Manaus

Loyal readers will know that my camera died on the boat ride between Belem and Manaus. Luckily in Manaus, as in most places, I met some cool people with cameras. Here are a couple of my favourites.

This isnt the boat I took from Belem to Manaus but is very similar; bottom deck for cargo, middle deck for sleeping, top deck for drinking.



Whale spotting at Manaus harbour



Schuster and Nacky. Good People.



This is my favourite photo from Manaus. Dancing at the bus stop.



We cuaght the bus to a wild life sanctuary with no real animals



Schuster. This is the guy that did the boat trip with me from Belem to Manaus. Good bloke.




We ate so much food in Manaus it wasnt funny. But first we say grace.



Nacky, Schuter, Me and Jorge. Couldnt have had a better crew.



When the sun goes down its party time at the hostel. Beware of cheap cachaca and coke -not the fizzy stuff.



The Schuster has got game





Good Times (or in Portuguese "tempo bom!").

Posted by Luke in

Manaus

Where is my USB lead?

I had an awesome weekend, did heaps of stuff and took heaps of pictures but due to technical difficulties I wont be able to post those photo's till later in the week. Patience grasshopper.

In unrelated news Kanye West has announced an Australian tour with Nas in the first week of December. No doubt it will be teeny bopper central but the opportunity to see Nas playing all his hits is just too good to pass up. I cant wait. No doubt when he plays this track (or any of the other tracks from Illmatic) I will lose my shit.

Nas - Halftime

Posted by Luke in

Where is my USB lead?

Paparazzi on my case

Good news. As I said before I didnt take anywhere near as many photo's as I should have but thanks to the interweb and the many friends I made in Natal I have managed to track down a ton of pictures with yours truly in fine form. I dont know what the quality will be like but here goes...

In Brazil they have a type of music called Forro (pronounced fo' ho. Im not kidding.) with its own style of dance. I cant dance to save my self but I had a go, with ugly results. Luckily there are no photo's to prove this but there is a photo of our krew at a Forro night. I had a ball at this place - everyone was just there to dance and have a good time.



I love this photo. Throw your hands in the a-ya if yous a true playa.



Cachaca shots at the halfway mark of our buggy trip. $3 well spent.



Good guys. See how Im steppin'?



Brazil reppin'



This was the beginning of an awesome night....



Background



I did this face on purpose I swear



Pop your collar



Where's Walshy? Just follow the beer.



Bad form



Lurkin in the background



Throw your hands in the air for Natal



An old man and a young girl



Me and Claudia on her 51st birthday.

Posted by Luke in

Paparazzi on my case

Some Hi lites

One of my regrets of my trip is that I didnt take enough photos. I didnt want to look too much like a tourist and I also didnt want to get robbed. Here are a few of my favorites.

Sugar Loaf (or in Portuguese Poa de Acucar). Taken from the Jesus statue.



Bush walking at Ilha Grande



Beaches at Ilha Grande. We walked past six or seven beaches like this.



The Jesus statue from a distance



Dancing on the beach



The coast of Jericoacoara



The sunset at Jeri



Hung over much? In Portuguese this is called "ressaca"



This isnt Brazil, this is from my going away drinks but I had to put it up.



Bigness




Stay tuned for more.

Posted by Luke in

Some Hi lites

Back in Black

Sorry for the long time between posts. Life moves pretty fast sometimes. I touched down from Brazil last Saturday morning and have just been spending a couple of days trying to get over the jetlag and shock of being home and having to go back to work and all that fun stuff. But enough about that boring shit. Here is how I spent my last week in Brazil.

From Manaus I flew down to Sao Paulo which involved a 4 am flight and the risk of not being let on the plane due to lack of a visa but luck went my way and I was let on. Somehow I managed to sleep for most of the flight and I got to Sao Paulo at about 8:30 am. Sao Paulo is a crazy city. Its huge! There is 12 million people in SP and 20 million in greater SP. You drive and drive and drive and it just keeps going. While I was travelling I met a lot of people who said that they didnt like SP and I think that it is because due to its sheer size it can take a little while discover everything.

Luckily for me when I was in Natal I met a nice girl called Camila from Sao Paulo who said she would show me around. I called her the day I got there and she invited me to stay with her and her family in Cotia which is about 40 mins out of Sao Paulo (but still pretty much Sao Paulo). This was one of the best times of my trip. Hanging out, being shown around by locals, and being welcomed into their home was quite a pleasant change from walking around trying to see Sao Paulo by myself and sleeping in a hostel dorm with six other people. I had a ball. I went to Camila's mums 51st birthday, went to a 20th birthday, lurked around Sao Paulo, I even went to Camila's Uni for a class. Economics is hard to understand but economics in Portuguese? Forget about it. Also, I wont go into it here because its a long story but ask me about the the motel and my last day in Sao Paulo. Unfortunately because I was having such a good time the last week flew by and saying goodbye to Camila and her family was the worst things I had to do.

