Manaus, BRAZIL

After traveling along the Amazon river for two days, I was ready to reach the beautiful land of Brazil.  Sunday morning I walked off the ship and entered the bustling streets of Manaus.  I headed off with a large group to explore and check out the sights.  The main street was filled with vendors for Carnival.  Although not the time of Carnival, they have a Sunday festival called Carnival that is similar to a food and art street festival.  Exciting but also overwhelming, the heat and humidity got to us quickly.  We were sweating like crazy at 10 in the morning.  The main attraction to Manaus is the beautiful and historic opera house.  We wandered in along with the crowd of Semester at Sea students and watched an orchestra perform.  The opera house was grand and took me back in time.  After this performance, we wandered around town in search for food; Sundays are not good days to arrive in port, everything is closed down.  At the end of the day, I was a little disappointed and realized that I would not be able to stay in the city for the next four days.  I ran into my friend Addi who asked if I would like to do a 2-night trip into the Amazon through a local tour company.  Thrilled and thankful for a plan I would leave the next morning at 7AM but not before a night of dancing.

            The whole Semester at Sea community including professors and lifelong learners were ready for a lesson from the School of Samba.  Taking over the streets of Manaus, Brazil’s school of Samba put on a huge performance and gave us a small taste of Carnival.  Two cultures, two schools merged to one as the performance evolved into a dance party.  The music and drumming lasted for hours as people of all ages danced the night away.  Dancing in the streets of Brazil was pretty amazing a leads me to a theme of my trip around the world.  A personal interest and passion, music and dance also provide great insight into a culture.  No language barrier can detract the flow of music from one individual to another.  I love dancing and learning new styles, especially ones that stem from a history and culture of a place. 

            After a warm welcome from the people of Manaus, I quickly packed up my belongings and headed for the Amazon.  A group of five of us-Lisa and I from Berkeley, Addi from Colorado, Miller from North Carolina, and Michael from Ohio joined with individual travelers on the same tour.  The most interesting of travelers was a man named Dai.  He traveled by himself from Japan and is deaf and mute.  Despite this, we communicated very well and had a great time together.  Two young students also joined our journey, both students in their 20, Franchesca from Italy and Cass from Australia.  I was amazed by the diversity and ability of these individuals to travel alone.