"I am not an author like authors on your web page or even an adult, but I have been travelling for a long time. I'm still in High School, but I have seen many places. I speak several languages that I learned on my travels. I have not travelled out of the Americas, but I will soon. I'm just a kid who likes to backpack from place to place and see the world for what it really is. I do have dreams of becoming an author and seeing much of the world. I am sixteen and I have already seen much of Brazil, America, Paraguay, and the Caribbean Islands. There is nothing special about me except for the fact that I like to travel. When I turn 18 I'll probably take two years of off school to go on an international Odyssey.
I was born in Mato Grosso, Brazil in the Amazon Basin. I left Brazil at a young age after the Amazonian gold rush had died out. I have seen many beautiful places and many dreaded sights. I currently live in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. and I try to get out as much as possible.
I'm still in High School, but I not there much of the time. I travel a lot and this year I spent 60 days away from school. I am young, but already I have the spirit of a journeyman, a vagabond. I can't stay put too long. It's just not me.
Walter"
I must have been thirteen at the time, but in Brazil age didn't matter. I was ready to see the world. I left Washington, D.C. and left for the homeland I had never seen before. I was the Americanized Brazilian from the North. The plane wasn't that bad and I must say that Brazilians are some of the best.
I landed in Sao Paulo, only staying in the bustling Metropolis for about a week. The smell of the River Tiete was unbearable. A once beautiful lake turned into a green slime cesspool. The city does have its benefits. It is the largest cultural centre in Brazil and on the fringes of the city there is a small sub-city populated by hippies from around the world. The art work is amazing and the friendly space cadets from all over are even more amazing. There is little bargaining at the hippie artisan's fair and it reminded me of how different it was from Mexico.
I left the east coast of Brazil and headed for the uncharted west of Brazil, in search of my long forgotten past. The state of Mato Grosso, which means 'Thick Grass', is my birthplace. I had lived in Cuiaba, the capital of the state, when I was a child. My memories of the place were vague.
The first thing I noticed about the city was the heat. It was so hot you could fry an egg on the street and, in fact, I had seen it being done with my own eyes. No one was waiting for the boy who had just become a teenager at the airport. Luckily the people in Brazil were very nice to foreigners. I got a taxi and headed for my uncle's mechanic shop. The address was given to me by my father and I reached it with ease. At the shop I hugged and kissed my uncle (as the custom calls for) and I explained my situation. I wanted to visit the interior of the state. I wanted to visit the Amazon Rainforest in which I was born.
Due to the laid back atmosphere of Brazilian life my uncle was able to leave his job the next day and travel with me to Peixoto, the town I had spent the first five years of my life. My uncle started up an old truck and we were off. If I had been smart I would have taken a small plane half way to Peixoto, but I didn't. The truck was in terrible condition and it didn't make the ten hour trip deep into the Amazon. It broke down half way there. A tire fell off and flew several meters into the dense vegetation of the jungle. No one was brave or stupid enough to go into the jungle at one o'clock in the morning.
I broke down and started to cry. I didn't want to die out in the middle of nowhere. The sky was bright with a million stars and I could see everything, even though there were no city lights anywhere for about 50 kilometres. I saw a shooting star and quickly made a prayer. As luck would have it my wish came true.
Fifteen minutes later a bus drove by and stopped. I walked up to it and explained what had happened. He asked what my name was and I said Walter Alves Jr. Right then and there he started laughing. I was scared and just stood there. He wiped the tears from his eyes and said that he knew who my father was. He said they had worked together in the gold mines of Peixoto. I felt like the luckiest person alive. He gave me a free trip to Peixoto. My uncle had to stay with the broken truck, because he didn't want thieves to strip it for parts. I said I would send somebody from Peixoto to come and get him the next day.
I arrived in Peixoto early in the morning and I walked across the main dirt street over to my grandmother's house across from the bus station. My uncle had given me good directions. I walked up to the place and an old woman was sweeping the dirt floor in front of her house. When she saw the small boy with strange clothes and heard my slight Portuguese accent she looked perplexed. Then she looked into my eyes and started crying. She knew exactly who I was. I had come to Peixoto without giving her any warning and my arrival had been a total shock.
After all the crying and explaining about my trip I was introduced to my cousins and uncles. They sent someone to get my uncle stranded on the jungle road. My macho cousins all broke down and stared weeping like children. They hadn't seen me ever since I left the jungle ten years before. I handed out the small presents I had brought for them, but they seemed to be interested only in me. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Homecoming to home I had been to.
I spent a month in the Amazon town of Peixoto. For a jungle town it was quite big and bustling. There had once been a huge gold rush in the town and the hustle and bustle was even worse back then. The down had died down and I was given time to think.
I spent little time alone in Peixoto. When I wasn't with my cousins I was with the multitude of girls who had never seen a handsome boy from a foreign land. Soon enough most of the town knew who I was. It felt warm and cozy as I was recognized by people I had never met before. Brazil has a way of making you feel like that.
My first weeks were amazing. I went fishing in one of the small rivers that fed the Amazon. We went in a large group to a small river in the last weeks of the dry season. The river was only waist deep. We stretched a large net from one bank of the river to other. We then hauled the net upstream in order to catch as many fish as possible. We must have caught about 200 fish. My favourite was the piranha. It almost bit through the net, but we were able to catch it. The piranhas were wonderful. They have large bones so it easy to eat them and you don't have to worry about choking on small bones. The piranha was very white, clean, and juicy. It is possibly the best fish to eat in the Amazon. My cousins and I had a large feast on the side of the river. It was wonderful.
Most of the time I spent in the Amazon was on small farms where all I did all day was lie in a hammock and eat Mangos and Jack fruits. I must have tasted several kinds of fruits that have no American names. The atmosphere was so laid back that I cried my eyes out when it came time to leave.
Of course I did a lot more than just sit around, but to explain everything I did in the Amazon would require me to write a book. The Amazon was so primal and brutal, but it was also delicate and warm hearted. I promised myself that I would return and in fact I did the next year. If you allow the jungle to touch your heart you'll never be able to escape its charm and grace. For those afraid of the wild jungles of Brazil, remember this: You can only fear something after it has already happened to you. It sounds strange, but it's the truth.
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