Manaus, Brazil & The Amazon

We arrived in Manaus , located on the Amazon River , around midday. We got picked up by our hostel, who also ran a tour company. Before going to the hostel we stopped by his hostel to find out about tours to the Amazon. We booked one that would leave the following morning. We finally got to our hostel, which was completely empty. It wasn´t the best place, since it was kind of musty. But it did have 3 cats! The one guy who worked there seemed disinterested and spoke no English. We went to bed early, so that we could get up by 7:30 to start our Amazon journey!

We were picked up in a cab at 8am, which dropped us off at the dock. We took a boat across the river and stopped at ‘The Meeting of the Rivers.’ It´s where these 2 rivers meet, and because of the difference in density there is a clear separation between the two. You can see how one side of the river is dark, and the other is much lighter. We put our hands in the water too, and you can feel the difference in temperature too. It was pretty cool. On the other side of the river bank we were picked up by another car, which took us to catch yet another boat. We finally arrived at Juma Lodge around 11am. The dining area is on logs, and as the tide rises the structure moves up. We dropped our stuff off and then took a swim in the river. Which by the way was the same river we had just seen alligators in. Although the owner promised it was safe. After having lunch we packed a few essentials and were taken out into the jungle with a group of 5 other people. Nicole and Keema (sp?!) were from New York City and Washington DC respectively, there was a couple from Switzerland, and there was Joey, who we had actually met in Montevideo! Small world! Our guide was Mateo and his assistant was Paulo. They were both really cool guys, and natives of the Amazon River basin. After an hour boat ride we arrived at our camp site. We set up our hammocks beneath a little hut made of palm tree leaves. We collected fire wood for dinner. We got into a boat to go collect wood from a tree in the middle of the river. Mateo tore off pieces of wood and put it in the boat. We even discovered a baby bat among the fire wood! We returned to camp and started the fire. For dinner we had chicken, rice and some Brazil nuts found in the forest. After dinner we did a night walk in the jungle. We heard lots of animals and saw a huge ass spider! Later we hung out by the fire until bedtime. The hammocks weren´t too bad, but a bed would have been better!

The next day we woke up, and had hard boiled eggs and bread for breakfast. We packed up our stuff and headed out on the river. After an hour or so we arrived at a native’s house, which consisted of three open rooms. After putting our stuff down we went on a jungle walk. It poured rain almost the whole time! It was pretty muddy and slippery; Katie fell twice! There wasn’t much of a trail, and our guides had to take a machete to the plants. We saw lots of plants and ate sugar cane. The walk was about 2 hours long and by the time we finally got back to the house, we were all soaking wet form head to toe! We changed and tried to dry off. The lady of the house made us lunch, and we ate with a bunch of her grand children. After lunch we went back into the river to put out some nets to catch fish for dinner. A couple hours later we retrieved them and found nothing! Thankfully, there were some other nets from earlier which had a few fish in them. That night for dinner we just ate crackers, since neither of us wanted the fish! Later on in the night, we all were dancing with the kids to some American pop music. Also a bit later, our guide offered us some shots of rum! So we were all taking shots with the natives and drinking Caipirinhas made with fresh lemons – and ants! We went to bed around midnight and tried to get comfy in our hammocks!

We were woken up at 5:30am the next day so that we could return to the lodge by 7am for breakfast. After breakfast we went piranha fishing. Leif caught one fish, but unfortunately it wasn’t a piranha so he had to throw it back. Later for lunch there was piranha soup; we both passed though, because it was literally the piranha as whole. And we did not want to eat something with a face! After lunch we said goodbye to Nicole and Keema, and then we went on another jungle trek. Leif really wanted to see some monkeys, so our guide looked extra hard for them. We ended up seeing quite a few, and two different species of them. We also saw an anteater that was climbing trees, tons of birds, lots of ants, spiders and plants. At one point we had to cross a river by walking over a wet, dead tree that was about 30 feet long. We thought it was a joke at first, but he was serious. It was probably the scariest thing we’ve done so far! But thankfully we all made it across alive. When we got back to the lodge we saw a sloth laying on the dock. We thought it was dead, but they told us he was just resting. When it got dark we went into the boat and we went caiman spotting. Mateo caught a three foot female and we all got to hold it in the boat. He also gave us a mini lesson all about caimans. After getting back to the lodge for dinner we were exhausted so we went to bed early.

The last morning we went to an 84 year old man´s house, who showed us about the rubber making process. He makes wallets, shoes and condoms! The condoms do not look comfortable; they are thick and sturdy. He showed us the different sizes of the wood molds, and Mateo commented on the little one saying it was for Japanese people! First he puts a cut in the rubber tree to collect a milky substance that was the rubber. He makes a fire and pours the liquid over the mold, then roasts the mold over the fire. But it was hilarious to see an old man making a rubber condom over a fire. After the rubber demonstration we went and saw a humongous tree, and then returned home. At 2pm we were picked up by boat and made our journey back to the city of Manaus.

We were originally supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, giving us one more night in Manaus. But apparently the boats don´t always leave on time if they aren´t full, so now we are leaving on Saturday afternoon. This was actually a good thing, because we were able to see the city and also got some errands done. We even got to do laundry for the first time! We also got in some shopping, which was great because things are pretty cheap here. We each got something we had been wanting for a while; Leif got a Speedo and Katie got shorts and a tube top. In a few hours we´ll be heading to the dock and hopping on a boat for about a week to go upstream on the Amazon River!