Recife et la fete de Sao Joau (Don Juan)

Recife, autre ville costale... Bien tranquille, bien nord este, bien joli... Bref, bien quoi. Faut admettre que j´ai eu une petite... connection personnelle, qui a fait que j´y ai sejourne un peu plus longtemps que prevu. Mais tellement de charme...


Eh oui, le weekend passe etait la fete de Don Juan, celebre il me semble dans tout le monde hispanophone de maniere memorable... Alors, avec mes nouveaux amis de Recife, on a pas hesite a lui rendre hommage egalement. Sortie vers Recife Antigo le vendredi avec des concerts de forro, la musique "traditionnel" d ici, sur les petits places partout, jusqu au petitmatin. Puis le samedi, apres une journee bien reposante, reboulotte, mais cette fois-ci en boite, bienc ool et bon marche (2 EUR l´entree, qui dit mieux?) et trois salles avec des ambiances differents. Ca fait du bien de pouvoir se lacher a nouveau un peu sur de la musique commercial et familier, apres cette immersion dans du musique sympa mais toujours inconnu... Meme Britney me faisait plaisir! Puis le dimanche, decouverte de Olinda, sorte de centre historique a cote de Recife, et classe par UNESCO.


Les deux prochains jours vont etre consacre a finalement chercher un billet de retour vers la Belgique, je crains que ma famille commence a stresser et se dire que je ne reviendrais jamais. Les prix sont pourtant a inciter a y penser. Seule lumiere dans cette histoire est que il reevient moins cher de prendre aller-retour que aller simple, donc en octobre, le continent me retrouvera certainement, si ce n est que pour profiter du vol...!

Cool, les manques de logique des compagnies aeriennes... Par exemple, il revient moins cher d aller a Madrid que a Lisbonne, tandis que le vol pour Madrid s arrete a Lisbonne... Voyons le comme une expression de la volonte divine qu il y a des amis a revoir en Espagne, non?

recapitulo : Manaus to Recife

Allright, high time for a little update here, in very short.

Leaving Manaus on 9/6, took the 4,5 day boat ride down the amazon to Belem, which is on the coast. During the trip, met Natasha and Chris, a Canadian couple in search of the perfect beach and casinos... We connected and deceided to travel together for a while.

So, arrived in Belem on the 13th of June, incidentally my birthday, and as such, the worst I have ever spend. Belem not the liveliest city, Brazil playing while we needed to take the night bus from Belem to Sao Luis, so not much time for celebrating (let´s face it, it came down to an ice cream at the bus station).

Sao Luis, nice historical city with UNESCO neighbourhood, shitty weather. Are starting to wonder what all the fuss is about, Brazil is not that great! All time low of the trip...

Leaving to Barreirinha, next to big national park with the nicest sand dunes ever seen, in white send, which is why them call them ¨sheets¨. Seperated from Chris&Natasha since she fell sick, and I needed to get to Luis Correia to get in touch with Benoit, another Volens ccoperant. Was super to have three days of the life of a cooperant here, and glad to get out of the backpacjers circuit.

He left for Belgium, and I accompanied him to Fortaleza, waving goodbye at the busstation. I continued to Aracati, another great surfing/sanddunes place here in Brasil (have seen enough of them for a while) but great sleeping on the beach with my hammoc, and a nice rasta feeling to the place.

A catastrophical day of hitchhiking didn´t bring me very far, so switched to bus to get to Recife, where I had a couple of people I wanted to contact to finally really start jobhunting. Am still here currently, and really liking the feeling of the city.

Next, think I will only do two more cities: Rio (loads of NGO there) and Salvador de Bahia, sounds very interesting culturally speaking, and would be nice not to be in a capital again.

That´s all sorry, a bit of a very very short resume, but time is money in cyberworld!

difficulties in buying ticket home

here in Canoa Baranque, at the north east coast, looking between two sand dunes trips to a ticket back, which isn´t as easy as hoped... nobody seems to do electronical tickets at an affordable price, what age are we living in??

Dn t wanna miss the world cup finale here!

Brasilian Odysee 1 : the amazon forest and Manaus

Okay everybody,


My sailing days in the Carribean over, I raced through Venezuela to get into Brasil, crossing the border in the south east (at Santa Elena) and went straight on into Manaus, which is the gateway into the Amazone forest. Took a jungle tour there and since this kind of experience is hard to describe in words, thought I´d take the time to put it in a little presentation, allthough it is going to cost me a fortune in cybertime...

