And he turned to the engine,
and he turned back,
the guy was holding a gun.
Crocodile meat.
Crocodile meat!
This is the number one producer
of Honda motorbikes in the world.
Oh, this is a piranha?
Yeah.
And they eat the piranha?
Yeah.
Before it eats you.
Really gorgeous. There's a huge beach here.
The biggest river in the world lives up to its...
Hey guys, this is Diego again.
So, that is the river Amazon.
We've flown here from Rio de Janeiro
and we've arrived in Manaus, which...
This is basically the hub of Amazon,
it's the main city of the Amazon rainforest.
Traders from all around the rainforest,
indigenous people, the local people,
they come here,
they sell their goods in the market.
The fish from the Amazon River,
vegetables, and fruits like the famous açaí
that you see in all the trendy cafes around the world,
the majority of it comes from the Amazon.
So, today we're going to go into the city,
we're going to explore,
we're going to meet the people.
Also, a huge center of Brazil's industrial scene is here.
so, these huge factories, going to check that out.
Going to go to lower class areas of the city,
we're going to go to the expensive parts.
We're going to start,
we're going to head down to the Amazon River,
a lifelong dream to go there
so, let's head into it.
Just before we go, I just want to mention,
if you think that I'm staying in a five-star hotel
this hotel is actually costing $25
for two people, for a twin room.
So, we've driven down to the Amazon here
and we've come to this local market.
There are people with fish,
there are guys carrying pigs on their backs,
getting pigs off boats
so, they must bring the pigs in
from the surrounding villages.
Obviously, the fish.
And they come down here
and sell it to the people of the city of two million people,
the hub of the Amazon.
So, we might go down into the market
and see where some of these people have come from
and their daily life.
So, let's go meet some of these people,
it's a pretty unique situation here.
So, you can see it's super action-packed
there's so much going on.
Come down and met a local farmer called Alexandre
he's just loaded off five or six pigs from his boat.
So, I'm here with Diego again,
would you mind asking where he's come from?
We saw him unloading the pig
so, can he just walk us through his morning routine today?
He unloaded a bigger boat that came from
a river downstream of the Amazon River
two days from here.
Full of pigs?
Full of pigs.
So, he's like a distributor?
He is a kind of distributor from the big boat.
It's not a matter of liking or not,
it's the only thing he can do,
the only thing that pays off
so, it's not a matter of choice.
From nearby or from far away?
From nearby.
He said it's really good,
it's really good meat,
but the eggs are even better.
Caviar.
The caviar, yeah.
Everyone buys it, everyone loves it, everyone eats it.
Live in Manaus or another village?
Now he's living in Manaus
so, he's not fishing anymore
he's just distributing.
So, he bought this fishes today
and he's just selling it.
Because to go fish he needs three days
to stay there in the river waiting for the fish
and he doesn't have that time anymore.
Is life better here in the Amazon
or would you prefer to live in a different part of Brazil?
He cannot imagine a better place to live than here,
he's been living here for the past forty years.
An absolute hive of activity.
So, I just picked up a coconut for $0.70
and a hat for about $3.
Because we're about to jump on a boat, cross the amazon.
We're gonna go to a local man's house that we've met.
And obviously, I wasn't gonna go into the jungle
without a camouflage hat.
So, let's jump on the boat
and we're gonna meet José, he seems a really cool guy.
He had some interesting stories,
he was completely robbed of his boat
and thrown off in the middle of the Amazon.
And the thieves took his boat, he almost drowned,
but luckily, he's alive so, let's go hear his story.
So, we're just going up to the petrol station to fuel up here.
Okay so, we've just taken an hour boat trip
from the Manus city there, through the Amazon.
It's incredible to be here for the first time,
obviously the biggest river in the world,
and that lives up to...
Wow!
Lives up to its huge reputation.
This is our boat driver José and it's his house
and he's lived here for 40 years.
He fishes out of the window?
Wow!
Do they just live off...
They've got the rice and things here, but mainly fish.
And when they want to have something different
they go to the city and buy chicken.
