Well – got to Olinda.  And it’s pretty cool.  Beautiful town.  From the hill, a great view of the town – all tiled roofs, heaps of trees, old cathedrals popping up everywhere, the ocean, and across the bay – the high-rises of Recife.  I arrived yesterday morning, and was immediately informed that there happened to be a festival that night.  So – a siesta in my pousada which has a pool.  Then – a little exploring, some seafood and cerveja at restaurant with a view – and then festival.  Watched 30 police raid a bar.  Then, was taken to the bar by a local who’d accidentally stolen my beer – and proceeded to replace it many times over.  Bar had live band – including children.  But, then the crowd consisted of many families with babies and young children at all.  When I left, rather intoxicated, I realised it was only 8:30 – so not as irresponsible parenting as I had thought.

I then watched some capoeira on the street.  Awesome.  Open circle – so anybody can walk in, and ‘fight’ somebody else.  Nathan would have loved it.  Usually, the fighting was more show than actual fight, and never any actual contact.  But occasionally, there’d be two folk who obviously had an actual grudge.  Twice it descended into actual full-scale blows.  Each time, when push came to shove came to punch – the capoeira seemed to turn into normal drunken brawling.  The big guy running the circle sorted people out pretty quickly.  A couple of times he took a dislike to somebody’s attitude - and tagged in to teach them a lesson.

After this – back to the pousada, for a night-time swim.  And today, eight blody hours catching up on uploading all my photos & videos.  Should all be there now.  Tomorrow – the plan is to spend all day in or beside pool.

Made it to Fortaleza.  Pretty much on the 18 hours it was supposed to take.  Which gave me 8 hours to kill before getting ready for next bus.  First priority, of course, was cerveja.  Done.

Then – a little internet research on stuff.  Rugby World Cup tickets don’t seem to be in huge supply on TradeMe.  Flights to the ‘Brazilian Hawaii’ seem to be expensive.  As do flights to Easter Island.  All ex-girlfriends I could find on OldFriends seem to be the same as last time I’d heard.  And boring old America’s Cup is still boring.  But Wanganui’s livened up a bit, at a rather expensive price of a toddler’s life.

Have another three hours to kill.  Will try to call my ma for Ma’s Day.  Not Mai’s Day here – but will be back in NZ.  So – Ma, if you read this before 9am NZ time – get off the internet, as I might be trying to call.

No photos so far of Fortaleza.  Only thing I’ve considered photographing so far is an extremely large arse on a lady.  Spectacular size/shape.  But, nice man came to see if I was wanting another beer when I stood up hoping for one clear shot.  Fingers crossed more oppurtunites will arise.

Also fed the local-shoe-shiner.  Felt good about giving leftovers to homeless poor folk, especially those who work.  Until he was sitting there wolfing it down, and I half-laughed to myself as I looked up at TV screen to watch ‘DVD’ symbol bouncing round – and hitting bang-on the corner of the screen.  Nathan will understand.  Later on I wondered how would I describe to such a chap, if he asked, and even if I spoke enough Portuguese, what I was laughing at?  ”There was this one time in Melbourne – a little dunk (on booze you can’t afford), watching a DVD player’s symbol bouncing round on a TV screen (both DVD player & TV which you can’t even imagine owning), and finding it amusing to guess when it’s going to hit the corner?  And the reason we were doing this was we couldn’t get the Playstation or Nintendo (again – don’t try to comprehend how much these cost) games to work.”  And then I might be tempted to describe my week in Colbinabbin – a series of anecdotes which in a large part consists of how much money I spent thoughtlessly.

That’s about it – was going to use this little session of very little news for general descriptions of Brasilian, and Latin American in general, life/attitudes.  But managed to flesh out very little a little too much.  Probably the cerveja has given me the babble.

Am in Sao Luis.  And am actually getting bored of these old colonial towns/cities with beautiful classical architecture.  Can understand Nathan’s views on my early photos of buildings.  So – read about Fernando De Noronha – and am heading towards there.  “One of the most stunning places in Brazil, if not the entire world.”  Expensive but.  And at least 30 hours of bus trips away.  And seeing as my 12 hour bus trip from Belem to Sao Luis turned out to be substantially more – am not looking forward to it.  Am catching bus today, hopefully, to Fortaleza (18 hours).  Then, depending on timetables, get on one tomorrow onwards to Recife (12 hours).  Sweet.

Not much else to report really.  Shaving off my beard hasn’t seemed to have the effect I was hoping for.  Brazilian girls still calling me “lindo”.  Pope (sorry, the Catholic pope – having reading an article recently reminding me there are several popes) is in town, and all over the television.  And I thought yesterday, that anybody who needs so much security to keep him alive - probably shouldn’t be alive.  It’s preventing democracy, in a way.

Hopefully the bus station in Fortaleza will have some fast internet available, and will be able to upload more photos.  Caio.

