Amazing Amazon!

My anticipation to be in the Amazon made my two early morning flights seem like an eternity. When we arrived in Manaus, and the first thing that everyone noticed was the heat! It was muggy and hot, which turned out to be the weather combination of choice for the next few days! It actually never rained until we were the way back the last night!
The river boats were great!!! The bottom was used for eating and had a small bathroom, and the top was the sleeping/seating area. The first thing I did was go check out the hammocks! They were all colorful, and lined up close together; (I would always bump into someone whenever it started swaying!) I picked out a pink hammock and settled in! What a cool place to sleep for the next few nights!
Looking across the wide river before me I saw what looked to be a sandy beach out in the distance. As it turned out, it was not sand at all, but rather the meeting of the rivers where the Amazon and the Rio Negro touch, but never mix. It was a beautiful sight to see as we got closer. The Amazon was a light muddy color compared to the dark water of the Rio Negro. No one knows exactly why these two rivers don’t mix, and that makes the sight even more special!
Then we moved to a floating dock with a restaurant and place to buy crafts. Here we made our way onto a long wooded plank leading to a pond with giant lily pads! It was a great place to take pictures! (Kate Lilly with the lily pads…very cool!)
Several times during the three days, we got into smaller motorized canoes to go into more narrow parts of the river. They reminded me of the jungle ride at Disney Land only 100x better because it was real!! At one point a group of paddle canoes came up to our boats. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I realized that a man holding a huge Anaconda was stepping onto my boat! Several of the little kids were holding sloths too. I guess some of the local people living in shacks on the waters edge catch these animals, and then try and make some money by showing them to tourists.
There were so many amazing experiences during the trip that it is hard to even list them all! Alligator catching at night was certainly a memorable time. When the light from a flashlight moves across an alligator’s eyes they will glow red, and the animal will freeze for a few minutes. This is enough time for the guide to move in and grab it!! There were fireflies everywhere, and it was a completely surreal experience to be charging into floating grass on a little riverboat to catch alligators underneath an incredible painted sky of stars! Once they did catch a good sized one, & they opened its mouth to let us see its teeth! I was very jumpy, and was just waiting for one to get loose and bite someone!
We took a couple good rainforest hikes! We would always start at what looked like just a random pace off the river. There were no real paths, so our guide Antonio just used a machete to lead us through the forest. It wasn’t exactly what you might think it would look like. We didn’t see any jaguars, anaconda, or even monkeys. It was just a peaceful beautiful walk in the forest where we learned about traditional medicines from different trees, and lit the sap on fire that the early Portuguese used to use to make gun powder.
One of the highlights from my trip was stopping in a little village called Terra Perta! When I was listening to an introduction from the village president, I noticed a little girl hiding over by a tree who wouldn’t stop smiling and laughing at me. She must have thought I looked crazy or something, because she wouldn’t stop laughing! When we started walking, I held out my hand and she immediately came over and grabbed it. she spoke a different dialect of Portuguese, but we could communicate a little bit in Spanish. Her name was Lydia, and she was ois (ocho) anos. She was just the cutest thing ever! I found out later that she was laughing at my blond hair and my shoes. Here we all were in our hiking boots and the kids had no idea why! She didn’t really leave my side during the tour. We saw some of the houses, all of them were on stilts incase there is flooding. We saw the school where most kids are required to attend until age 14, and the soccer field where the boys from our group later played the Brazilian boys. The village was simple, yet beautiful and it was so interesting to hear about how these people make a living, and contribute to the rich indigenous culture and heritage of the Amazon region.
Fishing for phirana was also a crazy experience! I actually did catch one, but didn’t know how to hold the pole to show the fish so the picture is a little awkward! The guide took the hook out and opened up the mouth so I could see the razor sharp teeth, ahhhhhhh! They cooked up all the fish later in the evening for dinner and we all tried a bite of the day’s catch!
Time sure did go by fast! It was actually a very peaceful trip. The river was absolutely stunning, & I was there with great new friends. Basically life was just amazing in the Amazon, and I will never forget my time there!