I sometimes think this blog no longer has the CrossFit feeling, that I don’t talk about it a lot or that I don’t post relevant stuff. Truth is I’ve taken some time off CrossFit as there is no box in Jeri, but I also realized that there’s much more to me than CrossFit. It has a major part of my heart and mind and my utmost respect and appreciation, but it does not define me.

I am also me. I’m a friend, a sister, a daughter, an auntie, a niece and a cousin; I am a translator, proofreader and transcriber, a colleague, a businesswoman, a traveler, a digital nomad, a woman, but above all I am human with my ups and my downs and the days I really have no idea what I am doing or the days I feel I can conquer the world. And believe me, this is hard stuff!

So, I may not be writing about most of that a lot, but those are all parts of me requiring my attention and caring and time. The little bits and pieces that make up the broader picture. Yup, this picture 🙂

Lately I’ve been busy planning my next steps. Again ‘stress mode’ is around the corner, as I will be stepping out of what became my comfort zone in the past months. My Jeri. It taught me a lot about myself, put things in a new perspective and made me appreciate the small and everyday ‘givens’. Still, this is not closure, I have about 3 weeks to go and I’m planning on making the most of it. The dates for the entire trip are not all set yet, although I’ve already bought my tickets for my next destination.

I will be flying on the 4^th of May from Brazil to… Canada! Yup! Canada has always been in my mind, firstly because I have family there whom I have not seen for a very long time, but also because of the beauty of this country (and stable internet and electricity, but let’s not get into this right now). Now, thing is, I am not flying from Fortaleza, which is the closets airport to Jeri, but from Manaus. Manaus is one of the biggest cities in north Brazil and is located on the Amazon. To get there, I would need to take a river-boat from Belem and travel upstream the Amazon for 5 days (which could end up 6 or 7 as I was told). That would be 5+ days on a boat with no internet, no phone, no contact with anyone other than my fellow travelers. It would be 5+ nights sleeping on a hammock (if I manage to do this), alternatively I will try to get me a cabin – then again, what’s the fun in that? Oh, and to get to Belem, I’d have to catch a 24h bus ride from Fortaleza and to get to Fortaleza from Jeri is an additional 6 hours on a bus.

The boats traveling up and down the Amazon look like this:

I could fly straight to Manaus from Fortaleza, but I would miss the adventure… I still don’t know what pushed me to decide taking this step and jumping not only into the unknown but also the unknowable (there’s the Crossfit spirit again, hehe!).

Now there are things to take care of and look up online, such as whether I need an ongoing flight from Canada, or whether I need to take malaria pills before heading to Belem, or how many tons of mosquito repellent should I buy, and where can I get the really good stuff, the 60% DEET rather than the miserable 7.5% I can find around here.. Mosquito net would also come in handy, I guess. I’d need a nice book to read and maybe practice my Portuguese (though DuoLingo needs internet, so I must figure out another way).

I contacted some boxes in Belem and Manaus and already have had positive responses from CrossFit Doze and CrossFit CAF both in Manaus, who are willing to have me for a few days. Plus I met a CrossFitter from Fortaleza last weekend and I might drop in at one of the local boxes there too. He told me there is a box called Haka Crossfit that has its own haka ritual! I’d love to see that J

Funny how us CrossFitters can sort of smell each other… At an Easter beach party (just pointing out it was not at a gym and I was not wearing my flashy badass tank top) I ended up chatting with a guy from Fortaleza, doing CrossFit… I love this community and I am looking forward to training again. Properly training. As in – being able to throw the weights on the floor without breaking the PORCELAIN TILES! I did some very funny (yet dangerous) moves with the barbell when I first started going to the local gym, out of fear of not dropping the bar. Now I know better. I train with lighter weights and just try to keep my conditioning and work on my skills.

All in all, these are my last couple of weeks in Jeri. If anyone has any tips on the Amazon trip or Canada, or knows boxes or has friends in any of the places I will be visiting, please contact me! All help is much appreciated!