Saturday, June 28, 2014

Wednesday, June 18 (Ponta Negra to Manaus)

Wednesday, June 18 (Ponta Negra to Manaus)

0700: rooster phone alarm sounds, one snooze then I'm up and beginning to boil some water for coffee.  Pack up our stuff and we're on the road to the airport.
0900: we're back on the streets of Natal - this time in the light of day which is much more enjoyable than upon our arrival a couple of days ago. Street signs are clearly visible as we navigate the mid morning traffic. Only one missed turn this time, thanks to the Nokia navigation that AJ was able to download to his phone. We now have full mapping and GPS navigation for the entire country which will make our travel much easier.
1015: arrive at NAT where we park the car at the luggage claim, lower level. We are able to park right there and Avis send a guy out to check the car over as the rental transaction is completed.
1100: we have wrangled our carry on and the two large gear bags full of scarves to the departure level and checked in and got the luggage on its way.  They provided large plastic bags to cover the packs - I guess we are expecting thunderstorms upon our arrival in the Amazon.
1140: as we taxi out, I spot a strange looking airplane.  It is a Boeing 767 that is painted all white with simple small lettering, Dynamic Airways, and USA tail number N767DA. This must be the charter plane for The American Outlaws. We are wheels up and on our way to Manaus in a TAM airlines Airbus A319. I have seat 1A and feel like a rock star. It is not first class seating, but it is the closest to the front of an aircraft that I have ever been seated. AJ is in seat 1E, the other window seat in the first row.
By the time we get to our seats the overhead bins are full, so we anticipate having the carry ons stowed below. I l . As we taxi out, we note that the minimally marked Dynamic Airways Boeing 737 with tail number,N767DA, is still parked on the tarmac. I was surprised to see that the aircraft was left idle for these several days before shuttling The American Outlaws to Manaus.
1430: arrive in Manaus, Amazon. Despite the cloudy skies, we can make out the massive river system. This is the high water season as the snow is melting high up in the Andes Mountains. We can clearly see that the city is carved from the Amazon jungle/rainforest. A clear edge defines the city and there are only a few arterial roads leading to the north, while to the south, there are roads only accessed by a single bridge on the west (upriver) and ferry at the east. There is slight rain as we arrive.
We seek out the storage lockers, so we may drop our luggage full of scarves. At the desk they indicate R$30/day (US$14) for a large bag and R$15/day (US$7) for a small bag. They indicate that we will need to pay for a large and a small. I begin to negotiate, believing that they have some sort of secure storeroom, but they insist we must pay for a large and a small and there is no negotiation with the woman behind the counter. I continue to insist on two small, so one of the gals leads us outside where we find the lockers. We are able to cram the large hockey gear bag into the small locker and save about $21 for our three days of storage while we go on our tour of the Amazon jungle.
After we finish this task, we arrange for our taxi to the hostel for a set rate of R$65. (US$31). Hostel for us 2 is a pretty nice setup in a massive colonial building near the city center in the south, just two blocks north of the grand auditorium and Governor's house. We are set up in a common room that has five bunks three beds high. There are only nine bunks made up at this time. AJ notices that the top of a storage cabinet has AXE body spray among the clutter of junk and he swears - remembering the hostel in Cape Town, South Africa, where we were in a room with a bunch of drunk English guys who doused themselves before going out. AJ has bad reaction to perfumes, and assumes that the room will be full of Croatian guys returning late tonight after their game at the Manaus stadium.
We get ourselves settled in and retire to the community room on the main floor/entry and have a couple of Skol beers R$6 (US$2.80) for two cans. We both are working diligently to get our phone Brasilian phone service. I had added US$50. to my T-mobile account in Natal in order to make connection with Bill. I now try to change my plan to an International roaming, but decide that I will have to forfeit my current balance and trust that we will be able to get AJ's device(s) to work. The original SIM card purchased in Pipa has not yet worked properly in any of the phones that we have tried. They may be locked to US service provider. AJ used my scissors yesterday to trim down the phone SIM card to fit into one of his Nokia  devices, however, we have yet to be able to activate and are in search of a Claro storefront (Brasilian wireless phone provider). After an hour of frustration we decide to bag it and hit the street to find something to eat and return to watch our Minnesota United FC (NASL) play Sporting Kansas City (MLS) in the Fourth Round of the US Open Cup (USOC).
We head down the street toward the Auditorium in hopes of finding a restaurant for some fresh fish. It becomes clear that we may not find what we are looking for, and due to short time we duck into a Japanese restaurant. We realize that only the kitchen and backside are on the first floor and we have to climb the stairs to the second floor (a good sign in my experience). We review the menu and decide on two meals to go. We each get the grilled regional fish with vegetables, french fries and rice for R$45 (US$21) we both have a nice cold beer while we wait R$10 (US$4.70 each).
We return to watch the USOC match via the internet, which is very exciting for us for we had been to the Third Round match in Des Moines the week before our departure. All of the Loon fans are excited for a long run in the tournament. The web stream is quite dodgy with long periods of buffering, but what the hell, we're watching our team in the USOC from the Amazon, eating fresh local fish and drinking cold beer. How great is that!
I set AJ off when I begin to complain about the referee letting the game begin with the teams jersey colors - not enough contrast. KC is playing in their grey half hoop jersey, and our Loons are in their (home) grey. Maybe in the stadium you can tell the difference between the teams, but on the video almost impossible, especially after the players begin to sweat and the lighter grey becomes almost identical.  AJ says the referee will sort it out at halftime ... and he did. Sporting KC must have raided their merchandise shop, for they appear in a light blue training jersey of some sort in the second half. The jerseys do not have any numbers. This is just plain incompetence by USSF and the teams for not coordinating well in advance what the protocol for contrasting uniforms. The ultimate blame resides with the Referee for allowing the game to begin with such a situation.
The Loons central defender, Cristiano Diaz is sent off for a straight red card in the 50' and the team face an up hill battle on the road and down a man for 40'. Our keeper Mitch Hildebradt makes some great saves and the team is defending very well, but KC are able to score in the 76'. The Loons come close to scoring the equalizer on a Thiago header from a corner kick in the 86'. KC score again in the 87' to seal the victory.
2200: it's time for a shower and early to bed for we're anticipating the bunk room to become quite raucous. Our tour will be picking us up tomorrow morning to take us on a motorized boat into the Amazon river and to our lodge. The shower is refreshing and really helps cool me down. The heat and humidity here is incredible. They have had a lot of rain and the hostel operator has indicated that the Amazon is at a 75 year record level. I wonder how the river level will affect our tour.
0000: finally ready for bed and have taken the malaria pill and set up my bed netting by tying off the center and wedging the corners of the netting between the mattress and the wood slats of the bunk above. No signs yet of returning fans, so maybe a peaceful night sleep.

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