Hope you´ll enjoy it, it isn´t very long.

Salut les gars et filles,


Etant donne que mes jours sur la mer etaient termines, j´ai traverse la Venezuela a du 100 a l´heure (voyage de bus de 36 heures, merci), pour traverser la frontiere avec le Bresil et me rendre a Manaus, qui est la porte pour l´Amazonie. La, j´ai eu le plaisir de faire un petit tour du jungle, ce qui est une experience difficile a decrire, donc j´ai pris le temps de faire un tout petit presentation (vous savez comme je les adore ;-)

J´espere que ca va vous plaire, portez vous bien!

Dag menskes,


Oke, gezien mijn schipperdagen over waren in de Caribische zee, in zeven haasten door Venezuela gecrost, om daar de grens in het zuidoosten met Brazilie over te steken (36 uur bus, dankjewel), en aan te komen in Manaus, dat de toegang is tot het Amazone woud in Brazilie. En wie zouden we zijn moesten we daar niet even binnenspringen? Maar aangezien het een ervaring is die moeilijk in woorden te vatten is, heb ik de vrijheid genomen jullie een kleine presentatie te maken (sommigen van jullie weten hoe fel ik daar een fan van ben). Sorry hoor maar vind het gewoon gemakkelijker...

Hoop dat jullie het tof gaan vinden, al mijn beste wensen in elk geval ginds in het koudere belgenland, en tot schrijfs...

Hola querid@s,

Despues de terminar a mis dias con los veleros en el Caraibe, pasaba por Venezuelka con mucho velocidad (36 horas de bus, gracias) para entrar en Bresil y llegar en Manaus, la entrada de bosque de la Amazonie. Acqui he hecho un passeo por el bosque y, con el hecho que es bastante dificil a describir en palabras, lo he hecho dentro de un pequeno presentacion powerpoint, que esta anadido. Espero que lo disfrutan!

The rain forest in Brasil and Manaus

1, Where am I?

Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, is the largest state in Brazil. It is also the ideal point of departure for visiting the rest of the Amazon region. Tour boats leave Manaus to see the Meeting of the Waters, where the black waters of the Negro River meet the brown waters of the Solimoes River, flowing side by side without mixing for several miles.


2, Manaus, the city


It had a big boom with rubber trees about a hundred years ago, with big buildings like their opera house (with a rubber road leading up to it so late comers wouldn´t make too much noise!), so people called it the Paris of the south. With the seeds being exported to Asia, has declined and is now mainly living off amazon tourism, and free trade zones.



4, Jungle tour


So, being in the amazon and all, decided to go on a jungle tour to the forest, with Ecoplanet (run by a Belgian, yes yes, we are everywhere) who has a lodge at Mamori lake.

5, Un poco de informacion sobre la celda:


Cortada por la línea del Ecuador, la Amazonia abarca una gran extensión del territorio brasileño y parte de los países limítrofes del Norte y Noroeste de Brasil: Guayana Francesa, Suriname, Guayana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú.La región está cubierta por selva tropical húmeda, que con sus 5,5 millones de Km2 es la mayor del planeta y la más rica en biodiversidad.
En una área de 2 Km2 se llegan a encontrar 300 tipos de especies vegetales diferentes, existiendo también gran variedad de animales, principalmente insectos, aves y primates. Se han clasificado más de 1000 especies de peces diferentes, casi la misma cantidad que en el Océano Pacífico.
El suelo de esta región no sirve para explotaciones agrícolas ni pecuarias porque una vez derribada la selva, el suelo pierde rápidamente su fertilidad. Tiene amplios recursos minerales pero su explotación es precaria debido a la dificultad del medio y a la falta de infraestructuras, por lo que su principal actividad económica es la explotación forestal, especies y madera, calculándose que son cortados más de medio millón de árboles todos los años.

a partir de Manaus

Have gotten into Manaus around last Friday. ALl well here, except Sylvie, my friend that I was supposed to meet here and for which I hurried accross Venezuela in a flash, has not given any sign of life.

After three days of walking the streets of Manaus, keeping busy with activities not so much as with people since my portugees is still awfull (though my assimil is rapidly advancing, it doesn´t seem to be every day life portugees)....

So, checking different tour opertors today, found out my friend had already arrived, and left agaian, on a 5 day tour... Good to have friends huh... Anyway, will be leavin on a 3 day tour then tomorrow, and see what the Amazon has as surpise for me...

And, other great news, got a phone today +55 92 8116-3367 so back in touch with the world, should it want to let itself hear to me....