So, it is possible to have plantations here,
he had watermelon, but then the water took it all.
Most of the time, he goes to Manaus and buys it there.
What's cooking at the moment?
Chicken.
Chicken feet?
Yeah.
Fish?
Crocodile meat.
Crocodile meat!?
Are there many crocodiles around here?
A lot of crocodiles.
Did they attacked you?
3m long!
Oh, you are catching fish right now!
This is the piranha.
Oh, this is a piranha?
Yeah.
They look a lot... I thought they were this big.
I think they're different sizes.
This is a baby.
You hang meat down, and then they try to eat it.
Exactly.
And you eat the piranha?
Yup.
Before it eats you.
Exactly.
If you fall in the water and a swarm of piranhas comes, they can eat you...
Eat you all, exactly.
We even have an expression in Portuguese,
Piranha cow or cattle.
There is the first cow that goes in front
so, the piranhas eat it first,
and then you can cross the river with all the other cows.
So, this is the toilet.
And how does the sewage work?
Because it just goes straight into the Amazon?
It goes straight into the river, yeah.
Really good actually.
It tastes like a kind of fish, a big, big fish from the Amazon River.
It's really still, the meat.
Lean.
Lean, yeah.
How does the electricity work here?
It does a program from the federal government
to give light to every single Brazilian,
they don't pay for it, it's just free electricity coming to every village.
Is the dog it's allowed to eat the meat?
He transports people between the villages.
He was robbed, right?
Thrown out into the river and almost drowned.
A guy asked him about a ride, a two hours and a half ride.
After one hour and a half, the guy said:
"Oh, it's nearby here, you can stop the boat over there."
And when he was stopping the boat, he turned to the engine
and he turned back, the guy was holding a gun against his head
and said, "Don't try anything or I'll kill you."
The guy told him to leave the boat.
He was left on the water. He got to the land.
He kneed and started praying, then he started trying to call people.
He couldn't find it, the reception wasn't good.
Well, after six or seven hours, the police boat came and found him.
Is that frequent, this kind of occurrence, or is that just a rarity?
It's quite frequent, it happened another time with him, but he was smart,
there were two guys, and they were trying to deviate his attention
and trying to show him around so he would turn his head
and the guys would get the gun.
He didn't. He kept riding the boat real fast
and doing sharp corners, and he left the guys in a place
the guys didn't want to leave the boat, and he was like
"Now you guys have to leave."
So, nothing happened to him.
But the next day, another guy got the same two guys
from the place he dropped them
and the guys said exactly the same thing.
"This area here looks like something"
And the guy looked around and got robbed.
They stole the boat from him.
For me, walking around, I felt reasonably safe in Manaus
but would José review it as a dangerous place, generally?
He was stabbed there.
Stabbed?
Yeah.
So, he said it's quite dangerous, walking around with a camera like this
you would get robbed for sure, that's what he said.
For sure?
Yeah.
But we were walking around this morning,
does he think it's going to happen
if we continue to walk around with this camera?
Yep, but if we're not in a place full of people,
but if we go back streets.
That area we were in today, the place where we got the boat, the fish market,
a guy was actually going to stab someone else
and thought he was this someone else
and stabbed him in the back.
What are the best parts about living here, if that's...
The danger is obviously horrible, but what do you like the most?
Here is a lot more quieter, calmer, countryside
so, there are no robberies here.
It's a good chilled life. It's not like Manaus.
So, these houses are actually floating
the ones over there, you can see in the distance, they're on stilts
but that should show the fluctuation of the Amazon here.
And they have to replace the wood every five years because it rots.
But it's just on these huge bits of wood here, these huge tree trunks
that's what keeps the house afloat
and they swap them out from time to time.
So, you can imagine all these kinds of settlements we went past,
many settlements similar to this
and then they go and take their fish or their produce
and they sell it to Manaus there.
We're going to be exploring more of that later
but that's definitely the hub where a lot of business is conducted.
So, people can live their lives out here
and it is so peaceful and beautiful out here.
