October 23rd, 2006 | 
Author: After the debacle with trying to get flights in Sao Paulo and after visiting the amazing Foz de Iguacu Falls we made our way by plane to Manaus. This was an early flight from Foz which meant having to get a taxi transfer to the airport rather than being able to take the much cheaper option of the bus. However, everything went without a hitch and we arrived in Manaus where, as soon as you stepped out of the air-conditioned airport, it immediately felt hotter and much more humid than where we’d come from.
We negotiated our way out of the airport terminal and walked a short distance to the bus stop to catch the bus which would take us into Manaus. It was there that Alison broke the cardinal rule of talking to a tout! To be fair, this guy, who was called Armstrong, seemed quite friendly and unassuming and was generally just chatting with us but, of course, there’s always something they want and eventually he got round to asking if we had a hotel and a trip up the Amazon sorted out. To be honest, at this stage in our trip we didn’t feel much like spending time shopping around in a very hot and sticky Manaus so it was quite good taking some tips from him. In the end he recommended a hotel, which in fact had been the one we’d planned to go to in any case, and so it was quite good letting him take us there rather than finding the place ourselves. The hotel was pretty rank, even by budget standards, but by now we’d decided to go on a jungle trip the next day so it would only be for the one night.
Manaus itself was a large, sprawling city and the streets were very frenetic. Initially our plan had been to stay there for a couple of days seeing the sites, in addition to taking a trip up the Amazon, but when we saw how busy the place was we decided to cut this part of the trip out. Having sorted ourselves out in the hotel and having had a bite to eat we met up once again with Armstrong and arranged our trip up the Amazon. Armstrong had asked about our movements after Manaus and had told us he could arrange some cheap air tickets for our onward travel to Salvador and Rio. Apparently he could get cheap rates as a tour guide so we thought ”Why not?”. However, whilst chatting to him we discovered that all this meant was that he would send one of his minions off to an internet cafe to check on prices – exactly the same as we would’ve done! Still, at least it saved us having to do this, so now we were all set for our Amazon trip and our onward flights.
The following day, the day of our jungle trip, started off in a comical fashion. Armstrong had asked that we be ready at the hotel at 8.15am for him to pick us up and take us to the port to board the boat for our trip. Well, first of all he arrived after 8.30am and promptly told us that one of his ”drivers” would take us to the port. Darren needed to buy some back-up batteries for the camera and asked if we could do this on the way. Once again, Armstrong passed this on to another member of his ‘’staff” who would take us to get these. This resulted in the driver and this additional member of staff having a conflab, us being bundled into a taxi, and arriving at the port not having stopped for the batteries. At this point Darren reminded the chap about the batteries which resulted in him being taken right out of the port again to try to find some!
Once on board the boat that would be taking us to our jungle lodge we met a nice guy called Jordan who would be joining us. He was from Sweden and was travelling for a total of two years! After an introduction by the owner of the company we set off in the opposite direction to our lodge, to our first site of interest, the famous ‘Encontro das Aguas’ or the ‘Meeting of the Waters’, where the ‘black’ (dark brown) waters of the Rio Negro meet the ‘white’ (light brown) Rio Solimoes, a few kilometres downstream from Manaus. These two flow side by side without mixing together for a good stretch which gives the strange phenomenon of two different shades of water stretching out in front of you. At this time of the year when there are stronger winds along the river, the line between the two waters stretching out in front of you is in a wavy fashion but when there are little or no winds, the line is more distinct and straighter.
Having seen this strange effect we turned around and headed to our jungle lodge. The journey would take around three hours during which time we would pass Manaus and areas of the river which seemed to be completely deserted. What was interesting to see as we left Manaus was how industrialised the place was. Manaus is in fact home to a massive number of electronics assembly plants, where electronics components are assembled into consumer goods, many of them on floating wharehouses. In 1967 Brazil established Manaus as a tax-free zone which helped to encourage its development in this way. As we continued on our way it was also interesting to see picturesque beaches along the banks of the Rio Negro, not something that you might’ve thought you’d find in the Amazon.
At around 1.30pm we arrived at our floating lodge which, although basic, was in fact really quite nice and consisted of a large floating wooden structure, supported by huge tree trunks and secured to the bank only a short distnace away. There were individual rooms, each of which were partitioned off providing some privacy although not a great deal as the partitions didn`t reach the roof! Each room had a double and a single bed plus a small bathroom with a toilet and shower. We think the water was probably taken directly from the river and, as such, sometimes you might have a cold shower and at other times a really warm one depending on the time of the day and how much the river had been heated by the sun. There was also a large open area at the front of the lodge with tables where you could sit and eat as well as a small bar from which you could purchase drinks.
Having travelled for a few hours we were pretty hot and hungry and were given a nice meal of fish, rice, and salad before setting off for our first activity – piranha fishing!
