my trip..

well, so i still did not email marko...lazy me.i don´t know how to thank people and how to remember them even with such modern technology and cheap internet.i am lazy.so well, to continue with my trip. So, after leaving the small village i headed or rather chose to go to Praia de pipa for this beach i had to catch a bus to natal and from natal there is a company which has bus running every 40 mins for pipa until 4.30 pm. It is an hour journey for pipa.I as usual mix with the crowd ,sit on a seat ,quietly ,unnoticed by the locals and just chilling there (don´t sit on the seat no alloted t me as not many people do it here)and then i decide to sit at the seat which is alloted to me.I sit next to a guy who has a cap on and is listening to some music, he should be somewhere between 33 yrs to 36 yrs.i am not talking with him either, just smile and sit down.i think he is a brasilian and i don´t want him to find out that i am an indian because then i have to go through the same conversation of being a dalit or a different caste member and how the culutre is in india and blah balh..i was tired.well, anywyas i had to ask him something about luggage so i open my mouth and then he speaks in broken english and i am like no no worries i can try and speak portugese..and he is like well...i prefer spanish and ia m like where are you from?ITALY. and then things get interesting .he tells me he has been living in natal for the last 6 months and he has lived in pipa for almost 3 years and he is going to meet a bunch of his italian friends.Thats nice i think.and then we talk about some stuff to smoke and he is like tonight i want to invite you...(i was thinking about it...)anyways, so we reach the bus station and as soon as i get down i see CHRIS ,my friend whom i was suppposed to meet at a small village before is here in pipa...and he is waiting for me..but i feel a bit of anger inside me and i am not that excited to see him.Although, i am meeting him after a year i am not happy..!so i hug him and i introduce these guys to each other and i see the italian guy is suddenly uncomfortable...or may be he wasn´t ,may eb i just imagine things like always.ayways, we leave chris at a bar and the italian guy goes with me to look for a hostel.I find a nice cheap one,leave my luggage and follow him to meet up with chris. we start talking and after a while go to another reggae bar and chris leaves to go eat some dinner.I stay with the italian guy and meet up with his gang.Always italians are well known for knowing gangs...and i love them for that.so these guys leave the bar and head to their home, they invite me and their house is beautiful , rich ,expensive, amazing...and i feel so stupid again.(having no money, travelling , single..and most of the times useless)anyways, we all start talking and the evening goes really really well. there i meet another marco - who is the owner of the amazing condominium, 1 more marco - who looks like tarzan or lets say FABIO the guy who is on the cover of most romantic novels..hehehe.it was funny. and another guy whose name i don´t remember but who was a bit serious ,bald and looked like a nice person. So, basically everybody here was talking in italian...god!have met a lot of french and italians on this trip, and i think i prefer italians more as they are more open and friendlier.
Anyways, so the next 2 nights in pipa - during the day i have a lot to do there as pipa is divided into 3 beaches . 1- where most of the brasilians and tourists go to ,the 2nd one where only dolfins go to and the 3rd one where surfers go to..beautiful and at night -party. Partying with the italians. Great time. I would love to find more people or lets say more italians to party with,they know some cool place and they know how to have fun. Well, in a way i don´t mind going to italy.

GOD NEVER ENDING STORY...PIPA IS ONLY LIKE MY 2ND MONTH INTO THE TRIP.I STILL HAVE TO WRITE SOOOO MUCH. NEXT TIME.

the issues and my trip...

i haven´t written anything for over 2 weeks now and now i don´t know what to write.everybody always fancies of writing on their trip and sometimes in diaries and sometimes on a blog but i have lost interest in writing at all...coz it is not benefiting my creative side and it is not making me learn anything.I want to write every detail, every sunrise,every tear (whenever i can´t communicate in a language i feel like crying and tearing my hair from their roots and pulling my face and going to some dark corner and crying),no you cannot imagine how bad it is when you are alone and you are travelling in a country where nobody speaks your language...(and i don´t mind it being english coz finding somebody speak marwari ,would be unbelieveable).so,why am i writing today...coz i have reached rio de janeiro, and i am going to stop at a place called paraty for a while.
My route so far has been -

Boat from tabatinga to manaus - 3nights -4days. stayed in manaus for 4 days.

