Amazon Adventure

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September 3rd 2012

Published: September 3rd 2012

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camreys

Manaus - the port

Manaus, the jumping off point for our Amazon adventure, was a place of contrasts. For us it was a great change of weather - sunny, hot and humid so the summer gear was donned for the first time since the Galapagos Islands.

Manaus, located in the centre of Brazil near the Equator, is a river port set on the Rio Negro (named for its colour) close to where it becomes the Amazon. It is a sprawling jumble of gracious, old, colonial buildings, a reminder of its Portuguese past and most in need of restoration except for the grand old Opera House, mixed with street upon street of markets and the hive of activity at the port. From Manaus travel is either by plane or boat so all goods, commercial or personal, are transported by water through large container ships, small motorised canoes or passenger ferries where you hire a hammock for the trip home, 3.5 day journey to the mouth of the river or 11 day trip to Peru. This place could look quite different in the future as it is preparing to host some of the World Cup Soccer games in 2014 and elements of the Olympics in 2016.

The ´Schooner'

Cruising the Amazon River is an eye-opening experience to the vast expance of water in this region (20% of the world´s fresh water) coupled with the diversity of animal life and flora. Our days were spent either in our wooden motorised ´schooner´where activities centered around socialising, eating, drinking chaprehinias, the local beverage, or siesta time and the outboard powered ´long boat´. Trips in the long boat took us deep into the tributaries of the Amazon, often very narrow, and at night dark and eerie. It was at these times, we fished for piranhas, easy to catch and not as savage as you are led to believe, but with a set of teeth in which you wouldn´t want to be caught. We also fed pink dolphins and pigmy monkeys which swung through the trees with great agility using their long tails as anchors as they moved to our boat in response to our guide´s call. They greedly grabbed bananas from the palm of your hand, nimbly jumping from person to person with a suprisingly soft touch. Each night, we ventured out in search of birds of all types, alligators, tree frogs, snakes (boa constrictors and anacondas) and even the lonely

Piranha fishing

sloth in the top of the tall umbrella tree.

A short trek through the jungle, assisted by a local guide weilding a machette to clear our way, led us to a newly constructed village school purposely built as a centre of learning about the ecology and sustainability of the Amazon´s environment.

At one stage, the Amazon River (lighter in colour) meets the Rio Negro and amazingly the two rivers meander side by side without merging due to the differences in temperature, rate of flow and density. This phenonomen occurs for several kilometres before they become one river and empty 100,000 cubic metres of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean. This Amazon Adventure concluded with a compulsory chaprehini beverage to farewell the crew and fellow ´sailors´before docking back in Manaus.

Now looking forward to watching the girls walk by at Ipanema!!

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