The Amazon
So, we left for the Amazon river and Jungle on Wednesday, about noon. Once again, it took almost a whole day to get to our destination, but, like in Venezuela, it was worth every minute. The journey went like this: Ship-->Bus to airport in Salvador-->Flight to airport in Brasilia-->Flight to Manaus-->Bus to ferry on the banks of the Amazon-->Ferry to our lodge. Whew. The traveling was pretty painless though—talked to a lot of new people, ate lunch in the Brasilia airport, which is really nice (reminds me of a US airport), and drank some Capirinhias to kill time during the layover.
On the flight from Brasilia to Manaus, I got into an intense religious discussion with a kid named Lee, who would turn out to be my roommate at the lodge. He’s a hardcore born-again Christian who leads the bible study group on the ship, and the conversation began when he noticed me reading my textbook for my religion class. As you may or may not know, I am not a religious person at all, but I was interested in what he had to say. Throughout the whole conversation, though, I was thinking of the last time we say Lewis Black. I restrained myself from screaming “FOSSILS FOSSILS FOSSILS FOSSILS I WIN.” No, but seriously, I think it is amazing that this guy really does believe the Bible word for word. His proof? In his heart, he says, and in his faith. I’ll stick with physics and evolution, thank you very much.
OK, so anyway, back to the Amazon. The lodge that we stayed at was ridiculous. Imagine us really roughing it. Then imagine the complete opposite of that, and that was our lodge. It was this secluded hotel with a big pool, dual-person cabins with nice beds and hot water showers, and big buffets for every meal of the day. The front of the lodge opened onto a private beach on the banks of the Amazon. There were two monkeys that roamed around the hotel grounds, and a bunch of parrots and macaws. The monkeys were so awesome; they were totally not afraid of people, would play with us, take food from your plates if you weren’t careful, and spent the day just climbing around the hotel and the surrounding trees. They just seemed like they were having so much fun, I was jealous.
We got to the lodge pretty late at night, and just went to bed that first night. We started the next morning with breakfast, played with the monkeys for a while, and then did a trek into the jungle. It was HOT. We were in the shade the whole time, but it must have been like 95 degrees and 100% humidity. I was sweating balls. Aside from that, though, the hike was awesome. There was this network of wooden bridges that we walked on for a while; I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. Our guides show us some cool plants, like the plant that is used to make Vicks Vaporub. We climbed a wooden stairway to get a view of the forest canopy, which was quite amazing. We continued hiking, an dour guide found us a HUGE tarantula, seriously about the size of my fist. I have sweet pictures, but I’ll be honest, I was scared shitless. Then, our guide gave us a short course in jungle survival tips, which was cool. We didn’t really see any larger animals, but then again, we were in the Amazon, not in a zoo. Animals try to stay camouflaged, not out in the open for tourists to take pictures.
After lunch at the lodge, we took some motorized canoes to a small hut where an Indian family lived. Their means of supporting themselves was by growing and cultivating Manioc, a root vegetable kind of like a potato. They showed us how the plan was grown, harvested, and processed to remove the cyanide that is found naturally in the plant. It was amazing to see how simply these people lived. Their efforts were totally focused on the tasks of everyday living (The daughter did attend a public school in Manaus via ferry, however.) I cannot imagine living like that, but I am sure that these people think that our materialist culture and pace of life is absurd as well.
That night, we went out with our guide alligator hunting. Oh man, this was probably the highlight of the trip. We were out on a canoe with a big searchlight, scanning the beaches for the telltale reflection off of the alligators’ eyes. Once we found one, our guide caught him and brought him back onto the boat, where we all got to hold him and take some awesome pictures. That’s right, I held an alligator, and I still have all of my fingers and toes.
Day 3 began with a boat ride along the coast of Manaus and a trip to the Meeting of the Waters—the point where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Amazon. Manaus is a very interesting city. It is right on the banks of the Amazon, pretty much in the middle of the jungle, but it is this huge industrial center. Tons of manufacturing goes on here because it is a duty free center for Brazilians. It is quite the stark contrast, untouched jungle landscapes right next to manufacturing plants and oil refineries. The Meeting of the Waters was cool too—because of the differences in the temperature and density of the two rivers, they do not mix, so there is this sharp boundary with cloudy, red water from the Amazon on one side and clear black water from the Negro on the other.
For lunch, we took our riverboat to this small floating village, which was very cool. Afterwards, we walked to a nearby lagoon with huge lily pads and other wildlife—there was this really cool turtle just chillin on a log. We walked back to the floating village, and went piranha fishing! This was also a highlight—we just had these bamboo poles with hooks and little pieces of meat, and our group must have caught like 50 piranhas. I’m glad I didn’t fall in the water—individually, the piranhas were small and not that intimidating, but in a group, these little fuckers could do some serious damage. Too bad we didn’t have some kind of small mammal we could throw in the water, and just seem the piranhas swarm and devour this thing. That would have been CRAZY.
Finally, we returned back to the lodge for our final dinner and a party with other SAS kids that had been on riverboat trips around the Amazon. This was cool, a performance group dressed up in traditional Indian garb and danced around, and we all eventually joined in. There was fire breathing too, which was pretty sick. After the party, we started the long ass journey home—I think we traveled for like 15 hours straight today. We had some really long layovers in airports on the way back, and I had my first experience being a hobo and sleeping on the floor of an airport. Surprisingly comfortable, I must say, guess I have been missing out all of these years.
