Sao Paulo to Manaus, Brazil
- Lois Hammelman
- Jul 26, 2016
- 2 min read
My trip this summer, June 25th-July 23, 2016, to Brazil was wonderful. We landed in Sao Paulo and took a bus to Campinas, about 40 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. It is a large industrial city in the Southeast region of Brazil. We had a meeting with the Mayor who was so friendly and interesting. Our trip included a tour of the city and we went to an arts and crafts outdoor market. Here we had a welcome dinner, Brazilian Party and lunch, and a farewell dinner.
Next we went to Sao Jose do Rio Preto. We toured a Brazilian Cultural Institution of Brennarnd’s Atelier. It was outstanding. There was a tour of where local rum was made. A lady had us tour her banana plantation. Another lady had us come to her farm and took us for a ride where the monkey’s came to eat bananas, oranges and eggs that we handed them.
Next was Recife located on the Northeast Coast. We explored the Recife Museum. A Catamaran boat ride to the beach was enjoyable. Again there was a welcome party, people hosted dinners.
Our last part of the trip we chose an optional 4-day/3-night Amazon Excursion including a jungle trek, fishing for piranhas and touring a home on the bank of the river. This was in Manaus. Manaus is a city and river port, capital of Amazonas, in northwestern Brazil. It lies along the north bank of the Negro River. It was amazing to see the meeting of the waters, the incredible place where two distinct bodies of water meet, but don't mix.
This was my first out of the country trip with Friendship Force. I went with the Arizona group. There were eight of us – two from Tennessee, three from Arizona, one from New Zealand, one from Australia and myself from Texas. I felt the food was very good and they served us a lot of food and restaurants were mostly beautiful.
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