News at last

Hello all, and thanks for the concerned enquiries. However, I’m pleased to report that rumours of my demise have been exaggerated, and we’re still struggling along here. The problem is a combination of ridiculous internet connection problems (as discussed previously) and a large number of guesthouse enquiries. The result is that most of the internet time I get has to be devoted to the enquiries, and the rest of the time is spent either looking after guests or tidying up after them! Sorry Betty, will try to do better.

Anyway, what’s been happening? The adoption police came and went and we now have our appointment with the shrink on 20th October. In the meantime, someone phoned us to offer us triplets. Yes - triplets! Aside from being borderline illegal, I really don’t think we could handle triplets – well, not unless we closed the guesthouse and stopped all our other activities, leaving us no income at all. If on the other hand, anyone would like to sponsor a family, just say the word…

We have a new camera, brought to us by a friend visiting the USA. If you’re interested, it’s a Panasonic Lumix TZ5 with a 10x optical zoom, a 28mm lens and 9.1 megapixels. Unfortunately, until we acquire an SD card for it, we won’t be taking many photos - but I’ll probably have some for the next blog entry. Here’s one of Kelly in the meantime.

Naice has been busy with her Tourism degree (someone here asked her if she would be a qualified tourist on completion of the course), and has been running all over the place evaluating local tourist attractions (conclusion so far – they’re fine except for the fact that they don’t understand the need to provide information or assistance to the tourists J). On the strength of her first presentation, she has been invited to do another one at a university showcase event next week – very impressive.

We have a couple of weeks without guests now, hopefully enabling me to catch up with my personal correspondence (sorry folks), giving us the opportunity to evaluate some other business possibilities, and maybe even allowing us the chance to get out and about a bit. Speaking of which, I’m going down the BR319 with Naice’s brothers on Thursday, to have a look at some land there. The BR319 is the theoretical road running between Manaus and Porto Velho (to be more precise, Humaita). On the map, it’s approximately 700km long; on the ground, it becomes pretty much impassable after 200km. This fact is particularly interesting, given that the land we’re going to look at is 250km away. I’m also going fishing with friend Charlie on Friday, for the first time in an age, and I’m looking forward to it. We hope to both go to Barcelos next week if we can, particularly as there is a chance I can do an article on it for a Dutch magazine (long story – later, later…). Further ahead, we have friends Dawn and Garry (maybe) coming to see us for Christmas, and then…well, 2009 is too far away to think about just yet. Besides, before we get to Christmas, we have a very busy November to cope with, with 14 guesthouse bookings so far (yikes). Interestingly, although December is looking fairly quiet, we have a confirmed booking for….December 25th. Well, why not? In fact, perhaps the Library Board would like to have the Christmas party here – should I get the beer in now…?

As always, will try to post more frequently in future.

The adoption police are coming

We are to receive the adoption police on Monday at 10:30. One assumes they will want to interrogate us with respect to our income, our bank balance, and our jobs, as well as to see how well prepared we might be to look after additional small persons. It is always tempting to question the justice of this when there are so many unwanted babies born here to single mothers with no visible means of support (does anyone remember that ad.?), but I have to admit it is for the most part very sensible stuff, so we will grin and bear it. At least (one hopes), they will not be asking questions like “what was your first sexual experience?”, which is one of the questions the British system poses to prospective adopters, along with a system of investigation which sometimes seems as logical, sensitive, unbiased - and expensive - as the Inquisition.

Are camera's broke

I’ll have to do something about the lack of photos on the blog at the moment, but you’ll have to be patient – I’m afraid our camera has succumbed to the heat and refuses to work. I’m not quite sure where we’re going to find the funds to replace it, cameras being a bit pricey here, but I think we’ll need to find it – there’s a whole rainforest out there to photograph. In fact (typically) since the damned thing broke we’ve had all sorts of opportunities to photograph stuff. Two nights ago, for example, the largest Praying Mantis I have ever seen fell in the swimming pool – it was so large, it emptied all the water out (okay, I’m allowed some hyperbole) – and although it subsequently popped its clogs, and although I carefully preserved it for two days before the ants carried most of it off, I have been unable to get you the pics you deserve. And even as I write, we have a baby bird outside which has fallen from its nest and which we are trying to take some care of which I would love to photograph, but alas it’s not to be. We have also planted more trees in the garden and built a new patio, been to various new places with our guests, and been up and down the Taruma in the Shamrock - all of which I would like to have photographed – but we are pictureless. Sorry. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

The 2014 World Cup

All politicking has been forgotten, as a united Manaus becomes a hive of planning and activity in the run up to the most significant event in its history for a century as it prepares for the vast influx of visitors coming here for the world cup….ha ha…ha ha ha…no sorry, I can’t continue this piece without laughing too much. Ha ha ha...

