Hotel dez de Julho Manaus

... em Cartagena todo este tempo... O visa já não permite que vá a Bogotá, San Gil, Mompós ou fazer a caminhada até à Ciudad Perdida, mas como gosto das coisas no lado positivo, só penso num regresso mais que desejado! A par da saudosa Guiné, será para sempre um daqueles "meus" destinos, e um regresso é inevitável!!!<br><br>Mas antes de mais, e para que não me chateiem a cabeça mais tarde, é importante que tenham em mente que a coisa vai ser meio longa, pelo que sugiro aos interessados que ...

... boat, but as it is dry at the moment the waters lower and boat travel is not possible, so these "roads" through the partially flooded wetlands are used as an alternative. One white-knuckle ride through immense scenery later and we were back on a boat to get to our lodge, which was located a little further down the river.<br><br> Upon arrival at the lodge we were give some free time in which we could swim in the river on which the lodge ...

... and Solimões, after the Vitória Régias (waterlilies). The time was not the season of them, but I could see a few. I was crazy to swim with the pink river dolphins but, unfortunately, there were few too. <br>The Amazonia has two season, the rainy (jan &#8211; jun) and the dry one (jul &#8211; dec). I went in the middle of the dry season, so some activities are not possible to make. The same with the rainy season. <br ...

... then one by one lunged over the rails to the safety of the big boat. Although this sort of on the run transfer happens once every other day on the big river boats, its site is normally an interesting diversion for the passengers who've been staring at a monotonous view of trees and water. Diversion turns to full on spectacle when it's a couple inexperienced gringos hurling themselves on board- a hundred or so passengers were amusedly watching us.<br ...

... subsided. We got back to the jungle lodge pretty early in the morning, after saying good-bye to our locals, and it was pretty much empty. Our Danish girls were leaving at lunch(to stay at the same hostel as us, so no real good-byes there), and everyone else who had been at the lodge was gone. In the middle of the lodge is a tower, that rises 4 stories high. The lowest 3 floors are just single bedrooms, but the top is on open deck, with the most amazing view of everything ...

... were simple sticks with string, a steel lead, hook and chunk of raw red meat -- the choice for any good carnivore. Unfortunately the Brazilian Amazon experienced their largest flood in over 100 years this summer and thus the water is still much higher than seasonally-low winter levels and the fishing hence difficult since they´re deeper and somewhat out of reach under swamped tree life. Despite the lack of our fishing skills, we still had Piranha grill and ...

A 2 hour flight from Belem brought us to Manaus during the middle of the night, luckily for us our couchsurfing hosts, Adriana and her boyfriend Leo had kindly agreed to pick us up from the airport. Manaus is located on the river Amazon, in the centre of the Amazon rainforest, and remains unconnected to the southeat of Brazil by road, the only ways to reach Manaus is either by boat from Belem, or by flying (not cheaply) a one-way 2 hour flight from Belem cost 120 pounds ...

... surrounding area. In the nearby state of Acre is also the birthtown of the famous Chico Mendez, probably one of the first people worried about saving the rainforest. But in fact, it was a pretty nice city. I definately didn't feel threatened in any way, and everybody was happy to see me. It's nice to visit places where tourists don't visit frequently - you get a totally different view of the country and it's people, because in those non touristy areas, people are more open ...