So, yeah, another great port experience. Defintely NOT what I expected from a trip to the Amazon River, but it met, if not exceeded, anything I could have hoped for. And now, goodbye South America, and we begin our journey over to Africa.
On the flight from Brasilia to Manaus, I got into an intense religious discussion with a kid named Lee, who would turn out to be my roommate at the lodge. He’s a hardcore born-again Christian who leads the bible study group on the ship, and the conversation began when he noticed me reading my textbook for my religion class. As you may or may not know, I am not a religious person at all, but I was interested in what he had to say. Throughout the whole conversation, though, I was thinking of the last time we say Lewis Black. I restrained myself from screaming “FOSSILS FOSSILS FOSSILS FOSSILS I WIN.” No, but seriously, I think it is amazing that this guy really does believe the Bible word for word. His proof? In his heart, he says, and in his faith. I’ll stick with physics and evolution, thank you very much.
OK, so anyway, back to the Amazon. The lodge that we stayed at was ridiculous. Imagine us really roughing it. Then imagine the complete opposite of that, and that was our lodge. It was this secluded hotel with a big pool, dual-person cabins with nice beds and hot water showers, and big buffets for every meal of the day. The front of the lodge opened onto a private beach on the banks of the Amazon. There were two monkeys that roamed around the hotel grounds, and a bunch of parrots and macaws. The monkeys were so awesome; they were totally not afraid of people, would play with us, take food from your plates if you weren’t careful, and spent the day just climbing around the hotel and the surrounding trees. They just seemed like they were having so much fun, I was jealous.
We got to the lodge pretty late at night, and just went to bed that first night. We started the next morning with breakfast, played with the monkeys for a while, and then did a trek into the jungle. It was HOT. We were in the shade the whole time, but it must have been like 95 degrees and 100% humidity. I was sweating balls. Aside from that, though, the hike was awesome. There was this network of wooden bridges that we walked on for a while; I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. Our guides show us some cool plants, like the plant that is used to make Vicks Vaporub. We climbed a wooden stairway to get a view of the forest canopy, which was quite amazing. We continued hiking, an dour guide found us a HUGE tarantula, seriously about the size of my fist. I have sweet pictures, but I’ll be honest, I was scared shitless. Then, our guide gave us a short course in jungle survival tips, which was cool. We didn’t really see any larger animals, but then again, we were in the Amazon, not in a zoo. Animals try to stay camouflaged, not out in the open for tourists to take pictures.
After lunch at the lodge, we took some motorized canoes to a small hut where an Indian family lived. Their means of supporting themselves was by growing and cultivating Manioc, a root vegetable kind of like a potato. They showed us how the plan was grown, harvested, and processed to remove the cyanide that is found naturally in the plant. It was amazing to see how simply these people lived. Their efforts were totally focused on the tasks of everyday living (The daughter did attend a public school in Manaus via ferry, however.) I cannot imagine living like that, but I am sure that these people think that our materialist culture and pace of life is absurd as well.
That night, we went out with our guide alligator hunting. Oh man, this was probably the highlight of the trip. We were out on a canoe with a big searchlight, scanning the beaches for the telltale reflection off of the alligators’ eyes. Once we found one, our guide caught him and brought him back onto the boat, where we all got to hold him and take some awesome pictures. That’s right, I held an alligator, and I still have all of my fingers and toes.
Day 3 began with a boat ride along the coast of Manaus and a trip to the Meeting of the Waters—the point where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Amazon. Manaus is a very interesting city. It is right on the banks of the Amazon, pretty much in the middle of the jungle, but it is this huge industrial center. Tons of manufacturing goes on here because it is a duty free center for Brazilians. It is quite the stark contrast, untouched jungle landscapes right next to manufacturing plants and oil refineries. The Meeting of the Waters was cool too—because of the differences in the temperature and density of the two rivers, they do not mix, so there is this sharp boundary with cloudy, red water from the Amazon on one side and clear black water from the Negro on the other.
For lunch, we took our riverboat to this small floating village, which was very cool. Afterwards, we walked to a nearby lagoon with huge lily pads and other wildlife—there was this really cool turtle just chillin on a log. We walked back to the floating village, and went piranha fishing! This was also a highlight—we just had these bamboo poles with hooks and little pieces of meat, and our group must have caught like 50 piranhas. I’m glad I didn’t fall in the water—individually, the piranhas were small and not that intimidating, but in a group, these little fuckers could do some serious damage. Too bad we didn’t have some kind of small mammal we could throw in the water, and just seem the piranhas swarm and devour this thing. That would have been CRAZY.
Finally, we returned back to the lodge for our final dinner and a party with other SAS kids that had been on riverboat trips around the Amazon. This was cool, a performance group dressed up in traditional Indian garb and danced around, and we all eventually joined in. There was fire breathing too, which was pretty sick. After the party, we started the long ass journey home—I think we traveled for like 15 hours straight today. We had some really long layovers in airports on the way back, and I had my first experience being a hobo and sleeping on the floor of an airport. Surprisingly comfortable, I must say, guess I have been missing out all of these years.
So, yeah, another great port experience. Defintely NOT what I expected from a trip to the Amazon River, but it met, if not exceeded, anything I could have hoped for. And now, goodbye South America, and we begin our journey over to Africa.
posted by ehindman at 7:18 PM
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