Blogs from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, South America

Hallo ihr Lieben zu Hause wir haben den urwald ueberlebt! und das obwohl ich gleich nach 5 min mit einer tarantula konfrontiert wurde!! koennt euch ja vorstellen, was da los war. wollte gleich wieder abreisen... nunja, den kaiman den ich fuern foto aufm arm hatte, hab ich vor schreck leider fallen lassen, leider habe ich dabei irgendwie in richtung lisa geworfen (hat ein tolles gesicht gemacht :-)) und wir hatten dann erstmal ein wenig stimmung im boot, weil niemand von dem 2-jaehrigen ''suessen babykroko'' mit den suessen zaehnchen gebissen werden wollte, der fands bestimmt auch recht lustig erst fuer fotos geknebelt zu werden und dann durch die luft zu fliegen um unsanft im boot zu landen... nunja, klingt als haetten wir spass gehabt, ja das hatten wir wahrhaftig und nun was soll ich sagen, kaum ist ... read more

Four days after leaving the Caribbean, the water starts to turn a tanish brown, a sign that we have arrived in the Amazon. The waters begin to calm a bit, though no land is in sight in any direction. With over 500 tributaries and over 50 miles wide in places, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. One must not mistake the color of the water for pollution, the logical assumption one would make when seeing a river of such a color. The Solimões River, one of the rivers that make up the Amazon, gets its color from its mineral content. It will take us 3 days to reach the city of Manaus. As we navigate this mighty river we can occasionally see land, a lush green color dense with rainforest. Entire tree trunks ... read more

We have been having so much fun exploring big and beautiful Brazil that we have been neglecting the blog... so, it's catch-up time! A day-by-day would be way too long so we hope you enjoy our city-by-city summary of our Brazillian adventure thus far. Sao Paulo We arrived by air from Lima on December 21st, and as we were mainly concerned with planning our accommodations over Christmas and New Year's Eve, we spent most of our time here on the computer rather than touring around. That said, we did manage to visit Ibirapuera Park, which is one of the largest city parks in Latin America (sort of like what Central Park is to NYC). It was an extremely hot day (the beginning of summer in Brazil) so we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the grounds trying ... read more

We arrived at the Manaus airport at 3.00am after a bit of a milk-run, stopping at Belem which is at the mouth of the Amazon and Santarem which is due west of Belem. We were to be picked up by someone from the Hotel but this was not to be! It was obviously too late for them. We caught a ‘taxi’ which did 100kms per hour down a main street. The hotel was not my best choice but the bed was clean and the room had air-conditioning and it was only going to be for ½ a night. The next morning after a cold shower (which was very refreshing in 32 degree heat and 90% humidity) we found a place for breakfast and practiced our Portuguese and hand language (!) which all worked well. We then ... read more