Boa Vista -mmm of what?

After my day in Rio with all of its glamour as well as superficiality(number 1 for plastic surgery in the world), I headed to Brazil’s polar opposite: Boa Vista. The funny thing about Boa Vista- it gets a really bad rap. Literally any and every thing I’ve read about it says that it’s a good town to get to to catch a bus to Venezuela, Guyana or Manaus, Brazil. But I think that’s really unfair to it. Now my second time here, I can say that I really like it. Granted it is like a Red Delicious apple. When you call something delicious or good view, it is usually a sign it is anything but. That does apply to Red Delicious(more like red mealy apple), but only kind of applies to Boa Vista.  Yes, it’s small and doesn’t have much in the way of “sights” but it does have a good selection of really good restaurants, everyone is really friendly and hotels can be had for less than a taxi ride to Lethem.

And that last reason is why I am spending the night here in Boa Vista. I arrived via plane, just in time to miss the last bus to Bonfim(the border town to Lethem Guyana). A taxi sets you back AT LEAST 50 Real  but if you’re by yourself and the taxi isn’t in a rush, they can easily charge 4 times that. So instead, I opted to reserve myself the first bus the next morning and got myself a hotel for 80 Real. So that’s 100 Real total for hotel and bus rather than 150 for the taxi ride. Plus this gives me an extra day in Brazil.

So far, it’s been interesting. I mentioned earlier that it is a town that is super friendly. And that is true. I had planned to walk the 5k from airport to bus station, but a friendly person drove me there. Paula and I couldn’t make ourselves understood to the other but luckily she had Google Translator on her smart phone so we were able to communicate. She shaved off about 45 minutes from my trip(and I still didn’t make my bus!). I have also met some nice people while out for a walk, who stopped me because they could tell I “didn’t belong” but only to see if I was okay and then suggested a good place for dinner. I am going to head there in a little bit.

I did have one weird encounter but that was with an English-speaking person living in Venezeula, but coming to Brazil to extend her Visa. I may have said something to the extent that Chavez was so well liked because there was not much opposition or public awareness of alternatives, plus the majority of the older population had still poignant memories of what happens if you have a Right-wing politician in power. And I really thought I was following the conversation. For the most part, I don’t really try to get mixed up in politics and usually with just side with whatever side you are now(if at least SOMEWHAT reasonable). However, in this case, I definitely misread her and this lead to a long diatribe on why Chaves was amazing and Obama is single-handedly trying to destroy Venezeula. 

Whether right or wrong, I wasn’t prepared for that and just sat back and let her go. Haha. I don’t care if you are passionate to the left or right, but if you are so passionate that you can at least hear out an opposing opinion, I think you may have a problem.

Okay well I’m heading out to dinner now and since this is a Catholic state, and this is Easter weekend, things could get crazy ;) But don’t worry about it. I will tell you all about it!

Until next time,

Danny


PS- I then headed up to Lethem for rodeo and my camera battery died so had to take these photos on my crappy camera. Sorry for the poor resolution.

Lethem Rodeo

A giant ant hill in Lethem