Greens in Brazil - Day 1 Continued

Arriving late afternoon, after a hair raising ride through the amazon forest, (our hosts drive like they are Formula drivers on hairpin roads, that are more like gravel, in a volvo...frightening) we settled into our palace. When i say palace, it is really closer to a malibu crib meets the jungle. We have two coconut trees in our backyard, a deep blue swimming pool, and wild orchids growing all around....oh and did I mention the monkeys? The weird thing about this place, in addition to it being set in the middle of a rainforest, is the town is very unassuming - all the houses look very simple from the outside (see first picture) but then you walk into these courtyards that are unbeleivable. The other slightly bizarre thing, but I guess is normal down in developing countries, is the abundance of staff around the house. There are 4 staff people for 6 of us, and when you want a drink of water or a snack, you have to ask them...if you want cigarettes you don't go to the store but give them cash and they fetch it for you....I guess that is what its like to be a king...I don't dig so much....I just am glad to put my pants on one leg at a time like everyone else....surprisingly the house everyone else is staying at belongs to the king of brazil, that is the current heir to the throne which was abolished in the 1880s. Needless to say it is quite euro gentry...not my style but nonetheless posh.

After meeting the crew Danielle and I were immediately wisked away in a tiny vw and hiked the amazon rainforest right into these beautiful waterfalls. The water is cold, crystal clear, (think Ithaca gorges meets amazon rainforest). The thing to do here is sit on the dry rock and slide down the wet rock into the pools below...but as it is a natural formation there are some slight problems, namely speed, direction, and large rock bumps (not so good for the future children if you have problems managing speed and direction)...nonetheless invigorating and a good wakeup from the plane ride.

After a nice swim and an almost near death experience being swept away down the wrong fall (thanks buddy for lending me a hand) we went back to the place for dinner. No one wanted to cook and we were drinking like fish (these guys drink down here a lot....imagine a DB team outing 24/7...they have caprinhas at noon and don't stop till late) we settled on ordering pizza. We got into a little tiff - I was like, I didn't come all the way from NYC to have pizza in brazil which they claim is fantastic and better than NYC pizza...the crew was relentless, so I had to settle (don't worry fascatis...I still got your back). Dinner went late into the evening after which the parents and danielle retired....without going into too much detail, the rest of the youngins, including myself, took part in some illicit activities which apparently were shipped all the way from Sao Paolo under cover of paper bags and saran wrap...supposedly high quality stuff so i was feeling pretty good...in any event....i walked the streets I used to roam (coldplay reference) late that night and managed to find my why home...to the dismay of my parents and our host families.....until next time.