Guesthouse Visitors

The guesthouse has been busy this last 8 weeks, with visitors from all over the place (France, Slovakia, Austria, New Zealand, the USA, Spain and even Brazil). And now we have the Irish arriving on 13th September: the first native-English-speaker we’ve had (I mean native-British(or Irish)-English-speaker). Apart from this, we’ve had no-one from the British Isles at all. Not even the merest whiff of a booking enquiry (and our guests on 13th are only here because they work for the Irish embassy in Brasilia...) What conclusions we are to draw from this I don’t know, but I’m beginning to suspect that – contrary to my expectations - the British and Irish would rather spend their hard-earned leisure time in Europe than anywhere further afield. Well, we’ll no doubt see how true this is over the coming months.

Weathering the weather

It is now bakingly, unmercifully hot here. The first three weeks in September are the hottest, driest weeks of the year, and although this gives us an opportunity to patch up the leaks in the house, it’s so hot you (I) can hardly work for more than 30 minutes outside without melting. But I’ve managed to slap what they call cold asphalt all over the exposed brickwork on the roof, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to make some repairs to the concrete guttering on Monday or Tuesday. It may be a big gutter, but the sheer volume of water that cascades into it from the huge expanse of tin roof (maybe 20m x 12m?) means it just isn’t big enough. Not only that, but the twit who designed it forgot to build in a proper slope, so that some of the water that collects either overflows straight into the roof void or slowly seeps into the surrounding brickwork. Never mind – into everyone’s life a little rain must fall – although I do wish it wasn’t through the ceiling.

Comments? What comments?

Can anyone actually see the Recent Comments..?

Deeper and Down.

Look, can’t you people out there do something about the appalling collapse of the Pound? What little Naice and I have left over in the UK is becoming (relatively) littler by the day – possibly by the hour. From the 4 Reais to the pound we nearly got when we left, today it’s just 2.99! Come on – where’s your backbone? Work harder! Spend more! Do something!

And a not-so-global welcome

I have been roundly castigated for not including Bottesford in my geographical greetings. Well let me remedy this forthwith: welcome Bottesford readers one and all!

If anyone wants to know where Bottesford is, I suggest they get out a large-scale map of the north of England and a suitably strong magnifying glass...

(I would have put in an http link for Bottesford (if indeed one exists), but then I thought "why?")

"And the times...." II

Stop the press - times are not changing at all. Politically, they are standing still - possibly going backwards. Why? Well, it's mayoral election time in Manaus, and the glorious Manaus electorate is about to elect the most (allegedly) corrupt, ignorant, stupid candidate - and they have some experience on which to base their opinions, because he's already been Mayor once before - by a landslide! Calloo Callay!

"And the times...."

Times have changed. Here in the middle of the Amazon, and with a few notable exceptions, you can now just about get anything you can in Europe or the States. But then of course it’s the notable exceptions that get to you: no unsweetened peanut butter, for example; no biodegradeable poop-bags (for the dogs, you understand); and no Pool Devil Automatic Swimming Pool Skimmer. I can get (but I don’t need), a laser measuring-tape-spirit-level-and-nail-detector. I can get an AB-Stretch-rowing-cycling-pushme-pullyou-machine. And I can get an extendable multi-function-all-purpose step-ladder. But I can’t get a simple, straightforward Pool Devil Automatic Swimming Pool Skimmer. No, sir.

Deeply Held Beliefs

Here in Brasil the population is predominantly Catholic. It’s the kind of good, healthy non-state state religion that I like, in that for the most part no-one takes a blind bit of notice of it. And normally, neither do I. However, two things I found odd recently which I feel inclined to pass on. Firstly, the Catholic population is apt to call Protestants – of the evangelising persuasion (you’re right, I’m not quite sure what that means – but then frankly I couldn’t care a fig) – ‘Crentes’. This word comes from the verb Crer, ‘to believe’, which begs the obvious question, does it not..? Secondly, Naice was informed quite matter-of-factly the other day by one of the Protestant (evangelist) community that they don’t attend any of the Catholic festivals (this is the only part of Catholicism that most Brasilians take seriously – the parties) because they would be poisoned. The comment was made when Naice was organising the local ‘Festa Junina’ for our neighbourhood. Festa Junina is a Catholic celebration of some description or other (please don’t enlighten me, anyone) to which the whole local community is invited, and it takes the form of a very pleasant street party, with games for the kids, food and dancing and drinking and a bonfire. Unfortunately she was unable to persuade a considerable number of the ‘Crentes’ that they would be safe to attend, which left her mystified until the above comment explained all. So that’s fine, then.

