Parthenon The Future Manaus

... which was a bit scary knowing that there were piranhas, caimans and eels in there!

We had a siesta after lunch, and then did a bit more piranha fishing, before our dinner. After falling asleep early again, we got woken up in the night to torrential rain. Impressively, the palm roof we'd constructed at the start of the trip held well, but poor Ceciliano who had been sleeping under the stars got soaked!

... stories about the jungle to pass the time, but I think we were both content just listening to the sounds of the rainforest, which comes alive at night. The loudest things were the many types of frogs and the screaming of howler monkeys. A number of times we heard some loud rustling noises close to the camp and our guides got up a few times to investigate, but we survived the night, in part due to Ceciliano's loud snoring probably scaring the animals away!

We had an early wake up call to get out of the hostel for an 8 am pick-up and 8.30 boat trip when we met our two guides for the trip, Herman and Ceciliano. The first leg of our initial journey to where we would be spending the majority of tour 5 days, was a short boat trip across a stretch of the River Amazon where it meets the River Negro. The meeting of the two different rivers was quite spectacular, as you could see a clear partition where the yellowy ...

... proved to be far from ideal. The lobby more resembled the waiting room of a Goodyear tire repair shop than a hotel lobby. The 150 square feet
room was adorned with two rows of vinyl covered chairs affixed to each other and a television blaring the evening news. The only thing distinguishing it as a hotel lobby was the countertop behind which sat the thoroughly indifferent check-in guy. He handed us our paperwork then gave us the key and ...

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L'Amazonie est se ...

... with places to hang hamocks, so we lugged all of our gear up there, and set up shop. The

breaze and view were truely spectacular, and we definately had a good nap up there, after lunch. I woke up just in time to see a bearded lizard(I've seen it in a david attenborough film, but I can't recall what it's named) flaring at another lizard in the roof. I went back to sleep, and Leo woke us up after a couple of hours, and we paddled out in a canoe, to explore the ...

... of Pink Dolphins, which was a highlight. The Pink Dolphins are not like your usual marine dolphins as their nose is longer and their dorsal is almost flat. Their natural colour is gray but due to fighting their scars produce pink tissue giving them their pink colour (they fight a lot). It was amazing seeing them in the wild. The other research station we visited and got to see in action was for Ornamental fish, where we learnt how these are monitored and caught, to be sold mostly to ...

... Wildlife is illusive and tends to move away quite quickly. The guides are brilliant at spotting whatever is there. Binoculars were a necessity to get a decent view. Happily, with a 06h30 breakfast start for 07h00 activity, and with the oppressive heat of the middle of the day, there was 3-4 hours off around lunchtime - to lie in the hammock contemplating the lovely scene (or to fall asleep). Overall, this leg of the trip was the first we ...

... monkeys and brown capped capuchin monkeys. Just after the second sighting of a sloth I started feeling rather ill again. Must be the malaria tabs!! Skipped another dinner.... Next morning we went to visit another local family. The patriarch is 84 and has rubber trees on his land. He used to make gumboots for all the locals but it requires a lot of effort so he makes simpler things to demonstrate to visitors- condoms. It was fascinating to see the rubber trees and see ...

... boats, something that had not been mentioned when I bought my ticket, but you just gotta shut up and get over it when companies can't keep their word in South America. But I was much less pleased when I found out the boat wouldn't even leave until the next day, but would be docked in Manicoré overnight, where we had to sleep in our hammocks. This overnight stay in Manicoré meant my arrival to Manaus would be on Sunday but not on Saturday. There had been a lot of delays on ...