Mamori Survival. so AMAZ(on) ING

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Manaus - /Boat Ride to Turtle Lodge

The most amazing experience to date. Seriously it was beyond what we expected. Dead tired from the several plane delays we arrived in Manaus, we were picked up by the person that would be our guide for the trip, Samuel and we were first driven to the 'port´ from where we got a type of speedboat to a town called Sao Joao😊 In those waters you can see the Amazon River joining with the local waters,really interesting there is a difference in the colouring and also the water temperature.After arriving there we were packed in a VW van to take another boat ride to the lodge where we would stay.

The lodge was a really cute place. All the guests had a nice room ,with ac or fan that would open only for 1 hour in the afternoon and from 6 until 12 which was the time that the generator worked for the power supply. During the first day we did not do anything much, just went for animal watching, we saw 2 sloths one female and one male, and some birds too many to count.

On the seconda day , after the breakfast we went cayaking, i shared one with who would be the second guide Moyseuç and Joanna with Samuel. We had an improptu race which i think we lost, but that was really fun, there were also making fun of me my sister and Samuel because i thought we were going for caymans but instead we were following howling monkeys and my guide at one point got out of the cayak leaving me stranded there while the others were going( important note- he speaks very little English). Needless to say i freaked out. We arrived in time to have a nice swim before the boat came to bring some other lodgers.We had until 3 o clock to prepare our things for the 4 days and 3 nights in the jungle.

Apart from the supplies we had with us the main motor boat and 2 smaller boats.The whole experience centers around this small expedition, going into the actual jungle where you can experience the sort of life the indigenous would live, sort of😊. We got to the place, and then it was time to set up camp, we were mostly doing nothing as the guides had the machetes cutting trees for the shelter structure, Moyseuç had Joanna and the other girl Aniko (from Hungary) sort of sweeping the floor from the leaves, and since i got impatient i went to see what Samuel was doing, he was cutting a branch and he even let me use the machete which was super cool! To sum up, it took quite some time to set the structure, and then tie the hammocks(our beds), and we were all starving. There was rice and chickens for dinner with farrofa(- which is not spelled like this) but its some kind of starch that is really good, it accompanied most of the meals during this trip. You would think that its bedtime, but at that time, it was about 12 the animal kingdom of the jungle is all awake and it was waiting for us.

Our boat went first, Samuel and Joanna and me while Moyseuç had Aniko and her bf Luca( from Italy) were following. We spotted several Caymans which scared the living out of us because we were too close to them and Joanna also had the misfortune of being seated at the far end of the boat which out of personal experience makes you feel slightly alienated and paranoid. It felt like less but we were out until about 4 o clock in the morning, and the coolest thing happened - we saw a small Jaguar an animal that my sister loves, which we really hoped to see however slim the chances were!! The others as we found out in the morning had caught a cayman , Moyseuç ´s specialty, something that we did not manage because our crocs were a bit aggresive- what can u do if u dont ride with the pro?😊There was a big commotion in the morning as there was a deer really close to the camp which Moyseuç wanted to kill but Samuel did not allow, and we were woken up to prepare for the hardest day out of the 3, camping in another place deeper in the jungle sleeping on the earth.... We got a little bit lost and sweaty on the way there but there were some jungle refreshments, water being poured out by a tree trunk- you have to see it to believe it, and also we collected another part of a trunk that you can make some really amazing tea from.

We finally reached the place, which was set up already by the previous group that Samuel had brought there 3 months ago.Pics to follow, the shed was amazing, made out of palm tree and wood. After sweating all day we wnt in the water for a swim or bath. We jumped in , some with the bathing suits and others in their undies, but it was fun especially accompanied by caipirinha.After that luxury we were off before it got dark to reach a place from where we could fill our bottles with clean/drinking water. We were back just in time before it got really dark and most of the group went to hunt for dinner- which incidentaly was frogs- not my kind of thing- felt disguisted by the whole idea as i really love the animal. Ceazing the opportunity the younger guide came to talk to me , how we managed to comprehend one another still amazes me. We were both anti frog, he informed me that there was also fruit salat so i wuldnt get hungry. To be honest i was really curious of how the frog tasted so i had some bites, feeling really guilty the same time,and then he presented the chicken- we only had about 4 frogs for the 6 of us!Then we had the fruitsalad with handmade spoons- they could ´pretty much everything with that tool.

At that particular camp Samuel had a spotted Jaguar visiting the previous time so we were all pretty anxious and excited to see.We were not so lucky but, Aniko spotted a cayman really close to the camp when us girls went to visit the ladies!

We were up by 6 30 and Moyseuç was really anxious to leave that place and we all packed up real fast and were out of the place in no time.

More to follow soon in part 2😊

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