On a better note - here, at long last, are some photo's. I will put some more up over the next couple of days.


Good Blokes



The Gun Show



Pria de Pipa



Drinking Games at Jericaocaora



Another buggy ride in Jeri. Get your tits out.



Ridin dirty buggy style



Good peeps in Jeri



A sea of hammocks on the boat down the Amazon




Two dudes in a hammock. Nothing suss.



Engrish. This was gross. In Brazil you dont put toilet paper in the toilet you put it in a little bin next to the toilet. There were instructions for the tourists. I read some funny ones but I think this was the best. Dont put the what in the what?




I was thinking alot about what music to put on my first blog when I got back - no shit for over a month. I came up with some gold.
This one is not so serious.



Ha! Cheesy. Mid nineties R & B at its finest.


This is a great track though. One of the first Mos Def tracks I ever heard.
Mos Def and DJ Honda - Travelling Man





So now Im back to lurking around Fitzroy but just because Im back doesn't mean you should stop checking this space. Stay tuned for your dose of weekly goodness. If you find me in the club, bottle full of bub, come give me a hug and show The Future some love.

Posted by Luke in

Back in Black

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good.

The five day boat trip from Belem to Manaus was something I was looking forward to since the beginning of my trip and I dont think it could have gone better. Luckily when I was at the hostel in Belem I met a Brazilian guy named Gustavo who was catching the same boat as me. This was handy because it meant I had an interpreter some one to kick it with. It also meant only had to spend one night sleeping in a hammock because Gustavo had a cabin on the boat with two beds in it. This came in handy later on.

The boat was a crazy scene. It had three decks: the first deck was full of cargo, the second deck was were we slept and was absolutely packed with hammocks (people were literally sleeping on above and below each other), and the third deck was the bar and had terrible Brazilian music playing all the time. We spent most of our time on the third deck.

Gustavo and I were the most hated people on the boat. Gustavo is Brazilian but has light skin like me so we stood out a bit. On the first night we managed to upset the guys on the boat by picking up some local girls - it was gold. Since my Portuguese is pretty average all I had to do was sit there and drink beer while Gustavo did all the work. They thought I was quiet and charming. I got the girl and I couldnt even speak the language! Hilarious. Gustavo was the King though - on the five nights we spent on the boat he picked up three different girls. We had to take turns taking girls to the cabin. The locals kept giving us the hate look but we didnt care. Dont hate, congratulate.

While I was excited to be on the boat I have to say that it did get pretty boring. People either spent their time drinking or laying around in hammocks. Occasionaly we saw some pink dolphins (Im not joking and I wasnt high) and kids in canoes but the scenary didnt change and was mostly just water and trees so the novelty wore off on about day two or three. On day five we were well over it. The craziest thing for me though was seeing the people living on the banks of the Amazon. These guys were doing it hard. There were families with five kids in the middle of nowhere in little huts catching fish and doing their washing in the river. How they manage to survive is beyond me. Unfortunately I have barely any photos of this because my camera broke. Can you believe that shit? I have gone through two cameras on this trip.


The Bad.

Due to my incredible skills of procrastination I will leave Manaus without going to the Amazon. Its a long story but lets just say that because I chose to sit around drinking beer and talking shit instead of changing my flight I wont have enough time.


The Ugly.

Last night we were drinking at the hostel and my eyes started playing up so I put my beer goggles on and ended up pashing an ugly English girl. Not good.

So to celebrate this here is a track by Tha Alkaholiks. Actually it is two tracks - the first is called ``Likwit`` but the second one, my favorite, is called ``Only When Im Drunk``. Believe it.




So if today is Monday on Wednesday I have to go an pay my fine and sort out my visa, on Thursday I fly to Sao Paulo for a week, I leave Brazil on Thursday the 18th and get home on Saturday the 20th.

This post has been an effort. I think I have bloggers block. It took me about five attempts to get one that I was close to happy with. I hope you guys like it.

Posted by Luke in

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Amanha

Sorry for the lack of posts - shit is a bit crazy right now and I have a lot on my mind but it is mostly beer. I know you are dying to know whats happening. I will do a decent post tomorrow but until then this is what Im thinking about most.

Posted by Luke in

Amanha