My First Scar From The Amazon

I have many scars from the Amazon. I was just thinking about them on my last trip there. My very first was when I was 12 years old. I was running up the stairs of an old river boat, and the stairs were wet. 7 stitches later I was back on that river boat again traveling around the Amazon with my father over summer break. It all was so new to me then. That was also the trip were I had my first kiss. She was a 14-year-old Brazilian to my 12. I wasn’t sure what I was doing then, not that I even do now, but what struck me as funny was that my father told me to use a condom if anything were to happen. I was only 12 and had no ideas beyond a kiss, and the kiss was really too much for me the shy boy that I was.
That was also the trip where I got to visit Parintins for the festival of the bull. A group of reporters and coco-cola body guards had rented out the river boat for the world famous festival. I got to tag along with them and sit in the press box. This festival was second only to Carnival, and I wondered around the city using the phrases my grandfather had taught me to buy a t-shirt of whichever side I decided to be on. There are 2 sides representing 2 bulls, and there is a fierce rivalry between the 2, so it was important that I pick the right side. What was my deciding factor? Well at 12 it came down to my favorite color and which side had the cutest girls I saw walking around town. The festival itself was spectacular with the whole year leading up to this competition. But what fascinated me the most was one of the body guards. He towered over me, which was unusual because most Brazilians were on par with my 12-year-old height. He had been in the Brazilian Special Forces, and I used to watch him walking through the crowds as they parted to let him pass looking very much like a giant to me and these people. He gave me a t-shirt of the Brazilian Special Forces which I still have to this day.
It was strange to go back to school after that summer. Most kids just thought of me as the quiet kid who never did anything. They were right about me being quiet, but what else did they know about me?