and separating from each other perfectly for at least 20 minutes. The guide said that this happened with the two waters because of different densities, temperatures, and speeds. It was incredible not only because I had never seen ANYTHING like that but also because I was realizing how much I was going to see on this trip that I never would even know about if I didn’t do this. There was a part of me when I started this trip that I questioned why I wasn’t doing a fashion program, following my major and what I love to do. As crazy as it sounds, seeing these waters meet explained exactly why I chose this trip. This is something I will probably never do again, and I get to see so many places that I would never travel to myself. Who would have ever thought that the parting of the black and white rivers in the Amazon would make me realize how great of a choice I made in my life at this point.
Sorry I spent so long on that water crap but god it was amazing. Moving on…next we went to an island in the Amazon where the water rises every rainy season and covers most of the island completely. We got off our riverboat and walked across a long bridge on what I would call stilts. We were above the weeds that were maybe 3 feet tall. We arrived at a small village on this island, where all the structures were on posts for when the water floods the island. I call them structures because I am not sure I would technically call them buildings. They were beat up, small, dirty houses or stores. It was definitely eye opening to see how these people live, I mean, they sleep on HAMMOCKS!!!!!! Can you imagine what your back would feel like sleeping on a HAMMOCK every night? That is no tempurpedic bed! The kids in the village were trying to sell us the simplest shells, shells I could find on any typical Washington beach. They didn’t have a price, they were just asking for anything. I know I will be seeing this in many cities that I go to on this trip, some worse than others. The boat tells us to ignore it because the money doesn’t actually go to the kids you see suffering, they bring the money back to their parents or “bosses.” I can’t imagine a life like that, I am almost crying just typing this to you all. I didn’t end up buying any shells, but I have a feeling that I might give in to giving these kinds of kid’s money when it gets worse and worse in other ports.
After that we went on a walk to where they were showing us how they made rubber in the olden days to earn money. It was an interesting process, I honestly would have never guessed it if I hadn’t seen it. I’m not going to fully explain it because this is already getting long and this is just the first day, we have two more to go, GEEZ. We got lunch after that made by the locals in that village. It was a FEASTTT! Brazilian food is very tasty! Finally after lunch we got to our hotel, this was quite a culture shock from the village we had just been in. Bungalow’s along a river and a beautiful pool with cabana areas equipped with hammocks was only the beginning. The meals we had at this RESORT were absolutely delicious. They had options for anyone and everyone. I left dinner more full than I had been in years I think! We were roomed with random people and it was nice not to be with Samantha so that we could meet more people. I’m not going to lie, it has been hard to make friends on the ship but the more overnight trips we have, I have faith ill meet a lot more people. The girls I was rooming with were students at Michigan, extremely nice girls and we are actually pretty close now already.
The second day we started at 8:30am with a JUNGLE TREK. Now this might sound like a really cool experience and don’t let me sway your opinion with what I say about the Amazon jungle, it was. The Amazon jungle was the following things: disgusting, terrifying, dirty, nasty, itchy, trees everywhere, ringworm shit all over the ground, buggy, muggy, hot, horrific, horrible, frightening, gross, sticky, ANTS all over, and last but not least EMOTIONAL. If you already didn’t get the point, I HATE THE JUNGLE. However, as much as I HATED the jungle, I loved it too. Who here when describing Karissa Keiter say’s she’s a nature person? Not one of you should have answered that question with a yes! I am farthest from a nature lover that you can get…but let me tell you, with all the complaining I did on the 2 ½ hour trek, I still finished with a smile and laugh. I was HILARIOUS to watch, I am SURE of it. But when I got to the end of that hike and I saw the beach and the water and the hotel, I could not have been more proud of myself for making it out not only alive but happy I did it. I texted my dad right after, telling him all those adjectives I would use to describe the jungle, and you know how he answered? He said, “You’re fucking hilarious.” And he’s right, I am hilarious, and the adjectives are 100% true but the fact that I was joking about the jungle and how much I hated it was my way of saying I MADE IT, I DID IT, I DID SOMETHING NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD BELIEVE I WOULD DO. And that right there is what made it so great. I never again will do a jungle trek through the Amazon, not only because I probably wont ever go back to the Amazon but also because I really don’t want to. But I will be telling people, proudly, about this experience for a LONG time.
The rest of the day consisted of piranha fishing, which was really interesting…it was more like a social hour with teachers and staff on our boat. We used bamboo sticks, no reel, to catch these dangerous fish. And let me tell you, they are tricky little bastards. I feed these fish; I did NOT catch them. They ate my bait so fast without getting caught on my hook every single time! If you haven’t caught on, I DID NOT CATCH ONE! I am really mad about it and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. That night we went on a Cayman search, which are little crocodiles. Our guide caught one and it was the ugliest little thing. But it was cool that he just picked it up with his hand out of the river like it was no big deal.
The last day was a short tour of the rubber plantation, well a remake of it…but it was basically a repeat of what we had seen in the village the first day. I actually got a little dehydrated too, so I had to sit down for part of it. I was soooo excited to get back to the boat when it was all over. I had an amazing adventure but an actual shower was wayyyyy overdue. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that I went those 3 days without any makeup!!!! The jungle trek was my proudest moment but the no makeup was a close second. Originally, I thought this abroad trip would just be about seeing landmarks and cool cities and traveling on a ship with a bunch of people, but, it is so much more. Already, I can see how this is going to be the most amazing and life changing experience I will ever go through. I know not wearing makeup is so minimal, but I have relied on makeup to make me “beautiful” in my own eyes for so many years; and, to not wear it and start to accept how I look without it…UNREAL. It is the most amazing feeling anyone can ever have; to love and accept who are without the materialistic bullshit, and the media conveyed perfect looking woman…IM SO OVER IT. That’s what this trip is about.
Love you all
-me-