The last thing you want after you´ve rushed to the airport is to find out that your flight (which was already supposed to get in after 1am) has been delayed. Gail and I ended up spending three hours in the Rio de Janeiro airport before our flight finally *left* just after one, pulling into Manaus somewhere in the 4am hour. We got to our hotel and settled in for a good ``night´s´´ sleep. Fortunately, we didn´t have much on the agenda for that next day, anyway. This is Monday the 25th of February we are talking about.
We woke up to a torrential downpour and decided against doing our Meeting of the Waters tour, opting instead to save it for the following day. Thus, we put on our big rubber boots, which we had brought along for the Amazon, got ready to brave the outside, and here was our mistake for the day: dressing for the way the weather was instead of the way the weather was going to be. We went into town and walked all around, checking out sidestreets, the supermarket, and having a picnic lunch in the plaza right by the Teatro Amazonas , the opera house located in the heart of Manaus. During our walk around town, everyone loooked at us and I´m sure immediately recognized that we were tourists. As soon as they looked down and saw our big rubber boots, however (by now the rain had more than stopped), I´m sure they thought lots of other things. Guess those boots were not made for walkin´! After our picnic lunch, we did a tour of the operahouse (apparently, one cannot effectively ``do´´ Manaus without checking out said operahouse -- I suppose that´s true, but I wouldn´t say that that´s because the operahouse is the most spectacular tourist attraction on the planet) and then went back to the hotel. We were also told that it might be a good idea to check out ``the boardwalk´´ right outside the grounds of our hotel, so we walked along that strip and found some native dancers doing their version of a dance. Amusing, to say the least, but not worth sticking around for.
Tuesday morning we were able to capitalize on the cloudy (but not rainy) weather and do our tour of Meeting of the Waters. What this means is that we went to see where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown waters of the Rio Solimões, the river that turns into the Amazon River. Our tourguide drove us to the port, where we picked up a boat and went to the place where the waters meet (kind of anti-climactic), and then we got out and went for a swim. The strange thing is that the black water is warm and exactly where you cross into the Solimões River, it becomes really cold. Needless to say, we didn´t stay in that part for long. So, we got back in the boat and watched dolphins circle nearby instead! We got back to the hotel in time to have lunch and get a cab to the airport. Just our luck, however, that the taxi driver brought us to the *wrong* airport. Fortunately, the airports are around the corner from one another, so we hopped another cab and made it to our flight with a few minutes to spare.
This flight was going to a town deeper into the Amazon called Tefé, but we were just going there en route to our final destination. Once we landed in Tefé and picked up our luggage off the -- yes, it´s true -- luggage bench, we went to the port, where we picked up a boat that took us an hour and a half even *deeper* into the Amazon (who even thought it was possible at this point?), to our final destination: a place called Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve). We stayed at a place called the Uakari Lodge -- a floating lodge in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There is no television, no internet, not even a singular telephone. The whole place is run on solar power, and though we had a bathroom with sinks and showers with running water and everything, water was to be kept to a minimum so as not to run out of hot water. As for drinking water, we had two small pitchers in our room of potable water. Our beds were encased in mosquito nets, but that kind of became a moot point when the screens in our little huts had larger-than-regular-screen-size-holes in them (and if you need to get out of bed for any reason, you have to pull your mosquito net up, thereby letting in all the bugs, who, fortunately, weren´t our sleeping companions since we lathered up well with insect repellent before settling into our generally bug-free slumber). But anyway, where was I?
After we arrived at the lodge (all six of us, thus making seven tourists total staying there), we met the staff and then had dinner. Food there is prepared by the same chef all week (though chefs rotate from week to week), and the food consists of only local products, which means it could be fish, chicken, rice, beans, local fruits, etc. This was the first time I was in Brazil and there was no red meat to be found. Imagine! After dinner, we watched a BBC/Animal Planet DVD on the Amazon to get an idea of what we might see, and that was the evening´s activity. Fran, the guide in charge of our group all week, told us that sometimes at night (but during the dry season, so not now) it is possible to hear caimans under your huts. That would have been cool! (Of course, it is easy to say that now, since I didn´t have to try to fall asleep to that.)
