whatshouldbazdo.com

Not only do people decide my life on a grand scale, but anyone can throw down extra challenges as well, and I try to tick off as many of these as I can. THEN, I document the challenges, review them, then let you know what worked and, more often, what went wrong and how to learn from my mistakes. So, if you’re in the area and want to have a crack at it, here are a few tips to make it a more enjoyable ride. Everything is better when you can share it with someone else – even if that means complaining the whole way about the sand being so soft, the sun too burn-y, or the shade too non-existent.

My job will be to make friends with and take care of two cats – Gregor & Mendel: feed them treats, scratch their bellies, make sure they’ve got a clean place for the pooping, and ensure they’re healthy and happy while their family is away on Christmas holidays. Including WiFi, three pools, tennis courts, a gym, and two new feline amigos to keep me company while I work and drink cups of tea by the window overlooking Sao Paulo city. Having a free place to stay, especially in Sao Paulo – makes getting home far more affordable (and more productive being in a place where things work) Tell me whether you think I’ll actually get home to Oz at the end of January –

I invited you to take a shower with me, tried to describe the crazy scale of the Amazon River, gave you a first-look at some of the riff-raff who choose to Slow Boat on the Amazon, and got a bit happy and sad all at once talking about the scale of environmental issues and the amazing number of smaller, opposing environmental projects that operate throughout the region. I marked a couple on the map (B & C), but I found the ticket-seller to be far more knowledgeable about all available routes, he didn’t seem to be contractually obliged to one boat over another and, like with everything else, the closer you buy to the source, the more efficient, flexible, and barter-friendly it will be. If you’re really trying to stretch your reais as far as they’ll go, and you don’t want to be locked into anything, just find out when the boats are leaving (from the outlet or the ticket-seller), then turn up to speak with the captain a few hours before the scheduled departure. Every boat will have access to filtered water, so there isn’t any need to buy a bunch of bottled water.

From house-sitting in the South of Brazil, to the tree-houses of Goias, down to coastal Sao Paulo, into the favelas of Rio and her Carnival, through multiple illnesses in Bahia, and the first look at Amazon forests in Belem. It’s been long and it’s been stressful, but I’m finally stepping aboard the “Cisne Branco” in Belem to float on something named Amazon: the greatest river on Earth. The Amazon basin accounts for 20% of all fresh water discharge into the ocean, worldwide, with more water flowing out of this giant catchment area each year than the next seven largest rivers combined. Coming Soon – Including all the #HotTips for slow boat river-boating on the Amazon River should be dropping here tomorrow or the next day.