It’s comforting to know that religious bigotry is alive and kicking in even the remotest corners of the world, isn’t it? What would we do without religion?

A global welcome

I have been remiss in welcoming new visitors from around the globe, so to those of you who have reached us from or via (not in any order):

India, Norway, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Botswana, The Lebanon, Bangladesh, Thailand, The Philippines, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Barbados, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, or Bolivia...

...thanks for stopping by!

I've added a link to the guesthouse website now, under "Some Links", for those who were asking recently. And if anyone has any other site(s) or blog(s) they think should be added, please let me know.

Novo Airao

The trip to Novo Airao went well, in spite of some weird weather on the way up, with wind and current both from the northwest, and which whipped the river into rather an agitated state (sorry Hilary – no pictures of this). It was nothing too wild, but very tiring, as there’s a 20km stretch of open water which you can’t really avoid crossing, and you have to just buffet your way through. It also took me a bit by surprise, as I’d insisted that we leave just before dawn (pic) to avoid ‘the weather’. Anyway, once across the open stretch, in the lee of the first of the Anavilhanas’ estimated 400 islands, the whole thing quietened down considerably, and the rest of it was plain, um, sailing, as it were. But it did mean it took us around 4 hours to get to our destination. We stopped at the relatively new Anavilhanas Lodge to have a quick look around: it seems fine, and the people were friendly, so we’ll probably be recommending this as an option to guests seeking a jungle lodge. After this, we headed around the corner to the one-boat village of Novo Airao itself. And of course the primary aim of this was to see what all the fuss was about with these dolphins.

The port of Novo Airao is very small, with hardly room to squeeze the Shamrock in between a few other local boats, and when you get off your boat you’re greeted with a dusty street, a few ramshackle bars and a kind of terminal for people to get on and off the regional boats plying their trade between Manaus and Barcelos or Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira. Across the little harbour is a white flutuante where they’ll sell you a (very small) fish for (very much – R$15!) money, to feed the dolphins; and at the back of the flutuante, you can just hop in the water with your fish and hand it out to your new-found friends. Naturally, I had to have a go – so it was off with at least some of the togs and straight into the water. I didn’t have any fish at this point, and the dolphins wouldn’t let me forget it – they nudged, flippered and generally cajoled me until Naice arrived with the (somewhat frozen) fish.

It was amazing being in the water with these wee beasties. I thought they would be gentle, shy, intelligent Flipper-like beings who would uncannily understand me as if telepathically and so on (a bit like my colleagues at SEELB, maybe…). Not so – they behaved like spoilt dogs and spent their time bullying everyone into handing out the fish; and as soon as all the fish was gone, well, so were they. But it was still a fantastic experience, and thoroughly recommended. You can see me being flippered in one of the photos, which should amuse some of you.

On the way back, we strayed into the Anavilhanas reserve itself, and pottered along one of its totally deserted canals, with the river like a mirror and the undisturbed, primary rainforest towering along its banks. Apart from an occasional flock of red Macaws, screeching on their way overhead, when we stopped the engine it was so quiet all you could hear was a faint ringing in your ears (or maybe that was tinnitus). Wonderful. One of the photos shows how difficult it can be sometimes to figure out quite where the river ends and the sky begins.

The NW breeze had dropped almost completely and we worked out that the speed of the current (now in our favour) was about 2.5 - 3kph, so we were fairly skimming along at around 45kph on the way back, and made the whole journey in 2 hours 45 minutes, even with our stop in the Anavilhanas. Average speed on the way up, 28kph; on the way back, 41kph – a record I doubt I shall ever beat in the Shamrock.

p.s. Some myths debunked, following the trip: 1) the deepest water in the Negro is 150ft – nonsense - we measured 285ft at one point; and 2) the widest clear stretch (i.e. no islands in the way) of the Negro is 9.8km – rubbish, we realised this on the way up, and if you measure in Google Earth, you can see that the widest stretch is approximately11.98km.

Bug of the Month (2006)

Kirstie, the beetle you were asking about that I photographed in Rio Preta da Eva (June 26th) is a Harlequin Long-Horned Beetle (Acrocinus longimanus, as you'll probably know). If you follow bugs, as it were, you'll probably also know that it was selected as "Bug of the Month" by godofinsects.com in June 2006. I quote:

"A fantastic Neotropical longhorn beetle, conspicuous for it's large size, beautiful colors and the amazing length of the front legs on the male. These elongated limbs (much reduced in the female) are a secondary sex characteristic, used in mating. It should also be noted that it aids them in traversing the tree trunks on which they can be found. Females seek out old trees, such as Ficus, that are infested with bracket fungi. An incision is made in the bark and an egg deposited. Larvae bore into the timber for 7-8 months and then pupate for the remainder of the year, to emerge and start the cycle anew."

