The Amazon

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Amazon Adventures


I must first start this blog entry by recommending "Gero Tours" for anyone who happens to be going to Manaus for a trip to the Amazon. The owner, Gero, and our guide Josh made this trip outstanding and worth every penny. I'd also like to thank the boys for constantly being on 'spider watch' around me.


Day 1 in the jungle...

So, who knew.....there ARE spiders in the Amazon....HUGE spiders with poisonous bites and everything! I absolutely did not sign up for spiders.

We set off from Manaus and boarded our first small boat. We were now officially on the Amazon and the excitement for what we were about to experience over the next few days was growing. After a few short minutes the boat slowed to a crawl as we came across the 'meeting of the waters'. The yellow-brown Solimoes and the blue-black Rio Negro, which run alongside each other for about 18km before finally mixing. So we were able to see a distinct difference in the water colours as the boat swung around the meeting edges. Then we were off again, finally arriving back on land for a 45minute land trip until we arrived at one of the many small waterway channels of the Amazon where we boarded...a leaking boat...eek. No problem for Josh though as he repositioned us to stop the boat from creeping further into the water and then continued to bail the water out as we meandered along. It was incredible to realise that we were on the Amazon, passing by floating houses and surrounded by the sights and sounds of brightly coloured birds, parrots and butterflies the likes of which I have only ever seen in a zoo or on animal planet.
We arrived at the island lodge, not knowing exactly what to expect for accommodation. There was no need to worry as we were all very surprised at the high standard of lodges we were going to be staying in for the next 4 nights along with the superb food. Only one thing to keep in mind.....stay off the grass, why? There were poisonous snakes all over the place...gulp.

We spent the afternoon on the water on a slightly less leaky boat this time. Josh took us to a large open area of water where the boys eagerly jumped in for a swim, all the time swapping jokes in jest that were secretly digested in more detail by all about the tiny eel that has a pendance to swim up into private areas causing a great deal of pain and strife to remove. Of course and most hillariously Thomas favoured the 'help me I´m being eaten by a caiman' routine as he splashed around and ducked himself under the water for full effect. Everyone clambered very unelegantly back into the boat covered with tiny little brown fibres from the decaying leaves in the water and we headed off to one of the main water channels. Here we were hoping to see pink river dolphins but Josh had already explained that we may not see them at this time of year as they would swim into the flood forests for food instead. I was dismayed until about 5 minutes later when I yelled out 'there's a dolphin!'and we all saw our first glimpse of a pink river dolphin. This is where we saw our first howler monkey too. A noisy creature we later discovered on our trip and one which has a tendancy to crap continuously when frightened - again we later discovered this.
Our first night was spent getting to know each other and the unusual or slightly more uncommon jobs that every seemed to be in. And then to the riddles....every night we plagued each other with riddle upon riddle, some very cryptic ones at that.


Day 2 in the jungle...

There are so many things we saw and experienced in the Amazon that I could write a novel so I need to keep this as brief as I can and not list every single creature. Day 2 in the jungle and we were actually going on a jungle trek. Terror filled every pore of me as I knew this meant serious business with spiders. The boys; Thomas, Calum, Henrik, Mario and Stuart all had their instructions from me. They were simple - if you see a spider on me get it off!
We set off surrounded by some ferocious mosquitos, who it has to be said had taken to Thomas a lot more so than anyone else as had the biting ants. Throughout the trek Josh introduced us to medicinal plants, the brazil nut tree and the grub - which Thomas and Calum bravely (and rather disgustingly) ate! This fat, juicy white grub about an inch in length apparently tasted similar to coconut.
The jungle was so humid and the sun was shining through a clear blue sky and was heating us all up, we continued on climbing up and down leaf trodden muddy paths and balanced ourselves as we tentatively stepped across a fallen tree hovering above the river. What seemed like hours later Josh stopped Thomas and Stuart and told them not to move as he prepared a poking stick from a leaf that he pushed into a hole under a fallen tree branch by their feet....out jumped a tarantula trying to grab the end of the stick as Josh toyed with him. My fear told me to stay away but my curiosity wanted to see more closely. My fear won the battle though and Thomas had to take the photos instead.
On we trod becoming increasingly more tired, our pathway had become flooded and so Josh had to improvise and we found ourselves trully jungle trekking now through unchartered territory as Josh hacked his way through the trees with a machette trying to get us back onto a well trodden path. We passed by another tarantula and a huge poisonous spider sitting spreadeagled on his web and in our path. The spider was as large as a mans hand and could have been very dangerous if it had bitten us. We came across a tree that an ant colony had built their nest onto the side of. Josh explained that here it was traditional for men to prove themselves worthy of marriage to a potential father-in-law by placing their hand over the nest and letting the ants crawl over their hand and arm. Thomas, Calum and Stuart did this - it was incredible to watch that in less than 2 seconds the ants were covering each of their hands completely and had to then be shaken and wiped off so as not to start biting.

We set off again in the afternoon in search of more wildlife. The boat was pushing its way through the flood forest with Josh at the front hacking the branches from our pathway. Josh called out to the driver to stop, he had seen a sloth curled up in a small ball right at the top of the tree. The driver then scaled the fragile tree and began to shake it until the sloth fell down into the water and started in a very lazy sloth like manner to slowly swim away from the boat. We took chase and 2 minutes later Josh had caught the creature. This lazy, shy alien like animal is the oddest creature I can ever remember seeing. Josh passed it to Thomas and as he held it up we mused that it could have the arms/legs, head, body and claws from 4 different animals. I honestly believe that E.T was modelled on the sloth.

Darkness fell and we headed out to search for caiman passing by hundreds of tiny fireflies lighting up the river banks, Josh impressed us all with his caiman calls - an incredible gutterall hoop like sound. Josh had been leaning forward out of the boat and sat back down next to Thomas, very casually...a little too casually. He turned around and winked at us while a confused Thomas was ignorant to the fact that Josh was waving a 2ft caiman around behind his back....a wriggling and squirming caiman with snappy jaws and razor sharp teeth.


Day 3 in the jungle...

Who would have thought it but Thomas and I managed to catch a serious head cold in the hot and humid jungle! Still we absolutely were not going to let this stop us.
Day 3 and we were set to head off into the boat through the flood forests. As the branches of trees and plants were nearly always in our way the boat was under constant threat of spiders and other insects falling in. Everyone was on spider watch for me again! As we entered the flood forest Josh gave us instructions: I was told not to scream; we were told no matter what jumps in the boat do not jump out as there are more dangers in the water, anacondas, sting rays, pirahna and caiman; we were also advised that snakes could fall into the boat from the tree tops above and if that were to happen, move our feet out of the way, don´t touch it and let it find its own way out.
We were lucky enough to see a number of monkeys of different varieties here including the howler monkeys which in their terror to flee from us were 'dumping their waste products' all over the place. Several occasions the boat was invaded by spiders that had been flicked off branches, we developed a routine for these situations where I ducked down, shut my eyes, forgot to breath and Thomas would nudge me when it was safe to come up again.

Each day on the trip we had been lucky enough to see the odd dolphin for a fleeting second but we were lucky enough one morning to be treated to a sight of over 12 grey dolphins jumping and swimming around the boat ahead of us. A real treat.

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Photos

Josh showing us the bug
... that Thomas would eat seconds later... yum yum

Tarantuala...
... Michelle just LOVED this....

The oddest looking animal ...EVER
A Sloth