And here comes a new travel report from the far South of Brazil. Max is travelling around and doesn’t seem to come back. At least that’s what he last said. Even squat movements in Sweden and his future career as a graffitti artist in Sweden don’t seem to appeal too much to him right now. Oh well, globalization…

The spectacle has just begun and we´re gathering in the front to watch it. This is not any sunset, it´s the sunset. The sky is covered with different shades starting from the depth of a dark brown cloud which eventually fades into deep purple outlined by fuchsia edges. Closing into the epicentre of this light show the clouds gets grey pink and at one stage they´re all clear pink. Just before turning peach and changing spectra entirely going from orange to white with the grande finale hidden by the landscape, fortunately, approximately 300 meters ahead quite a bend is located. Which will allow our boat to float exactly where where the best view for the last episode is available and, needless to say, the revelation of the whole gig.

We´re on the Amazon river, departing in Belém and heading for Santarém. It´s my third time in a vessel like this on the very river. The people travelling here by boat go for various reasons and there are always some backpacking gringos on board. The category I find myself filed under.

Hippie new-ageism seems to not be only the culture of the backpackers around, but the obligatory lifestyle; carrying a heavy rucksack equals sporting a Rasta inspired bracelet, multi coloured t-shirts and at least one tattoo (go get one in case you plan to do a journey). The origin of the majority is South America in general, mostly big cities such as Caracas, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Travelling clandestine with enough money to roam the jungle for at least a couple of months you can tell they´re at least upper middle class and do have a stable background. Go rob a hippie and you´ll find out for yourself so to
say. My point is not whether it´s a good deal robbing hippies or not but the very fact that this group is, at least in theory, the most educated one on the riverboats. Considering this fact, and the whole hippie mentality, I find it really odd seeing a German rastafari tossing a coke bottle into the river. He´s not alone.

Yeah, I find it as repulsive when seeing a priest throw his whole aluminium plate into the brown water. I get the same reaction when I discover our boats cleaning policy: which is simply to throw all un-wanted material into the river. I just sigh when I find out that the villages along the Tapajós, probably the Amazon as well, use the shore as dumpster. All this though, believe it or not, is some what logic and digestible (link:http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/02/09/two_cultures_of_recycling/index.html).Education has something to do with it. The very same education that most likely gave the german rasta inspiration to his way of living and all the other hippies on board. That is what can make one start off whining like this.

Visiting Peru and Bolivia, following the backpackers unwritten main path (Salar de Uyuni, La Paz, Titicaca, Cusco and Lima), the behaviour repeats itself. Eh, add more litter and more hippies to be more accurate.

Climbing the andes in a rusty old bus is quite an experience, for each peak climbed new ones are to be seen and the horizon shifts rapidly. We, the passengers – the hippie backpacking ones, are sitting with our faces glued to the windows chewing coca (link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca) and/or local sweets. The wrappers and the accompanied bottles goes out of the windows. I tilt my head to keep track of a plastic bag but instead stop and stare along the ditches where piles of the mentioned runs as if rain was multi coloured. An Israeli girl in front of me shoots some pictures of the horizon before the sky line gets bothered with the suburbs of La paz and the obvious littering. She seems content with the results and by the angle of the action I´m sure there´s no signs of human presence. As asked for.

A silent countdown is being held and cameras are being switched on as we´re about to make the bend and enjoy the climax of this sunset. Cluck! A bottle gets tossed into the water. Click! Flash after flash goes off.