Our guide was a great chap called Reuben (his Catholic name) or Ana Ana (his Indian name which means pineapple) who spoke excellent English. Reuben took us out, together with Jordan, for the piranha fishing on a long, wooden canoe powered by a motor on the end of a long pole, much like the tailboats in Thailand. After meandering through the tributeries we stopped close to the riverbank, tied up to a tree trunk, and started to fish. Reuben had a proper rod but also used the same contraption we were given which consisted of a bamboo pole with a fishing line at the end of which was a hook. He attached small pieces of meat onto the hook informing us that the piranha would only be attracted if there was fresh meat or blood in the water. Apparently you could swim off the lodge for this very reason but funnily enough none of us decided to chance it! We watched Reuben cast his line and then followed suit, casting the line and at the same time bashing the water with the end of the bamboo pole to say to the piranha ”Come on, we’re here”. Not the usual thing you do when fishing and you don’t want to scare the fish away. We were told to leave the line in the water for about five seconds until you felt the piranha bite and then to yank it out very quickly. Well, nice theory but as Reuben was catching many, large piranha the rest of us weren’t. In the end, after fishing for about two hours, the rest of us only managed to catch 5 piranha between us. Many of the blighters kept having good old nibbles on the line but never catching hold of the hook properly.
Apparently there are four different types of piranha found in the Amazon Basin – the smaller white and spotted varieties and the larger black, all of which are found in the Rio Negro. This leaves the much more aggressive red, found further up the Rio Amazonas. Allegedly these red guys will attack anything that hits the water, whether or not there’s blood or raw meat around and will strip you bare in a matter of a few minutes – nice!
After our piranha fishing we returned to the lodge for a nice meal and an early night. The next day we were treated to a good breakfast of fruit and scrambled eggs before setting off with Reuben for a jungle walk. Once again we drove a little way in the motorised canoe to a beach where we were to begin our walk. High up on the beach were a couple of wooden houses, built on stilts, where we met a family who made their living farming such things as cashoo nuts, cassava, and the local staple manioc – a wheat like substance that is added to food as a garnish or used as a staple like rice, as well as selling drinks to tourists like ourselves. We set off on the walk which lasted for about 3 hours. It was extremely hot and humid being tucked away surrounded by trees with the heat of the sun beating down and no breeze from the river to cool you. However, it was very interesting as Reuben showed us numerous trees and plants all the while explaining their medicinal properties. These could be used to cure all manner of ailments including headaches, stomach upsets, maleria etc. In addition he showed us other plants which could be used for less positive reasons. For example, one plant contained a poison which, in the correct quantities, could be used for poisoning a small number of fish. We also came across the ‘Telephone Tree’, so called because the Indians would bang on its large trunk as a means of communicating with one another.
The highlight of the walk however has to be the female tarantula we saw at quite close range. Reuben stopped at what looked like a small burrow and told us to stay back. He then took a palm leaf, stripped it bare of its leaves and wiped it on his brow to gain a scent before placing it down the hole to attract the tarantula. After a few minutes the legs came out first and boy were they big and then the complete body! Apparently it is the female tarantulas who live in these holes with the males living up trees and the females are meant to eat the males having mated with them first – nice!
After returning to the lodge for some lunch we set off gain, this time in search of some sloths. I didn’t realise but these apparently come in different sizes and aren’t all the great, large beasts you see on the TV but some are quite small and cute – not sure about that one! Unfortunately despite paddling up and down the waterways for a couple of hours in the hot sun the sloths proved to be illusive. The same wasn’t true though of the alligators who were plentiful and apparently you could swim with them as they don’t attack in the water, only on land. That night we set off again in the motorized canoe to watch our guides pluck these fellers out of the water with their bare hands. As it was a full moon this wouldn’t be as easy as normal as there was too much light from the moon so the gaters could see you coming. However, one of the guides did manage to pluck a little chap out of the water but it was sad seeing him flinch as people’s flash lights and cameras went off. Not something to do again, I think.
The final day was spent taking a trip up the river to a traditional village. Apparently to see very traditional Indian tribes you must go much further up into the heart of the Amazon and are required to have a permit to do so. This is an excellent idea because it hopefully protects the habitat and lifestyle of these people. The village we visited was traditional in the sense that the people were living in either traditional floating structures or wooden houses constructed on stilts. This particular village had a man-made waterfall as a result of extraction work that had taken place to mine materials to be used in the construction of the port of Manaus. As such, it had become something of a weekend spot for locals to retreat to, especially in the heat of the summer. Many of those living in the village made their living either from fishing or from selling food and drinks to these visitors as well as to tourists like ourselves. Apparently during the rainy season the village would be completely covered in water, including the houses, during which time the inhabitants would retreat to houses on higher ground. It was an interesting place to visit and although only small had five different denominational churches and a school.
Returning to our lodge we once again had lunch but this time got to taste the piranha we’d previously caught. These were in fact very tasty but had extremely tough backbones so they weren’t that easy to eat. We then embarked on our return journey up the river to Manaus. This time the trip was a much more comfortable one being in the cool of the afternoon and we returned to Manaus to spend a few hours before making our way to the airport for our flight that night to Salvador.
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