Tropical Manaus

We'd agreed the night before to get up at 4am to do some animal spotting and a different type of spear fishing, but it was a bit of a struggle after only a few hours fitful sleep! We stumbled down to the boat in the dark and half asleep and set off paddling. Ceciliano was a pro at spotting the fish asleep near the banks and managed to spear a couple of fish from the front of the boat. He got me and Caz to have a go ...

... mosquitoes.

later we went to the flooded forest (the area in the forest, where the river has penetrated) with a canoe, and been told not to expect to see much animals so fast, but after a while elso spotted a sloth on the treetop and started climbing to a 3 stories high tree. we he got to the sloth who had a baby sloth in his pocket, the sloths fell down to the water and were recovered by the other native guide ...

After a fitful nights sleep, scared of being attacked by giant insects, we were woken at 5.15 am to go out birdwatching. We witnessed a beautiful sunrise over the rainforest from the lake, then saw a number of different species of birds, including lots of hawks, kites and kingfishers, and also some pink dolphins in the lake. After returning to the lodge for breakfast, we changed our boat for a motorised canoe so we could investigate some of the "canals" in ...

... least a couple hours, when we gave in and went to our air conditioned cabin.

Our tickets indicated that the boat would leave at 7AM and so we expected to sleep through departure or be awoken by the hundreds of local folks boarding and hanging their hammocks on the decks. At 6:45, we woke and checked the decks- completely empty. However, at 7 we
pulled out of the dock with only a few other passengers on board. We sort of panicked, although ...

... br>



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Manaus, Estado do Amazonas, Brazil amazoniacomguia

... breakfast, and then lounged around for quite some time. Later in the day, we buggered off in a canoe, again, and went exploring in the swamps. We didn't really spot anything, asides from the ubiquitous Macaws, but it was fun, none the less. We decided we would spend our last night sleeping out in the jungle, so we packed up all of our gear, and took a boat 20 minutes down the coast. We parked at a local man's house, and

hiked 2, or 3, km in to the bush, along a ...

... European markets for loads of cash. I also provided entertainment for the group whilst we were looking at an electric eel in one of the tanks. The eel seemed to suddenly light up and I made the comment 'wow it's flashing with electricity', when in reality someone had just taken a photo using their flash. I don't think there will be any job offers at the Ornamental fish station coming my way anytime soon! As Gareth and I were staying for 7 nights we had the additional option to stay in the ...

... took the most arranging and was the most expensive by some way. However, definitely worth it. The forest was definitely something to experience once, the location and nature around the lodge itself was superb, we saw a good range of the wildlife (if sometimes rather fleetingly - particularly for the striking rare White Uacari Monkeys we saw on two occasions, which have bright red faces - but they donīt hang around for you to admire them).

... process still alive. Then it was time to head back to Manaus. Despite missing the jungle walk we had had a fabulous time. The bird life was incredible. There were dolphins in the river in front of the lodge every day (pink and grey). The setting was beautiful and peaceful and the sloth was more than we had even wished for! Singing along to Brazilian songs in the back of a rickety station wagon on a bumpy road just sealed the Brazilain flavour and was the perfect end to a lovely trip.