I love crossing into a new country. It's always a shock to see how different life is on the other side of that imaginary but oh-so-real line that defines the border. This time, it was crossing from Peru into Brasil and the differences are pretty major.
We made the crossing by boat -- taking a speed boat 10 hours down-river from Iquitos to the cities of Leticia, Columbia and Tabatinga, Brasil. The ride down was cramped and uneventful, but quite pretty all the same. From the windows of the boat, and at our few stops along the way, we saw an unending series of small communities along the side of the river. All the houses seemed to have roofs of palm-thatch and stilted, wooden floors. Very few had any walls to speak of. We arrived in Tabatinga in the early evening, and learned that a boat was leaving the next day for Manaus. Perfect.
Things on this side of the border are, indeed, different. The most immediate and obvious difference is, of course, the language. Portuguese. It's close enough to Spanish that it's no problem to read written Portuguese, but everything is pronounced totally differently, making it quite difficult to understand anything spoken or to speak. It's exciting to be in a place where the language is different, but frustrating as well. I'm once again having to communicate in gestures rather than words, and can't follow up a smile with any sort of conversation. It's become clear to me how important it is to speak the language of the place you're visiting -- it just makes it a totally different experience. Time to learn Portuguese.
There are a number of other differences on this side of the border as well. It's somewhat difficult to compare the people, as I don't feel like I can communicate well here, but everyone so far has been incredibly friendly. When we arrived in Tabatinga, for example, we didn't have any Reais (banks were closed, and the Brazilian ATMs didn't like American cards), so the girl running our hotel lent us money and then joined us for dinner. The life in Amazonas seems very different, based on what we could see from our next boat. All the communities on this side of the border were higher up, away from the water. Rather than thatched roofs they had tin or zinc or some form of metal, painted walls usually, etc.. They had electricity, water, and telephone service. In short, the government had invested a lot of money in the Amazonas region to bring the small communities more into the modern life. Food is different, of course. Lots of good fruit juices, and again all manner of things I don't recognize nor know the name of. But so far, all tasty.
Back to the boat. We went down the night before to check it out and claim hammock space (On the boat, everyone sleeps in hammocks). I had my doubts about how it would be to sleep in a hammock for three nights, but figured it couldn't be too bad. Looking at my mom's face as we got on the boat, it became obvious that she had her doubts as well. We decided that we'd try it anyway, and figured that we could make it work. Strung up our hammocks to save some space, then back to a real bed to sleep.
The next day when we arrived, the boat had filled up. Where before there had been one row of hammocks, there were now three. Excitement mixed with new doubts as I saw my mother's reaction to the news hammocks in her personal space. Well, we thought, we'll just have to make it work. And work it did. Quite comfortably. For three and half days we chugged downstream, watching the jungle slip by on either side of the river. It was a relaxing time -- reading, enjoying the view, and having a beer or two with friends from the boat made the time go by quickly. From the boat we got only glimpses into the lives of people living in amazonas. Frequently, we'd slow or stop to meet a canoe full of fruit to sell or to drop someone off. At one point, we stopped and loaded a person on a gurney onto the boat -- a two day ride to the hospital in Manaus.
It was good to finally get into the city, and to get off the boat, but it was somewhat difficult to leave behind the comfort and ease of a life with no difficulties or responsibilities for the bustle of a city. Especially one in which you don't really speak the language...
But, as always, the new has its charms to lure you away from the old. Exploring Manaus has been fun. Did some shopping. Saw an old Charlie Chaplin movie in one of the plaças last night. Silent films are wonderfully portable. Saw a nice sunset over the port, and watched the coming and going of many, many boats for a while. Tomorrow we fly to Brasilia for a day, and then on to São Paulo. Looking forward to seeing more of Brasil.