from manaus to santarem - almost 2 nights.(the boat started went to a port to unload the goods or for me garbage as i was very angry, and then the navy came and told the boat had no legal documents so we went back to the port in manaus and caught another boat after 6 hrs of being around manaus...god!),as soon as we reached santarem we took a bus to altos de çhao -a nice place.it gets better when you have the beach above the water.
from santarem caught a boat for belem -almost 3 days and this time the boat was delayed only by 4 hours.hmmm.did not like belem that much,although i met a guy who showed almost the whole of belem to me on bike(he was hitting on me and i would have even gone out with him but he spoke portugese too fast.he knew that i did not understand it that well but he did not care...god!) ,i personally prefer manaus.

from belem went to castanhal - hitchike for sao luis -which took me 36 hrs.you can catch a bus easily from belem to sao luis and reach in 12 hrs but i wanted to do something different.

sao luis went to lençois de barrerinhas 4 hrs 30 reales and stayed at a dirt cheap pousada.took a tour which costed me around 40 reales and everybody else 50 reales.the same same tour...and a great great parque nacional i must say.

at lençois barrerinhas met this gang of frenchies and this crazy spanish guy and i tagged along with them for atins.
took a 4x4 which costed us around 7 reales and took 4hrs.

from atins after 1 week of staying there went back to lençois barrerinhas to catch a bus to jericoacoara but they only have 4x4 there.so paid i believe around 70 reales but the thing is there are no 4x4 going direct so you have to change the 4x4s 4 or 5times ,if you want to save some money otherwise you can get a bit expensive ones which go directly.so of course,i took the cheaper option -stayed a night at campinos?a place close to jericoacoara.
stayed in jericoacoara only for a night as i got bored.usually,everybody enjoys jeri as they stay at a hostel and meet more travellers and party...but i don´t like to party that much and i did n ot meet anybody there and hence i got bored.dead bored ,so i decided to catch a bus to fortaleza...well,asking around in jeri i found that there is a 4x4 where i can pay 50 reales and reach there in 4hrs.comfortable and cheap...took it. reached fortaleza at around 10,30 pm and the driver was dead tired.He said sorry i cannot drive you to your hostel you can stay at a hotel around here.hmmm, lot of prostitutes walking around ,rich kids and wrong vibes at the hotel he is staying ...i insist that he drop me to a proper hostel or a rodoviario(bus terminal in portugese is pronounced as HODOVIARIA) well,so he drove and he drove and i could see the anger rising in his eyes so politely i say drop me at a mototaxi(if you are alone it is cheaper to take a motor taxi.Make sure the guy on the motorbike is standing with other companions from the same company and that he is wearing a tshirt of the company.)so,i take the mototaxi go to a hostel or 2, everything is full and it is getting darker and darker...i tell the mototaxi guy to drop me at the rodoviaria.I sleep at the rodoviaria for the night and i only pay for storing my luggage and i feel safer (even if people are staring at me and wondering what is this crazy brasil looking girl doing with a blanket sleeping at rodoviaria...but well,i saved some money and i felt safer here than anywhere in fortaleza.)so the next day i take a bus to assu (as i wanted to go to praia de golinos to meet up with an old friend.)reach assu and get to know that my bus will arrive in 5 hrs.so i walk around that place(it is a small village in the middle of no where .hot and has nothing special to do .)so i return to the bus stop ,eat, drink and start chatting with people.When people realise i am from india ,everybody´s eyes widen and this guy introduces me to a fellow who is with a family of foreigners in the middle of nowhere terminal....i just realised i have to write an email thanking the guy.so next post coming in few days!

