My bike ride trip, about 750 miles, is complete. I’m now in Belém and I’ve been in Brazil for 3 months, yet I’ve extended my visa for another 90 days. Hopefully, I’ll have found a job or have gotten engaged/married before I’m illegally in country. Yep, married—big step, but I’m ready, locked and loaded. Even if I’m not in love, I’m willing to tie the knot.

My Future

I want to stay in Brazil, perhaps forever, but if I can’t then I’ll dip out for awhile to plan my next move, which may include a sojourn in the United States to visit the dentist and buy things that I can’t find in Brazil, like medicine and electronics. Or I’ll go to a neighboring country. Paraguay looks inviting. They say it’s the weirdest country in South America.

New Habits

Breaking news: I haven’t drank alcohol in 3 months and haven’t smoked weed in 2 months….unprecedented! I wanted to do this for so long but it was difficult while living in the US, yet here in Brazil I’ve been alone a lot which has made it easier. Surprisingly it’s been easy to hang with people while they’re drinking. I admit I miss the socializing fun mental state that comes with drinking.

Girls

I met a girl, Jamila, while on my bike trip. She was on a business trip in a town that I was passing through. She lives in Belém so I invited her to go out for coffee. She never showed up. I waited for an hour then told her I was leaving. She later invited me out to a live music show that night. Ok, why not? It was fun. Two days later I invited her out to see a movie. She at first said yes then later texted and asked if I would rather go to a restaurant/club on the water. I said yes, thinking it was a restaurant. It was a cool place, kinda rustic, hard to get to but I found my way, but not a restaurant. More like a two story shack on the water. Everyone was dancing and drinking. I wasn’t in the mood nor was I going to drink. I hung out for a bit, but decided to leave. These type of situations were ones that I loved. I would drink and dance and have fun. But now that I’m not drinking they’re not as enjoyable. As for the girl I never saw her again. But at least I made the effort to go out on a date, and got to see a few spots in Belem.

Belém

My time in Belém was great, productive, and relaxing. I had a quaint little motel room with an open space to the outside world. Like a window with no glass, just bars. No air conditioning, only a fan. I droned a lot and stayed healthy. Below is a sample.

Amazon Boats

Now on the Amazon river part of my trip. Back in 2003, I was in the Amazon for 7 months during my first trip to Brazil. I love just being on a boat. You’re like trapped on it with a bunch of other people so you’re forced to socialize. They serve food and have coffee. You got your hammock that you sleep in and the view of the water and jungle passing along all day and night. The motor is loud though, and on the top deck they tend to blast music all the time, which can be annoying, especially if the music sucks.

First stop: Portel. Spent a few days there got some drone shots. Second town was Breves which is on the island of Marajó. I’d been here years ago, it’s changed a lot. Got drone shots and spent time in my room studying Portugues and Spanish. My Spanish is good but I can always improve. There’s lots of good looking girls here and I wanted to talk to some of them and go out on a date but I just wasn’t feelin’ sexy. Hopefully next town, which will be Macapá, the capital of the state of Amapá.