4/22/08 10pm Santarem, Fundacao Esperanca

Don’t be enchanted, enthralled, or infatuated. Enjoy and experience – the enchantment lasts longer.

I remember writing up Australia being too excited, too anxious to chase the next adventure, not letting the experience serve on its own and satisfy my day. It was like having a great date and so desperately awaiting the next that it can’t live up to it, leaving things to seem hollow afterwards.

I fell asleep last night starting to dream of the next adventure rather than replaying the last one in its true color. Documenting either just facts of our trip or just emotions does injustice and I try here not to get carried away with either. But it is sometimes hard to convey the quality of the day.

Today was such a day. It was a quality day, one of tremendous positive emotion. I was bouncing around as much as yesterday, but why? I really don’t know. There was no adventure and there was no single destination that mattered. It was all a series of almost unrelated little visits, conversation, comfort, and discomfort. Maybe you’ll get it

• First, we got on a bus with Everaldo, who was our guide for the day. Everaldo is an administration student, a Mormon, and someone who can’t swim and doesn’t eat fish. What is he doing living here? His family came here recently and he followed them here. Anyway, he got us on the back of the bus. We stood there, not having paid, a cashier sitting with a cash box in front of us. When we were to leave the bus, we’d have to go through a turnstile and pay him. Odd system.

• We nearly got plowed over by various cars and motorcycles.

• We met Jane (pronounced Janey and maybe spelled some other way), Everaldo’s niece and a tourism student at IESPES. I said some greeting in Portuguese so fast that it shocked me.

• We saw the Museum of Sacred Arts. The guy spoke English but I had a hard time understanding him the whole time. I think I woke up stupid.

• We visited the blue church next door. I read the story on the placard saying why it was there and then started conveying it to Mary. Apparently, we were just told that story over in the museum. As I say, I woke up stupid.

• Steve desperately wanted to call his wife. We stopped in a place to buy a phone card, but they didn’t sell ones to call internationally. Frustration levels rose and fell as we came up with various options to allow him to call home. Mike bought him a toy cell phone to make fun of him or make him feel better. I think it did both.

• We walked through the old part of town to where a cross marked the early establishment of the city. The side story was that the area was now a haven for prostitutes at night. As we walked out toward the pier, Everaldo said that we passed several prostitutes on our way. They must not have been very good looking or trying very hard because I didn’t notice a one.

• A fisherman caught a piranha off the pier and held it out for us to look at. Both Steve and I had seen the movie “Piranha” as kids and been a bit traumatized. It was kinda nice to see the fish get what’s coming to it.

• Jane, as I said, is a tourism major, but she spoke very little English. I was rude at one point and told her she should for the benefit of getting good jobs. It was one of those times where I started saying it with confidence that I could say it in a positive way. But, hell, it was in Portuguese and I think it came out badly. Oh well. She thanked me at the end of the day for helping her with English. She was probably just being nicer than I.

• We climbed a huge staircase to get to a good view of the city. It was a two-story viewing tower with a spiral staircase to the top and a very unfriendly guard watching all who went up. Apparently, he mainly keeps people from making out up there, but Mike tested him by climbing on the railings and threatening to write his name in the wood. I was shocked that the guard took our picture, though without even a hint of a smile. At one point, he buried his head in hands, seriously tired, seriously bored, or something else serious.

• Back down the stairs, two Brazilians were making out on a bench. Mike was then desperately looking for someone to make out with – Everaldo, Jane, Mary, Steve! – just to be art imitating life. When Steve fell and hurt his crotch trying to play along and I had to explain the abbreviation “PDA (public display of affection)” to Jane, we found ourselves laughing a lot.

• Lunch. Jane explained “Galinha” as a synonym for a guy with lots of hens. This is the local nickname for someone like Mike. Mike said he wanted a “cheap massage.” Everaldo, who insists he only speaks one language – Portuguese – knows enough English to be dangerous. Upon hearing a “cheap massage,” he whispered to me that cheap massages here are given by gay men. I got to translate that one and we laughed.

• Somehow, we decided to walk all the way back to Fundacao Esperanca (FE) in the bright sun of early tropical afternoon. Everaldo said we were crazy and we thought he’d leave with Jane and have us do it on our own, but they both came. Mary and Jane had heels on. It was the hottest most humid day we’ve had and it was about 4 km back. Crazy.

• Marcia told me before I came to buy a hammock, called in Portuguese a red. On our jaunt back to FE, several merchants had them, so I looked around and found a blue one. In the end, then, I bought a blue red.

• Mike bought a machete in a leather sheath. We all thought it was crazy, but what’s new? He asked to take a woman’s picture while gesturing his arms and holding a big knife. She said ok. Everyone laughed.

• The streets of Santarem flood every couple years. It’s not like New Orleans after Katrina because they’re more ready for it here. They do have berms to try to protect against it, but the river sometimes rises too high and merchants are forced to carry their stuff to higher ground.

• Everaldo and I walked ahead of the rest of the group. We’d hang out under the rare shade tree. Mike would be running around like a cartoon character looking for pictures. Steve, Mary, and Jane marched toward us in the blazing fury of midday sun, right next to the world’s largest river.

• There was a boat called “Filadelfia.” There was a boat for cows and we had to imagine whether cows get seasick and what would happen if they did. There was a boat called “Karolina do Norte.” Nearly all the boats were owned by different people. We had to help a guy push his car into a parking spot.

• There was a huge yard of giant cut trees, stacked 15-20 ft high. These were illegally cut but then the criminals were caught and the wood stashed to be given away slowly to people who had to cut it and use it.

• The countdown of blocks to FE – 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – was really long. We looked for shade every chance we could. Upon arriving, we bought drinks for Everaldo and Jane for torturing them. After hearing all day that Mike speaks “portunol”, a mix of Portuguese and Espanol, Everaldo just blurted out, “You speak really bad espanol, too.” We all laughed.

• We got an internet connection in our rooms. We got pictures from Mary’s camera on different machines. We emailed friends and family. Steve got giddy when he actually connected his laptop to the internet.

That could have been just an ordinary day. Or even a boring one. It was far from it.