LENÇOIS DE BARRENRINHAS...AHHHHHH ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES I HAVE BEEN.aS SOON AS I REACHED BARRENRINHAS A GUY SOLD ME A TOUR BUT LUCKILY I ENDED UP PAYING 10 REALES LESS THAN OTHER TOURISTS.THE THING IS ALL THE 4 X4 GO TO THE SAME SAND DUNES SO IT DOES NOT MATTER WHERE YOU BUY YOUR TRIP.ANYWAYS, THERE IN BARRERINHAS STAYED AT A VERY VERY CHEAP PLACE WHERE EVERYTHING HAD A PROBLEM.RIGHT FROM THE DOOR TO MY ROOM,TO THE BATHROOM,TO THE SMELL IN THE ROOM BUT MET SOME REALLLY REALLY NICE PEOPLE. THESE PEOPLE INCLUDED A GROUP OF FRENCH GUYS AND 1 SPANISH GUY.WE ALL WENT OUT ONE NIGHT AND I ASKED THEM WHERE THEY WERE HEADING NEXT AND THEY TOLD ME A NAME WHICH WAS NOT MENTIONED ANYWHERE...NOT IN THE GUIDEBOOK OR MAP.SO, i asked them if i could tag along they were more than happy to take me.We all went to atins.
to atins you can either catch a boat in the morning around 10,30 am which will take you 4 hrs to reach atins or take a willy, which you share with 30 other people and it will cost you around 7 reales and will take you 3 hrs to reach there.On the willy i met this italian guy who instantly became a friend of all of us...He recommended a place Pousada del mar...god !met a really really really warm person there.DEO.he made our stay sooooooooo good,i can´t even describe it here.At his restaurant at night all the hippies would come and chill and suddenly atins seemed so lively.Stayed there for a week...3 days worked at a small restaurant and the rest spent in atins with a guy i met who owned one of the pousadas...ATINS IS OF COURSE THE PLACE I WANT TO RETURN TO AND HOPEFULLY IT DOES NOT GET SPOILT BY TOURISM.

my trip...lençios.

after the crazy hitchiking trip i reached sao luis..the reggae capital of brasil.when i reached sao luis i did not see 1000s of raasta man but a small cobblestone part of town which was pretty...and empty.well,it was the weekend and brasilians do nothing absolutely nothing after 1pm on saturday.If you want to buy anything you have to do it before 1pm on saturday as sunday not even the dogs walk on the street.That is what brasil is about.so i was like ....hmmmmm it is empty i might get a room.when i reach a hostel they say we are full,so i walk around,2nd hostel -full.hotel -full.don´t see people on the street ,how the fuck is it full?anyways,i talk to guy at a hotel and lets me stay in a big box of a room with no proper windows,no proper bed but a really nice bathroom.that is more important.i take it and he lets me stay there for free for that night.then there are a french couple looking for rooms as well..they have no place to go and the guy says well manisha if you don´t mind can these guys stay with you, i am like why not -(forme it is free so i don´t care).anyways,we all meet up at night and the french couple takes me to this really really cool caçasa pharmacy.full of cachasa...never saw sooo many cachasas under 1 roof.bought gaunavana cachasa and then later at night toook gladys and the 2 indian british girls there,they loved it.had a great great night.
next day,sunday in the morning the frenchies had to catch a bus to camocim at 5am so they ran (and later i got to know that they did not even pay for the roomm...hehhehe) and i with my friends went to the beach...it was full of people.so,that is where everybody goes.

was planning to go to carolina for the trance festival but i don´t know felt like going to lençios...and so met up with this old couple from sao paulo and tagged along with them till barrerinhas.next post for photos of beautiful lençios...

trip from belém a são luis.

i was with gladys and 2 german guys.i was suppose to catch the bus with gladys to são luis but when i read the price 55$ for 12 hrs my heart skipped a beat and i am like in no fucking way am i paying that much money so i decide to hitchike.luckily i had met a guy on the boat who gave me instructions on how to get to são luis by hitchiking.so as i knew gladys would not do it(as she was with one of the german guys(and i was supposed to be with the other..hehehe ..but somehow we did not end up together,so i left.))anyways, it was going to be my first time hitchiking ,totally alone,in a strange land and that too for more than 24 hrs.anyways,head to the terminal and catch a bus from belem to castanhal for 6reals.
at castanhal ask people at the gas station and they tell me to go to the posto alessandro.was about to catch a mototaxi but a bus driver agrees to give me a ride (buses heading from outside the terminal near the gas station,heading to rio negro)for free.i believe we just past a huge gas station but the bus did not stopped and when i asked him he said sorry and turned the bus and dropped me to the outline of the gas station...soooooo sweeeeeeet.
get down at the station and ask people there if it is possible to do carona and they say no..but they say you can try your luck across the street.so ,i start writing on a paper -CARONA SÃO LUIS, as soon as i turn a driver says ,´´i am leaving but tomorrow morning´(of course in portugese)i am like..ok.i will wait.i will sleep in the bathroom of the station...but after seeing in the bathroom i am like i will stay awake..but the driver says you can sleep in the same cabin as i am or you can sleep outside in the hammock.of course,i prefer the latter.so around 9 pm after eating something at the restaurant (rice, strawberry yogurt and spicy sauce)i go to the hammock praying i wont be bitten by 1000s of mosquitoes and that i don´t get robbed.could not believe that i could sleep on a hammock and that too really well.anyways, around midnight i hear some people running (i think somebody´s playing this late..god!)and shots, i am like what´s up and i head to the restaurant of the gas station which is just behind the 22 wheeler where my hammock was hung, and in the restuarnt i see a guy wearing black t.shirt and cap and taking a lot of things ,like snacks and all that and i am like (still sleep walking)who is he..but i still walk there as i see 3 guys on motorbike filling petrol so i am like it is ok.when i head there this young chap comes up to me and shouts at me in portugese (still a bit asleep)i am totally lost and then he lifts his t-shirt and i see a gun.for god´s sake a gun(i awake) and i say BANHEIRO,BANHEIRO.HE says go there and i don´t know in this situation i was the one very scared or this 18year old kid robbing this gas station at midnight with his friends.

