The Tropical, The Flooded Forest and The Unexpected, Rio Negro, Brazil

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I would like to go back a little to our arrival in Manaus in Amazonia and our first hotel ‘The Tropical’ in Manaus. This is surely one of the most bizarre hotels in Brazil if not the whole of South America.

On arrival we are greeted with the sight of 2 bats flying around the reception area. We get shown to our room by humourless staff through dimly lit long wide corridors which reminded us of the hotel in the film – The Shining. The room is as basic as basic can be, last decorated at a guess around 1950. It does have a TV though which is about 20 years old. Slight problem – it only shows one channel which is a promotional video of the hotel. We go for dinner and I get the only Hamburger ever made without the burger in it. I get a bun, cheese, egg, tomato and lettuce – but no burger. The following morning at 06:00am we get a wakeup call, same on day 2. We didn’t order either of them.

Only good thing I can say about The Tropical was that the wakeup call was by phone rather than one of the staff at the door with an axe saying ‘here’s Johnny’.

On Thursday we got collected from The Tropical for the 3 hour drive to our Jungle Lodge. The accommodation was fairly basic but it has one thing that almost none of the others have… aircon! Of course as soon as we get there we get rain and the temperature drops, so the aircon isn’t so crucial. The lodge is on higher ground on The Rio Negro archipelago, an area of over 400 islands which partially flood at certain times of year. We are situated at a narrow part of the river –it’s only 1 mile wide. After expecting brilliant wildlife we are told that because the river is slightly acidic the wildlife is not as abundant as in much farther flung areas of The Amazon. Instead we get a really good mix of some wildlife (if you look hard enough) and the plant life and vegetation of flooded and unflooded rainforest. We also get the benefit of a few less insects and mosquitos.

The lodge takes you on two or three excursions a day. The pick of these was probably the brief 2 hour Bear Grylls type survival guide to the forest where the group was shown amongst other things how to identify, cook and eat bbq’d larvae. Despite this the main message of the session was don’t touch anything and walk anywhere. Stay perfectly still in an armour plated suit and shout, ‘help’ as loud as you possibly can.

Other trips were a night wildlife and insect spotting boat ride on the banks and waterways of the Rio Negro, a bizarre boat trip through the flooded forest where you ride on a boat through the trees and tree tops and a piranha fishing excursion.

So here is the unexpected. The place is so quiet it’s unreal. During the day hardly anything moves and it is as still as still can be. There is no noise pollution or any pollution at all come to that.

Despite the serene beauty of the forest we can’t say we aren’t pleased to get back to civilisation.

Next stop is Manaus airport for an exceptionally inconvenient flight to Panama City departing at 03.52am.

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Comments

[Michelle Silveman]

Burgers!
Whilst you were enjoying your burgerless burger we were consuming a Tony Page feast at a wonderful wedding at The Grove! Mini burgers, sushi bar, cocktail viennas. . . and that was just the reception! Love your updates and look forward to reading about your amazing adventure - love to you both xxxX