Leaving Obidos

April 28, 2008

Trying to leave Obidos

3:50 AM

I have to write this now while the thoughts are going through my head. We`ve been at the boat terminal since 7 pm last night. We were supposed to be on the boat taking us back to Santarem at 8 pm. We sat outside the terminal at the “beer park” till midnight.

Our host for the weekend in Obidos is Paulo. He is a school teacher at both the high school and the elementary school. He teaches English and Sociology. Paulo and his family have been wonderful hosts for the past three days, but they both have to work at 7 am, so we forced them to leave us at the boat terminal in a foreign country. They were very reluctant. But we were more persistent. We even got out of the car and walked to the boat yard entrance. Bags in hand.

Communication and technology that we have in the US is something I never had to think about before. You want to see when your plane is coming – check the board. Ditto for the train. You want a taxi – you hold up your arm and you have a taxi. Here in this region of Brasil, the rivers are the roads. Boats are your only form of transportation.

The rain is nonstop and has been since 1 AM. I am soooooo thankful that I bought an LLBean rain jacket for this trip and I am even more thankful that I brought it for this weekend trip to Obidos. It has been my salvation.

I just went to the bathroom. I had to use journal paper as toilet paper. The guys on the team have it so easy with regards to bathrooms. They can use the Amazon River, just like all of the other men in this area. As soon as I brush my teeth I will be good to go another few hours. Some day, sometime I will sleep.

5:35 AM

A boat heading to Santarem arrived at the port at 5. We were on it for about 5 minutes. There were no rooms, they wouldn’t take our tickets, we had no hammocks – so we would have been standing for 8 – 10 hours. Plus no one in the world knew we were on that boat. It was a scary decision to make on only 1 hour of sleep.

So now Steve and I are sitting with the bags back in the terminal while Dean and Mike are looking for Paulo’s house. It has to be somewhere near the docks. We had stayed at his parent’s house and that is only two blocks away. Worst comes to worst…we hop the security gate at his dad’s house, we use the key hidden in a planter on the porch wall, we shower, we sleep, we tell someone in Santarem what is going on, we get another boat trip home, we refill our water bottles, we eat. A lot of wishes in that last sentence. All with the hope that Mike and Dean can find his car and that leads them to his house.


The boat that showed up here at 5 was due in last night at 6. 11 hours late.

What surprises me is the lack of technological infrastructure. No ship to shore communication at all.

I slept from 4 – 5 AM with tons of bats swooping overhead, 2 inch long cockroaches crawling on the floor and walls, rats walking within 10 feet of me. I slept great. After I brushed my teeth for five minutes, using the Amazon River at my sink; I just couldn’t stomach going back into the public bathroom at the terminal. The only bathroom and all public bathrooms here smell like old fashion outhouses (not portopotties – they are cleaned out regularly). I will never ever complain about gas station restrooms again.

11:45 AM

We arrived here at Paulo’s dad’s house at 6:30 AM. We will leave for lunch at noon.

Dean and Mike found Paulo’s car but not his house. When they came back, I wrote up a note for the car. Mike and I went to the car to put the note on the wind shield. We weren’t satisfied that he would find it…he could walk to work. So we walked back to the terminal and wrote up two more letters. One for each of this language centers that he and his wife own. We walked to the buildings and put the notes on the doors. The notes were basic English: “6:00 AM Paulo – we are still at the terminal. We need sleep, water and food. Please come get us.”

It worked. He found the one on the windshield. He was very upset for us. He found out our boat the Cezar Brelaz, broke down 3 hours away from Obidos. So who knows if it will show up. Tonight there is a boat leaving for Santarem at 8 AM.

Once we got to Paulo's dad's house, I was too tired to shower. Even though I was so smelly, I couldn’t get out of the hammock.