Sunday, September 3 - Brazil Trip

On Friday Jessie Sue and I crossed the river into Brazil to make our way to Boa Vista for the first time. We had our passports stamped and made it to Bonfim, the town just across the border, without any problems. At the bus station in Bonfim we ran into the peacecorps girls that have been staying in Lethem, so we buddied up and made the hour and a half trip to the city. We managed to find the hotel we planned to stay at and through a combination of gestures and badly spoken Portuguese words hastily looked up in a dictionary we secured our rooms for the night. The rooms were pretty basic but they were clean and even had air conditioning. There was also a pool with a restaurant and bar next to it so I would say for a about ten bucks each a night we did pretty well.

Boa Vista is a very nice city. There are lots of green spaces, parks, and treed boulevards. It is also pretty clean, I saw street sweepers and there is normally a public garbage within a short distance. There are plenty of nice shops which carry good quality products and a very nice open air market with lots of little well maintained kiosks. Everyone seemed very nice and no one hassles or pressures you in the market like others I have been in. Boa Vista is in complete contrast to Georgetown. both cities are of similar size, and although Boa Vista is still obviously a third world country it is leagues ahead of Guyana and seems to be very progressive.

The first night we walked to a park/square near our hotel that was full of fountains and sculptures. All through the square there were food carts that sold everything from fresh juices, ice cream, and churros, to pizza and amazing grilled sandwiches. The place was very busy and full of families, and couples, teenagers, and kids; it was very cool. The second night we met up with a guy we had met last week in Lethem and he took us to an awesome restaurant for some authentic Brazilian fish and afterwards to this huge club. The club was actually just a big open air square, but it had live music all night with dancers and everything. The place was a spectacle and it was tons of fun watching all of the people.


The trip home was a breeze and tommorow is finally the start of school.