So there you are.

Novo Airao

The first boat trip up the Rio Negro is planned for this Friday, setting off at 05:30 on the 110km run up the left bank. We’re doing this a) because I want to do it, b) because we’d like to visit a jungle lodge there, and c) because apparently there’s a floating restaurant up there where they’ve managed to train some of the river dolphin to eat from your hand and where you can swim with them. Of course this isn’t organised along your typical European standards – it’s a case of you buy some fish, jump in the river and hope for the best. If you drown/get eaten alive etc., well that’s your problem. I like it.

So anyway, we’ll set off at the crack of dawn and cross the widest single stretch of the Negro (9.8km) right at the mouth of our little River Taruma. Then we’ll tootle up the left bank, skimming over the deepest part of the Negro at something like 150ft, until we get to the narrowest part of the Negro, which is always a bit bumpy (naturally). Here we make a dash for the start of the Anavilhanas Archipelago – the largest freshwater archipelago in the world, and a nature reserve – and pass along its left-hand-most islands. At this stage we’ll also be keeping an eye out along the way for any interesting jungle camping terrain (as requested by some of our more adventurous future guests, Dawn). After passing three small tributaries and various settlements, we should finally reach Novo Airao around 09:30 or thereabouts. Following a visit to the jungle lodge, lunch and a swim with the dolphins, we’ll head back, maybe taking a little time out to admire some of the Anavilhanas, and with luck we’ll be back around sunset.

Pics to follow, and if we have any, um, difficult or “interesting” moments, I must get them on camera for Hilary, who complained that all she ever sees are the nice, picturesque parts of the journey. So don’t blame me if the next caption is something like “this is us being eaten by piranha. Naice is in the foreground and to the left you can just see part of my lower leg.”

"We're busy doing nothing, working the whole day through..."

All is tranquil at the Guesthouse. We have no guests until 16th August, so we have a kind of summer holiday on our hands. As usual on one’s summer holiday (unless one can afford to go somewhere), what else is there to do but paint and decorate? We are planning a boat trip to the town of Novo Airao on Friday, and we have a barbecue for some of Naice’s friends on Sunday, but other than that it’s the maintenance season. I have already started wiring a light in the downstairs loo, and have finally managed to get the swimming pool looking good again after a looong battle with it; and next week the roller is coming out and I’ll be starting with the floor paint outside. Joy. On top of this, our gardener is on holiday until the end of August, so I’m cutting the grass myself, and we also have a few other tasks to get organised, like getting some rendering done round the back of the house and fixing the guttering where the rain’s coming in in the wet season. Okay, so maybe it’s not that tranquil at the guesthouse, after all...

For a bonus point, from which film are the lyrics in the title taken?

Rei dos Rios

The Brazilian magazine Veja has published an article about research conducted by the Brazilian national space institute, INPE, showing that the Amazon is the longest river in the world. So for those of you who thought it was the Nile, please amend your text books. Apparently the Nile is (only – hah!) 6,852 km long, whereas the Amazon is 6,992km. No doubt most Brazilians are very proud of this fact, even if many of them have only the sketchiest idea where the Amazon is (but to be fair, it’s probably a bit like asking your average Eastender where the Humber Estuary is…). National pride can be a good thing, and I think in Brazil it’s pretty healthy. I would go so far as to say that it should be encouraged (here), and I have often felt aggrieved on the Brazilians' behalf that whilst the Wright brothers are synonymous with the first manned flight, in fact (according to Brazil) it was Santos Dumont. There are probably other examples, too. So you tell ‘em, Brazil.

A Whole Year of River Level Statistics!

Yes! It's true! I have now amassed 365 (366?) days worth of river level data, and to prove it, here's the graph. The level peaked at 28.62 metres on 19th June (2007: 28.18m) and has now started receding, not unlike my hair. We have already lost a whole millimetre.

We now have two good months to get out on the river and mess about in our boats. By September, we'll have lost around 4 metres, and then in September we'll lose another 4 or more, making the igapo unnavegable, but revealing the Rio Negro's lovely beaches.

There, now wasn't that worth waiting for..?

Adoption

A lot of people have asked us about how we’re doing with this. Well, it’s taken us a year to get to the point where we have some sort of verifiable income, so now we feel we can proceed. We are at the stage of putting the paperwork together, and then we will be approaching the children and young persons agency here to register our interest. This will hopefully happen before the end of July. After that we need to go through the hoops of interviews, assessments etc., and when we emerge at the other end we will hopefully then be eligible to adopt and be placed on the register. The whole process is a bit long-winded but there are other things going on at the same time which may shorten the process somewhat. I’ll provide a further update when some progress has been made. Thanks to all for asking.