Skater Land - Manaus

Despite the dreary, rainy concrete drudgery of Manaus, we have had the pleasure of running into the group of Skate boarders from the States again and hooray for fluent English, intelligent conversation!
They are a group of sound, straight up quality guys all in Amazonia to document their skating, leaving a trail of inspiration behind them.
Contrary to popular stigmatisation that skaters are merely pot headed drop outs who have nothing but a board to occupy them, this is a group of well travelled, passionate and exceptionally interesting guys who have, in living their dream, travelled, seen, experienced and contributed to the world more than all the other travellers I have encountered. 
I am nigh on heading to the local skate store and kitting myself out to turn my hand at it! After encountering so many stale travellers, with no direction and minimal passion let alone interest in what they are doing, it has been refreshing to meet people with such energy.


We have spent the past two days recovering from the boat trip up river and planning our next marathon leg out of Brazil.
Encountering another $800 transport cost to boat upriver then fly to Bogota had me returning to the drawing board and rerouting us (again).
Tomorrow we catch a bus to Boa Vista (20 hours) then get on another bus to Ciudade Boliver in the middle of Venezuela.  A colonial city surrounded by national park.  We will spend three days there, then bus to Caracas and straight onto another bus across the Colombian border to Caratagena! I CANT WAIT! An old Spanish city fortified and still retaining its beauty and splendour situated on the Carribbean coast!

It is surprising how quickly travel has become second nature, homesickness has faded with each day and whilst I miss the people, I am engrossed with the journey ahead and excited to see what it will present.
Gone is the hurried stress and panic that accompanied transition and change, and we now approach each move with a relaxed methodology, happy to accept that the only constant is change. 
Learning to relinquish control and live in the now is the key to enjoyable travel.

I will write more when I have scenery and experience to share!
xx Aroha Nui