Well – made it down the mighty Amazon river. First night – was a young fellows birthday, so I brought out the bottle of whiskey I’d bought as emergency supplies. Fairly good night. Slept in my hammock – very tight quarters. But better than some of the areas – where there were literally people touching on all sides – including top/bottom. I was to discover what this was like for the final two nights.

In general – the scenery was fairly monotonous. Some riverside houses/huts on the final couple of days were interesting, along with the people in canoes who would try to attach to our moving ship, in order to sell stuff. Or, in some cases, for the fun of it? Practice, maybe? I discovered the lunch/dinner schedule/system on the second day. Food wasn’t too bad at all. Although I didn’t “carefully scrutinise” it like the guide book advised. Toilets weren’t as bad as could be expected. Certainly not pristine – but not bad. Probably due to them doubling as showers. I got to know most of the people on board. Certainly the ones who went up to the top deck where the bar was. No tonic water at the bar, so my 2nd emergency bottle, of gin, was drunk with delicious guarana soft drink.

On the 3rd day, an extended family boarded, and started setting up around my hammock spot. Several people moved, as they were a little smelly. And then the nice ship doctor lady moved me. To what looked like a good spot. Right next to the ladder down to the bottom deck, hardly ever used. So – it seemed like I’d have one side with nobody next to me. A couple of hours later – I saw that this was a deluded hope. I had people very very close to me on all sides, including above.

I lent my MP3 player to folks at night time. My newfound friend who borrowed it for the final night, avoided me all day, and then told me that he didn’t know where it was. Lost it overnight, apparently. Offered to pay me for it, but then again tried to avoid me. I couldn’t be bothered with the little shit, so took off.

07 May

Arrived in Belem – got the business card from a nice man at the port for a hostel. Was offered a ride to the hostel. Turned it down, walked around for some time in stinking heat – and ended up going to the hostel. Went to the plaza – some live music, many stalls and people. Watched some capoeira (the martial art that was designed by slaves here to look like dancing, to disguise the training).  Sat at a bar in the park watching people.  Talked to a young guy who wanted me to go to a heavy metal concert.  Instead, I went for a siesta.

08 May

Went for a walk.  Saw the Market – landmark of Belem.  Long, heavy rainfall while I was there, so sat at a bar for quite some time.  Kids letting off very very loud fireworks.  Band playing drums/saxamaphone.  Watched the news on TV – gathered that the local futbol club had just won some kind of trophy or championship.  Seemed to have created a lot of fuss, including – I assume – the fireworks and live music.

Rain mostly stopped.  Went to look at the fort.  Closed, and no real vantage point to get a good photo from outside of it.  Dumb.  Drank at another bar.  Some guys talk to me, tell me it’s a dodgy part of town.  Shouldn’t let people see my camera.  Ask for $R2 to go buy some liquor.  I only have a 50 note.  But – give it to them.  Stupid, stupid Kruse.  They never come back.  One that may have been associated with them does – nearly gets lynched by another group of guys.  Me – no cash.  And have just ordered a beer.  Group of english speakers comes past (CocaCola employees?) – give me a fiver to pay for beer.  Sweet.  $5 actually buys me two.  After two – go to ATM, get cash, back to bar.  Possibly silly, but determined not to let the thieves ruin my day.  And to stop them from being able to go back to their favourite bar.  Get taxi home though – don’t want to push my luck too far.  Dinner at street stalls.  Watch political demonstration.  All good.

Thank you all for your messages of support/derision after my recent ordeal.  Sorry parents if I worried you, but I thought it best to describe the event properly.

And – am just making quick update to let you know that I will not be giving updates for 4 or 5 days.  Catching boat down Amazon, which should take 4.5 days or so.  Leaving tomorrow, will update from Belem as soon as I can.  Have new camera – so will get boring photos of ridiculously wide river for Nathan.  Spent today drinking with locals on side of street.  Apparently, the Brazilian tradition for a birthday is breaking raw eggs on one’s head.  Got action photo.

Am currently carrying iRiver in pocket, with only backups of photos from stolen camera.  Hopefully won’t get robbed in Manaus tonight.

Am expecting more messages of sympathy or laughter in 5 days time.  Cheers.

UPDATE: morning of trip.  I went to the port, and slung up my hammock on my riverboat.  The smallest crappiest ship in the port – and certainly not the one in the photo shown to me by the nice unofficial hawker man who sold me my ticket.  I also have to go to a different port and catch a speedboat to the ship – rather than using the official port entrance.  Pretty sweet.

And I know you’ve all been worried – so thought I should let you know I’ve now replaced my compass & thermostat keyring now as well.  And my voice is back – with only some lingering sexy huskiness.  Only things left to replace now are a bottle opener (just remembered that, will try to do that now), and a wallet (not sure if I’ll bother).