anyways, the 22 wheeler starts journey at around 7am and i reach s~so luis around 4pm the next day.(taking an omnibus for my last leg).
i HITCHIKED FOR 36 HRS.cant believe that.i don´t know ho wi did it but i am proud of it and i don´t know if i wanna do it again.

JJ & GLADYS.

was in tabatinga still at the restaurant and was chatting with my friends ...and then i just start talking to this couple across my table..very very young guys.an irish and a girl from singapore...later these 2 are my travel buddies in the boat thank god.
J.J. a total sweetheart.only 19 but is sooo smart and such a warm person.
jj left after manaus and with gladys i am still more or less travelling with her.if it would not have been for her i would not have known caipirinha..

AMAZONAS AND BRASIL.

I am in santarem,brasil right now and it hás been around 10 days since i have embarked on this trip.I still don´t believe that I could do it that it was possible.I was doubtful about the visa and then I was doubtful that I would find a cheap flight to Leticia but things worked out.Thank god.So on the 28th of June I catch a flight to Leticia from Bogota for around 120$ with AEROREPUBLICA. Reached Leticia on a Sunday and hence there was nobody.There were few foreigners on board but I did not feel like taggin along with them I don´t know why I did that but it was for good (now that I look back on it).So I want things sorted out fast and get a stamp on my passport from the brasilian police as soon as I can.So, I catch a mototaxi and head to tabatinga.I thought there will be a rough border crossing but the mototaxi just drove through and people were walking back and forth.I was trying to look for some difference something then I see portugese and I am like ,woof so I am really in brasil The border between these two countries can only be noticed by 2 flags standing there and also that people when they enter tabatinga they take out the helmet and if they are entering Leticia they rent a helmet.wow.
So I go to the federal to get my stamp and those brasilians were so hot.and they said NAMASTE AND ARRRE BABA(2 phrases which I am still hearing a lot.) I was impressed but sadl y could not impress them with my portugese.Well, was alone in tabtinga and hence wanted something really cheap so asked the mototaxi guy and he took me to a hotel called PEAJÉ. 10 Reals.Great price for a private room with bathroom. After leaving my stuff there I walk around hunting for vegetarian restaurant but find nothing to eat and at last land at this hotel where they have really cold beans and rice but I was so fucking hungry so I just accepted the 3 real offer. (1$=2,2 real) while waiting for the food I just see the attached shop which has like mobile accessories and all that. The guy there ,an plump guy around 40 , is watching something about india and I don’t know why I just go up to him and try and strike a conversation and say ,this is my country I am fro m india.After doing that I felt so stupid but I saw a smile on his face and then I left to eat my food.After sometime he was sitting outside with his friend and they invite me to join them.I was doing nothing so I am like what the fuck..might as well join some old strangers for a beer. Start talking with them and then his friend says that I should cook something for him he lives on the river in a floating house.Wow. That sounds interesting and I join him. I cook pulav for us with papad and pickle.A typical Indian food in the middle of the amazonas.

meeting with J.J. and Gladys in my next blog.