On Wednesday morning, we had an early breakfast and then headed out in a small motorboat to hike a trail in the várzea (flooded forest). After the trail, we took another boat ride to look for animals and such. (It is not possible to go anywhere without taking a boat/canoe.) All in all, during this morning, we saw: coatis , cicadas, a frog, howler monkeys, a lizard, three-toed sloths, and jaguar footprints. One of our guides said that the footprints we saw were fresh and belonged to a jaguar who had run away because of being scared that we were coming. After the trail and boat ride, we returned to the lodge, where there was still enough time for a nap in the hammock on the back porch before lunch. It turns out the schedule that this lodge follows is great, because after lunch, we had a couple of hours of free time before our next activity. So, I returned to my hammock (which was perfectly elevated so I kind of had to climb into it) for my afternoon soneca (nap).
That afternoon, we took our motorboat to a little house a few riverbends away (cue Pocahontas song here: ``Just Around the River Bend´´), where three people run a project called Project Boto. These three people live in a *tiny* house and have nowhere to go but out looking for dolphins, as their project is to collect data on and to study dolphins, or botos , in the Amazon. Being in their little house was like being in an episode of Lost and seeing what one of the projects was like. Either way, that house was *tiny* and the people who work there really have to be dedicated. It was tough enough sitting through the presentation of 45 minutes or so and then going out looking for dolphins for an hour or so. Don´t get me wrong -- it was fun when they popped out of the water, but I´m sure that novelty wears off when you have to collect data on them for months and months. After we got back from the boto house, we had dinner and then listened to Fran give a presentation on Mamirauá (the reserve) and all the work they do there. A couple of the more interesting things she mentioned was that 1) mamirauá means ``baby manatee´´ and 2) among all the aspects that they are studying at the reserve, it is difficult to study the impact that we have on the environment.
Thursday brought a new day of Amazonian adventures. We started out with an early breakfast, followed by a long hike in the forest (note: during such hikes, I am generally dressed like Kenny , from South Park, so as to avoid as many ´squitoes as possible). During this hike, we saw coatis, a squirrel (they are fewer and farther between in the Amazon than in the U.S.), birds, spiders, etc. The guide said that the trail we were walking on would be submerged in water in one month´s time because of the rainy season. (When this happens, tourists at the lodge can only do the trails by canoe, as it is impossible to walk them.) We got back in time for the now-regular pre-lunch nap, and then following lunch, it was all too easy to jump back into that hammock. (If you had the opportunity to catch up on two months´ worth of lost sleep, wouldn´t you take it?) This afternoon´s activity consisted of a four-hour boat ride, which was broken up by a quick walk in the forest to see a tree called ``Queen of the Forest,´´ and rightfully so, as it reaches heights of at least 250m. We spent the boat ride (as we spent all boat rides) looking for animals. At one point during the ride, Fran said, ``Do you hear that? It´s rain!´´ I thought she was just pointing out that it was raining somewhere else and not where we were. Really, though, it was a 15-second warning before it would be a downpour over us, too. It´s good I was quick to break out the rainjacket; Fran really knows her sounds. We got to one point in Lake Mamirauá where we stopped to watch the sunset, and after that, we took a ride back to the lodge in the dark, looking for animals via flashlight. We had been told that it might be possible that fish could jump into our boat, and we should just throw them back into the water. It was funny when a sardine jumped in right next to me! It was slimy, and I tried to pick it up to throw it back into the water, but then it slid under the floorboards in the boat. I think it slipped through the cracks, though (in a good way), and made it back to the water, because I didn´t see it glistening anymore later on when I checked for it by flashlight or the next day. Closer to the lodge on our way back, we saw a black caiman poking out of the water, which, though we´d seen one before right by the lodge, was creepier this time because it was pitch black outside, and he was just frozen looking at us looking at him (her?). Spoooooky! When we got back to the lodge, we all had dinner and called it a night.
