River Journey in Brazil
Dear Irene,
I would first like to thank you, for encouraging me to enter the competition and I could not believe that I won. As soon as they called out my name on the radio, I went running around my house, crazy, jumping up and down on my small bed, which I think I ruined the springs in it. Although it's a pity you could not come with me, because the fact is that I had a spectacular holiday. There was a variety of choices on where to go, but none of them interests me except for one that I have not tried yet, and that was `Rafts and river journeys' in the Amazon river, Brazil. I have never, in my life, experienced river journeys and I heard it could be a lot of fun and dangerous so I can face my fears.
My best friend, Mike, and I went on a first class ticket in Brasilia Airlines that was very comfortable for a six-hour trip. As we landed on the capital of Brazil, Brasilia we didn't imagine that this city can be strikingly beautiful, and fortunately is a lot better than Jeddah. We then met our raft experts in the airport. They were both female, which was really unexpected, because the experts are usually male, well one of them is called Joila and the other one's called Lavita, I find Lavita very attractive. She had a tall, fit body, long blonde hair and a face more beautiful than Cindy Crawford. They took us to the city. The city had unspoiled landscapes, different types of antique markets around a distinctive building, there were several skyscrapers in the middle of the city, but that didn't spoil the scenery, if you were in the middle of the city you would see lime-green mountains at a very long distance. They drove us to their camp, which was far out of the city and nearby the Amazon River. The campsite was in a charming location, along the campsite was pale green bushes around the campsite, caravans just beside the entrance was very big because it is used for their office, a small lake can be seen just a few hundred metres beside the camp for us to practice, there is an exotic view if you looked on top of the small hill, it was as if you were on top of the world.
Lavita firstly showed us to our small white caravans for us to unpack. She then took both of us to have a small meeting in the middle of the camp. She began the conversation with us on the rules and safety skill on the river journey. She also explains that we were going to start the journey in the morning, so this means that we have to sleep very early, which was good for me because I didn't sleep for the whole day. After relaxing for half an hour in our caravan, we gathered around the wooden table to make dinner. While eating, Joila had a longer talk, explaining what goods to use on the raft and what we need to wear, all the equipment you need is a good pair of trainers, a life jacket on over an ordinary shirt, shorts which passes down your knee and a safety helmet provided by them. It was getting late and there was not much electricity in there, so if you exit the caravan it would be pitch dark. So we had to sleep, I didn't get much sleep at all because I'm not use to sleeping without air conditions and in additions I had a lot of rose red lumps of mosquito bites. We woke up early in the morning and packed everything necessarily needed for the journey, put on the equipment and ready to go.
The atmosphere was lively and, warm and friendly. We walked a few hundred metres to come across the small lake and I was in a bustling mood. We laid our rafts on the lake and began practicing, on how to stroke and paddle across the lake and back. We did this until we knew the basic learning of how to paddle on rafts. So we got out of the lake and head to the river. We walked through the green path filled with different types of plants and trees. At last we reached there in an hour, the scenery was very tropical, it is what you would imagine of a tropical place. The river was surround by golden yellow, banana trees. We helped them lay the raft on the bank of the river. We all got on it, one by one, to prevent the raft to capsize and sink. As we all got on the raft carefully, Joila quickly grabbed our paddles for us, so we can paddle it along the current of the river. I felt too excited at first. However the more time we paddled along the river the faster it goes down the river, which can be seriously dangerous, because we lost control of the raft and that we kept on bumping on to rocks, which can split open our raft. The current of the river was getting more faster as I was getting more worried that if we could be able to do this. More rocks was in our way, we manage to paddle pass it, until there was a small waterfall up ahead. Lavita and Joila was over confidence that they can do this, but my heart sunk and I had a weird feeling in my stomach to show how scared I was. Before reaching the waterfall, a small rock was in our way, which we didn't realise at first, this capsized out raft over the waterfall. So this looked like as if we were flying. We all flew out of the raft managing to escape the current of the river to swim to the bank of the river. Luckily nobody got hurt; I quickly grabbed hold of the raft and brought it to the bank of river. We flipped the raft upright and paddled our way until we came across a small village.
The village was strangely quiet when we came. The houses were next to the bridge, which are pale-coloured with leafy green painted shutters. The villagers welcomed Lavita and Joila, because they knew them from a long time, so then they introduced us to the villagers. We began to rest for a while for around forty-five minutes. So we continued our journey along the calm river. We just kept on the indigo-blue river, which fishes can be seen clearly in the river, and enjoying the view of the jungle, peacefully to the end. We reached to an open area of fields on where to end the journey, where we met Lavita's husband. But in a way I was jealous. Her husband took all of us in his jeep, to travel all the way back to the campsite, so we can relax for the rest of the day and make conversations. The next day, we went back to the city and visited all kinds of place like the markets, eat in a high class of restaurant. The market was full of people. The market was large outdoor market by the docks with a pungent fishy smell. I only bought souvenirs of the country. The reason why I like the market is the light-hearted, bustling atmosphere and the cheerful sounds of stallholders calling to each other. Seagulls soar around the docks. It was getting late because we need to take the five o'clock flight back to Jeddah. So we thank Lavita and Joila for everything and left the country to go back.
I recommend this journey to anyone who is in the mood for quite dangerous journey. This can also be a spectacular adventure for anyone had never experience river journeys in their life, or to have the wildest adventure on rafts. This can reduce their stress with their everyday job and helps them take action in the adventure. I had a terrific adventure and I think I recommend it to everyone
It was still a shame you couldn't be there with us. Send regards to your bother.
Love,