So, here's the scoop..

We have some news on our upcoming venture. We just booked ourselves on a flight to Manaus, the capital of the state Amazonas, which holds the majority of Brasil's portion of the Amazon rain forest. We plan to start our journey there and then continue east along the Amazon river until we reach the coast. From there, we will follow the coast back to Governador Valadares. We decided to take this route because it allows us the most freedom to stay in places as long as we want or can afford to without having to make the deadline of a flight back to Valadares. There are a few different WWOOF farms along our route that we might wind up at, and we've already begun to contact them. Our itinerary is subject to change, and will probably remain that way indefinitely. By that I mean that we may decide to cut something out or add something along our way. As of now, we plan to go from Governador Valadares to Belo Horizonte, then our flight to Manaus. From there we will travel downstream to Santarém and then to Belém from there. After Belém comes São Luiz and the beautiful Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses.  Followed by Fortaleza, Recife, Salvador, Parque Narcional da Chapada Diamantina, Porto Seguro and then back to Valadares. We aren't really sure how long this will all take but have projected two months total. That's including two weeks WWOOFing, and we might end up doing more than that. We're thinking the trip will last at least to the beginning of October.

Anyways, this Tuesday we're going to take a train to Belo Horizonte, which is the nearest big city to Valadares, and after having spent one night there we will fly to Manaus on Wednesday morning. This first WWOOF host farm along our route is located in just outside of Presidente Figueiredo, which is about 100km from Manaus. We're really hoping to be able to stay there because it's right in the rain forest and they grow all sorts of delicious tropical fruits!  And they sleep in huts!

We'll be traveling by river boat from Manaus to Santarém and from Santarém to Belém. It's pretty much the easiest way, though it's going to take at least a few days. It should be a very interesting experience though, sleeping in a hammock on a boat with a ton of other people. From Belém down the coast, we'll be taking different buses or maybe domestic flights (some of which cost the same as the buses). The distances between the cities are ridiculous though. Some of the bus rides that we might be taking are up to 20 hours.

We will try to keep in touch as much as possible throughout our trip, though it may be fairly infrequent. We'll try to keep the map up to date as well, so you can see if there have been changes in our travels. You can click on the blue icons to see what the cities are called.  This map is of our total travels, so it includes the places that we've been to and mentioned previously.  Anyway, Sayonara!

snuggles and loves,

Lena and Tiago