Welcome to the jungle

Manaus, a city of nearly 2.5 million people, sits at the “mixing of the waters,” where the acidic, black Rio Negro flows into the muddy brown Amazon. Apparently there are no large cities within 600 miles of Manaus, which gives you an idea of the vastness of Brazil (my favorite bit of Brazil trivia is that the northernmost point in Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to the southernmost point in Brazil).

Our scheduled excursion for the day was a “jungle trek.” We were picked up right here at the dock and took a 45-minute boat ride up the Rio Negro to a spot where our group would be split up and led through the jungle by guides. We had two boats, and each boat split into two groups, so we had four groups wandering around the rainforest. Our guide, Herman, was accompanied by two local guides. Together they pointed out to us a number of plant species and gave demonstrations on how to survive in the jungle if you were to get lost. We saw them create a shelter, start a fire, get water from a liana vine, set two kinds of traps, and climb a tree with a brace made from a palm leaf. Both Thomas and DJ got to climb the tree, which was cool.

At one point Herman rapped on a tree with his machete and we watched bullet ants, a good inch long, come out to defend the nest they had under the tree. DJ enjoyed this as he’d wanted to see bullet ants, which have the most painful sting in the insect world. We also saw a tarantula that was bigger and browner than the ones we have at home. Somewhat disappointingly we did not see any monkeys of other fauna and very few birds. But it was a worthwhile outing. We got rained on a bit at the beginning but stayed dry for the majority of the hike. It was extremely humid, but not excessively hot.

Upon returning we grabbed lunch, then the boys got some video game time while Liz and I went to explore some of Manaus. We first walked to a post office to buy a stamp and mail off a postcard that Thomas sent to his ELA class at Rancho. Walking the streets of the busy city and seeing people going about their business in the post office was fun. It was reminiscent of a European city, but in a jungle climate. After the post office we went up to the Amazon Theater, a magnificent opera house. The inside tour didn’t start for another hour, so we decided to skip that but we did enjoy the views from outside. On the way back to the port we wandered through the city market and bought a sun hat for DJ as the one he was using had disappeared along the way. Then it was back to the ship for air conditioning and a shower.Leia mais