Going DEEP into the Jungle

So, the flight to Rio Branco presented no problems, except for a five minute scare in which I thought I lost my passport. The flight got to the airport at around 2 AM, and there were no buses into the center. If I wanted to take a taxi to the center and stay at a hotel, I would have spent a ton of money, so I decided to stay at the airport. I befriended the two security guards, who took pleasure in telling me all about the area and about Acre, the state of Brazil I would be going to the next day. They showed me a spot where I could set up my sleeping bag, and I was out like a light.
The next morning, I got a bus to the center, then a bus to Boco do Acre. The bus was hot, smelly, and packed with people. Next two me, two little boys squirmed in their seat (singular) as I tried to get some sleep. Four hours and about a thousand potholes later, we arrived in Boco do Acre. Boco do Acre is a small town just of the Rio Purus in the state of Acre. That night I tried to figure out a boat for the next morning to take me to the small community deep in the jungle where I would be meeting my two friends, Merle and John.
The next day, I luckily met Marcio, a man that could take me that same day. According to him, the trip would take about twelve hours total, with a stopover halfway there for the night. At around 11 AM, I loaded my bag into his small wooden boat, equipped with a 13 horsepower motor. We cruised down the Rio Purus for a couple hours, before turning off onto a small river which would eventually lead us to the community. We stopped at around 6 PM at a small village called Fazenda. We went to Marcio´s friend´s house, ate some dinner, and hit the sack early (the sack consisted of my sleeping bag on a hard wooden floor).
We took off a little before 7 AM the next morning, and didn´t arrive until around 5 or 6 that evening. In total, was a long 17 hours. Once in the community, I set out to find Merle and John. I had an idea of where they would be staying, so, in the dark, I asked around for the ¨Hotel do Cidgey¨and eventually found it. Once there, I was informed that Merle and John were no longer staying there but Tadeo, the man working there, was more than happy to walk me over to the house in which they were staying. Luckily, on the way over to the house, we ran into Inca, the owner of the house, who told me I could also stay at her house. Inca is a kind, middle aged women from Columbia who has been living in the community for two years. She told us that Merle and John were at Oracao (pronounced Orasow), daily prayer from 6 to 7 PM. She showed me to the building in which Oracao is held, but said I would have to wait outside because I wasn´t wearing the proper attire. I waited outside for a few minutes, before a man came out and told me it was fine for me to come in.
As I walked up to the entrance, I saw Merle and John. Merle turned and looked at me, not recognizing me for a few minutes because I was still outside in the dark. Then his eyes lit up and he jumped up, came outside and gave me a big hug. John noticed I was there and did the same. They had been expecting me to arrive several days earlier, and both of them had been thinking some ill fate had bestowed itself on me.
We finished up Oracao, then headed back to Sao Joao, the house in which we stayed. Sao Joao is a fifteen minute walk from town that involved wading across an igarape (small river) and going down a nice jungle path. There was a bridge that went across the igarape the first couple days I was there, but someone knocked it down because it was too dangerous. It was 8 or 9 feet high, and Merle and John had not only broken a couple of the boards simply by walking over them, they had seen an older women slip and fall off because part of the bridge was tipped to the side! There is something I forgot to mention about the community. It is a community set up around thirty years ago by Padrino Sabastiao, one of the main pioneers of the religion, the Church of Santo Daime. Santo Daime is a religion that uses ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea brewed in the Amazon using a certain vine and leaf, as its sacrament. It is widely followed in Brazil but also has churches all over the world. It´s main influence is Christianity, with lesser influence by indigenous and African religions as well. The jungle town was originally self sufficient and had nothing to do with money, but since the death of Padrino Sebastiao in the early 90s, things have changed and life there is no longer as simple or self sufficient as it once was.
I have to go now to catch a 15 to 18 hours bus to Cusco, Peru. Expect another update in the next few days!