Vista and eventually Manaus. From there, if you want to go anywhere
else in Brazil other than back to Boa Vista, you need to get on a
plane or go by boat down the Amazon. Since so many legs of this trip
had been by boat so far, I felt compelled not to fly, even though it
was $20 cheaper and several days faster. This will eventually let me
say that I made it from the US to wherever I end up in Brazil without
flying--so long as Puerto Rico counts as the US, and it might as well).
Junior my Brazilian hostel (and in another life prison) bunkmate said
that a day's travel down-river there was a massive regional festival
called Parentins, in a town called Parentins. I'd vaguely heard
about this from somebody else too, and was beginning to realize that
nearly every billboard I saw in Manaus for beer or cola was Parentins-
themed, and I'd wanted to break up the trip by stopping somewhere, so
this sounded perfect. Junior was going to Parentins. I was going to
Parentins. But Junior had a much better idea of what the hell it was
going to be like, and I had none.
