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Published: September 6th 2006
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A selva
Hiking into the forest. Lots of green. Arriving in Manaus was everything I expected it to be. As soon as I stepped off the boat, I was thrust into the swirling madness of a port in the largest city in the Amazon--people rushing around, carrying cargo from boat to shore, families dashing to their boat, all under the blazing Amazonian sun. (As for the ride itself from Santarém to Manaus, it was a lot more pleasant this time, far less crowded, a brand new ship, and much better food.) Manaus is an interesting city, due to its location and atmosphere, but the real reason to come here is to make a jungle excursion, which I arranged within a few hours of arriving.
Leaving bright and early, we took a combination of several vans and boats to arrive at a lodge of Lago Mamorí, a lake southwest of Manaus that dumps into the Rio Simões (which later, along with the Rio Negro becomes the Rio Amazonas). Truthfully, the entire experience wasn´t as ´rustic´as I had hoped for, but that being said, when it rained for almost 12 hours straight, it was very nice to have a roof over our heads.
In our first day, we were taken
Teatro Amazonas
The famous opera house, built in 1896 at the height of the rubber boom, right before the decline. The theater is built with all Brazilian wood, which was sent over to Europe to be carved and returned. It´s the pinnacle of the European extravagance of the period and it beautifully maintained and still has shows every evening. by boat--everything is done by boat on the Amazon--to an island where sloths are usually found. After searching for a bit, our native guide spotted one high above our heads in a tree about 30 meters up. With amazing agility, he climbed up there and plucked him from his perch and brought it down for us to see. It was a cool little bugger.
That night we went out for a bit of alligator spotting with a flashlight. After a few misses, our guide managed to snag one about a meter long. After he got it, he saw another one close that he wanted to try for, so, being the nice guy that I am, I offered to hold the first one for him. To hold a gator, you simply hold them around the neck and tail quite firmly. After a bit, the French girl besides me leans over and says, ´Are you sure he can breath?´ He hadn´t really been moving much, so I thought, Well, maybe I´m choking him a bit, and as soon as I let up, BAM! He shot out of my hands and into the boat. I grabbed him again, no problems, but that
A little bowl of heaven
Since coming to Brazil, I´ve fallen in love with açaí. It´s a fruit from the Amazon that´s said to have energetic powers. It´s usually served pureed and chilled in a bowl with slices of banana and granola. It is absolutely delicious, and I believe you can even buy it at Planet Smoothie in the US. Besides the fruit, the seeds are used by indians for jewelry, the branches as brooms, and the root is brewed as an anti-malarial tea. made it a bit more exciting.
Along with some spear-fishing and a trip to a local riverside village later, we did a lot of dolphin watching. I think there are slightly less dolphins than mosquitos in the Amazon. There are actually three species: a small gray, a large gray, and a pink, which is literally pink, much more prehistoric looking, and behaves quite differently from the others. They all, however, were very difficult to get photos of.
Out of the three days, the best day by far was the second. We spent the morning hiking through the forest, seeing all sorts of things, and in the afternoon we were taken to one of the largest trees in the region, and had the good luck of seeing some squirrel monkeys (or ´macacos de cheiro,´ smelly monkeys, in Portuguese), capuchins, a black howler, and some green parrots. The morning trek was immensely interesting. It is really amazing the creativity of some plants and animals in the Amazon. Our guide made latex right in front of us, by taking rubber milk from a tree and heating it on a leaf. One type of very thick vine can be cut and turned
One of the seven deadly sins
Yeah, it was pretty cool holding a sloth. This is right before we whirled around and mauled me. Just kidding. He was really slow. upside down to drink water out of it naturally. It was tasty too. He showed us a type of natural mosquito repellent that natives use: putting your hand on an agitated ant mound, letting them crawl all over your arm, and then smash them. It´s also used for hunting, because it masks the human scent. We also caught a tarantula, saw poison arrow dart frogs, and saw trees that are literally swallowing up other trees. Like I said, it was incredibly interesting.
It´s always been my dream since I was little to come to the Amazon, so it was wonderful to actually be here and see these things. It would have been very cool to be here a few weeks ago when the water was still high and you could canoe through the igapós (flooded forests), closer to the canopy. Still, we did get a big storm that rolled in during our last night, so I got to experience a real Amazon rain, firsthand. In fact, the next day, the rain damaged our motor on our canoe and stranded us at the village, so we had to make some makeshift paddles out of boards and palm branches and row
Never met a Gator I´ve liked . . .
Our native guide, proudly displaying the alligator that I almost managed to lose. back.
All in all, it was a great experience. I´d love to stay here long to really penetrate deep into the jungle more, but the money and soon-to-be lack of malaria pills won´t really permit that. Also, I´m catching a plane today at 3:20 in the morning for Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It just so happens that tomorrow is independence day here (Sete de Setembro), so it´ll be cool to spend it in the captial. I´m hoping for some cool parades. But before that, I´m going to catch a dance performance at the Teatro Amazonas, so I must rush off to change clothes. Catch you back in civilization!
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Mav
non-member comment
you see!?
that is why the French haven't won a war since Napoleon was around. 'do you think it can breathe?' please. it's a gator, who cares if it can breathe. GO DAWGS!!