Friday was a different kind of program from the norm. After breakfast, we all got into our motorboat and went to visit a local community, called Boca do Mamirauá. There are 14 families that live there, totaling 56 people. They have houses, a schoolhouse, a shop where they sell beaded jewelry and such, a soccer field, a radio station, etc. At the soccer field (where they bring people together from all local communities to have matches -- both men and women alike), they also have bleachers -- consisting of two benches, one behind the other in stadium seating fashion -- to hold the trophies. According to the community guide, trophies generally consist of a pig or cow or something like that. When we visited the radio station, the community guide interrupted some of your favorite top 40 Amazon hits to introduce some of his new tourist friends, so a few of us took turns introducing ourselves over their radio waves, just saying our names and where we were from. Hooray! I´m famous! 56 people now know my name and where I am from! And now, my 15 minutes are complete and I can rest easy. Once we returned to the lodge, I settled in to my regular pre-lunch and post-lunch routine. The afternoon activity was a canoe ride (as opposed to going out in the motorboat). When we go out in the motorboat, everyone (all six or seven of us) goes. For the canoe trip, however, it was just me and Gail, and the guide (Paulo) of course, who paddled us through the trail. However, he should have attended Fran´s presentation on our impact on the environment, because he would break branches and whatnot so our canoe could get by, otherwise disturbing the very peaceful ride we were otherwise experiencing. It´s amazing how much quieter we were going by canoe rather than by traipsing through the forest on our own feet. When we got back from the canoe trip, we had dinner and then the evening´s activity (that is, if we chose to partake, and we did) was a night hike, so we could experience the sounds of the forest at nighttime. Personally, I think it sounded similar to what we heard from our hut, but that´s besides the point. So we set out in the motorboat while it was lightning to get to the trail to take our 300m night hike (in our rubber boots, since it had just rained...first time we were able to wear the boots!). The guides were leading with flashlights and we ended up seeing a giant toad. We had been told earlier that sometimes people don´t see anything and the point of the exercise is more for the sounds and the experience than to see stuff (I think that´s how they cover themselves in case you see nothing...of *course* you´d see nothing; it´s pitch-freaking-black outside!), but regardless, I made it back safe and soundless to the safety of my mosquito-netted bed.
Saturday was to be our last day in the Amazon. After breakfast, we went on another long canoe ride with Paulo, where we saw bats, monkeys, birds, lizards, and dolphins. When we got back, we had lunch and got everything together to take the one-and-a-half-hour boat ride back to Tefé (which we did in an hour -- I guess our driver was speeding). In Tefé, Gail and I took a 42-seater plane (yuck!) to a town called Coari, where it stopped for about 10 minutes before taking off again and heading back to Manaus. Now, I did not have a choice in the matter as to whether I took this small plane or not (I know, I know -- some of you might be thinking that a 42-seater isn´t so small...). But what I have learned is that the best way to forget about taking a small plane is to do everything you brought with you -- listen to music, read your book, eat the snacks they serve you on board, etc. In fact, the only redeeming part about these two short flights (instead of having a direct flight from Tefé to Manaus) was that they served two sets of snacks! But moving on... Once we got to Manaus, we took the taxi from the little airport around the corner to the big airport, where we proceeded to spend the next six/seven hours killing time until our next flight to São Paulo. Lucky for us, that flight was delayed a bit, too! What already started as a 12:25am flight was now pushed to just after 1am.
When we finally boarded the plane, I thought I would end up getting some much-needed sleep (after all, I had missed out on my two naps for the day), but it turns out that the people I was sitting next to had similar travel plans to mine (and one of them and I even found someone we both know through the ever-so-famous name game), so I ended up talking to them for the duration of the flight. By the time we landed in São Paulo, the sleep level was still at zero, but the tired component was at a max.
At this point, I picked up my bags and said goodbye to Gail, as I had to continue on my way to go check in for my next flight. From the moment I stepped onto this latest plane, it was as if I had already left Brazil. When I had been in Argentina for those two hours when I was in Iguazu Falls, some Argentines had asked me to take pictures of them, and I responded to them in Portuguese, not even bothering to change the channels of my mind from Portuguese into Spanish, because I´d just have to change back at the end of the day. Now, however, it´s time to put Portuguese aside and open the Spanish drawer, since I won´t be going back to Brazil at the end of the day. All I have to say is thank the heavens for the language called Portuñol or Portunhol (Portuguese/Spanish)! The language exists, although in my head, it is more like a frustration that comes when you can hear the radio frequency you want but you just can´t tune the radio to it. Anyway, when I reached my seat on the plane, it turned out that I had finally caught a break, and I had the row to myself, where I was able to sleep for the duration (albeit short, but still duration nonetheless) of my flight to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Anyway, that´s it for now. Hope you´re all well. Be sure to check the weather before you go taking a walk on the wild side.
hasta luego,
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
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