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I felt guilty. I did not understand why I as a young man had the privledge to travel and experience the world, especially during times like these while other people suffered. There were people lining up outside of banks waiting for a government handout, yet here I was moving around Brazil on non essential travel. The guilt was there, but it wasn’t going to stop me from living and milking the advantages I had.

I was in Brazil, despite all this pandemic going on, and it would be a long time if ever for me to return to this country, so I was going to make the most of it. At this point, I had already seen the largest waterfall in the world, but how could I leave without seeing the Amazon Jungle first I thought to myself.

The jungle can be seen from the landlocked city of Manaus in Brazil, the largest city in the Amazon Basin. So after jumping through a lot of hoops to purchase a plane ticket on a Brazilian website as a foreigner, I was on my way to going to see the the Amazon. It was a two legged flight from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo before reaching Manaus. The first two cities are fairly international so no one really paid me too much attention. Manaus was different.

Onward to the Jungle

Immediately I could tell in this city that the population looked different, the physical attributes of the population looked much more Native American. Which translated to me standing out like a sore thumb. Per usual, I was the only foreigner present when arriving at the airport. I was looked at with curiosity, some people even asked where I was from, but no one really bothered me.

I proceeded to going to the city center and getting set up in a hostel. The staff where I was staying was very helpful in assisting me find what I needed. I’m a city boy at heart and I know I’d die in the jungle if left out there alone, so I needed a guide which I found with the assistance of the hostel staff.

The 3 day trek into the jungle was fun though cheesy (it was with a tour group afterall). The trip itself is for another post, but the funny thing I noticed was that I was the only foreigner (well non resident foreigner) that went on these trip. Not only that, I was the first (non resident) foreigner since the government lockdowns. The travel industry in Brazil had been sustaining itself on local business, persons like myself coming from afar were much of a novelty now.

Just another crazy adventure, but many lore to come.