So, we drove through some smaller side rivers
but we've come back onto the main Amazon here.
And it's a very interesting point
because this is where two huge rivers meet.
It's actually two different colors,
you can see on the left, the more light brown color
and then this color, it's more of a black.
Really quite a profound meeting of rivers.
Apparently, they blend together for I think 14km
before you can't see the difference.
Okay, so we've made it back to the land.
And you can see the huge port
that's the biggest port on the Amazon.
Now we're going to go and check out the industrial side of the city.
Hello guys, this is Diego from Brazil again
we got friendship bracelets but Nick's
refusing to wear them, but I got mine
I remember this, Nick's not a good friend, not a good friend.
So, we've driven about half an hour
this is one of the main industrial hubs of the entire world, not just Brazil.
Diego was telling me that this is the number one producer
of Honda motorbikes in the world, which is pretty insane.
Across here we have LG.
What are some other big brands that people would know?
Coca-Cola is here, Pepsico is here.
InBev, the number one beer producer, owns Budweiser, Beck's, and Stella.
Samsung is also here.
Samsung, BMW?
BMW for motorcycles.
So, this is a free trade zone, during the late 60s beginning of the 70s
the government created this free trade zone.
Quite interesting, because we're right bang in the center of the Amazon.
When you think of the Amazon, we've seen documentaries and everything
at David Attenborough, talking about anacondas, beautiful animals
but you would never expect this huge city of two million people.
Exactly.
Producing all of this.
So, we've driven down to this middle-upper class area of the city.
Really gorgeous. There's a huge beach here.
You can see the big condominium buildings there
and we drove over this bridge here
and that connects Manaus with the rest of Brazil.
Before that bridge was built, they had car ferries and things.
Just what really has stood out to me in this city is that,
and I'm sure you've seen it as well, is the contrast
You've got the downtown area where our hotel is
then you've got the market where a lot of people make their money.
Then you've got out in the Amazon Rainforest, went to José's family
is super relaxed, it's really nice out there.
And then you come back into this old industrial style
huge factories, which obviously supplies a lot of jobs for the local people.
But it is quite interesting to see that these mega factories,
some of the biggest factories of certain products of the world.
Appliances, motorbikes, in the middle of the lungs of the earth
on the biggest river in the world.
I knew that Brazil had a big industry, but for it to be here.
And then, also there are lots of safe areas
like here, I don't really feel in any danger whatsoever.
But as José was saying, you got to be very careful
and he's been stabbed in the back, not metaphorically, literally.
Had his boat stolen and held at gunpoint.
Everybody's got these stories, Diego, he's been held at gunpoint.
and there is that constant theme of danger here, and that's not exaggerating.
I'm sure anybody who lives here would tell you the same.
But there are, of course, these amazingly beautiful areas
and going out into the Amazon, very safe out there in these little settlements.
Just these big metropolis areas, where you get that thriving crime.
But I haven't had any bad experiences
so far on my trip to Brazil in terms of crime or anything.
I've been to some pretty intense areas, as you've seen.
That's all I can comment on. Obviously, there's stuff's happening,
but for me, personally, so far, fingers crossed, I haven't experienced it.
I just want to take a quick second out
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Okay, back to the video.
We're gonna try and make our way to the Venezuelan border.
I've been to Venezuela, and there's obviously
a lot of migrants and refugees coming through.
Show a bit of the story on the other side of the fence.
There are lots of Venezuelans in this city as well
we've seen them begging and things on the street.
It's a big part of especially the northern areas, the Venezuelan refugees.
It's going to be quite brutal getting up there. We're still figuring it out.
But that'll be the next video.
Hope you enjoy that, hope you're enjoying these Brazil videos.
It's an incredible country in so many ways, and the people are so great.
and especially how they interact with each other.
It's like everybody's friends, it's really beautiful.
there's that mutual respect between the countrymen and the countrywomen.
It's beautiful, it really is.
So, I'm going to leave you here on the Amazon.
I'll see you on the next video from Brazil here.
Thank you so much for watching, and in case I don't see you,
good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
My future is now!