I recently spent ten days with two friends (Jun and Bruno) in the Amazon Area. For all of you, who have not been there I highly recommend going there.
We arrived late on a monday night and went to a local „boteco“ (a local bar) and had a few beers. It was incredibly humid and hot but the cold beers were perfect after the travel of almost 8 hours – including Uber rides and waiting at the airport.
We stayed in a hotel close to the city center near the theater.
The following day Jun (my best friend in Brazil) and I started exploring the city. We wanted to see the Amazon river so we headed straight to the port. Again the heat gave us a hard time so we stopped to get an „água-de-coco“ (coconut water). When we made it to the port, people started trying selling daily tours to us right away because we look so much like gringos (foreigners), especially me. One of the locals was very kind and he showed us the floating port of Manaus, which was constructed by the British in the early stage of the 20th century. So that port is around 100 years old. It is one of the biggest floating ports in the world. Because the water level of the Amazon varies around 15 meters during the year it is necessary to have a floating port.
We were amazed by the size of the river. It feels like you are looking at the Ocean or just a huge lake but not a river. Actually you are looking at the Rio Negro (Black River), which only forms the Amazon a few kilometers further together with the Saolimoes -the yellow river. The astonishing fact is due to the two rivers different temperatures they do not mix for around 6 kilometers. It is crazy to see.
We ended up booking a day tour for the next day with the friendly man that showed us the port. We woke up early and we got to the port around 8.30 a.m.
The tour was on a big boat with 30 other tourists. The whole day was very touristic but we got to see a lot of different things in a short period of time. First we went to a village that is in the middle of the Amazon, where the inhabitants reach everything by boat, the school, the church, the store and so on. There we got to see the big sweet water fish called „Pirarucu“ (Arapaima in English). These fish can reach a length of 3 meters and can weigh up to 200 kg. Due to overfishing they are usually harvested nowadays. Almost in every restaurant you can eat this delicious fish.
Afterwards we went to see the plant called „Water Lilly“ which are plants that float in the water and have huge leaves. Unfortunately, the plants were at the stage where they rebuild their leaves.
Lunch was served at a floating restaurant and it was an amazing buffet there 🙂
Then it was time to see the pink dolphins, which are pretty common in the Amazon. It was incredible how close they got to us we could touch them and see how one of the locals fed them with fish.
The last stop of the day was a visit at an indigenous village. A couple of familys (around 20-25 people) live not too far from Manaus. They welcomed us in their village and showed some of the rituals. We could also taste their food. We felt like Timon and Pumba when we tasted the ants and maggots. Overall the experience with the native people seemed pretty hackneyed because the tourists are obviously a source of income. But I still found it very interesting and amazing to see how people can manage to live close to nature and with a simple life style.
That was the last stop of the day. At night we went out to a local rock bar and ended the day pretty intoxicated 😀
The next day it was time to get down to business. One of the main reasons we came to the Amazon was to see the jungle, the open rain forest. We booked a tour with the best guide ever: Kenrick Lacruz. Big shoutout to my friend Simona, who gave us the tip.
Kenrick grew up in the jungle with indigenous people at the border to Brazil in Guyana. He lived his first ten years in nature. His surviving skills and his knowledge about the jungle were incredible. He is totally right in saying: „I learned something that no university could ever teach me.“
We got up early and Kenrick picked us up at the hotel. We went to a different port of Manaus and met our other part of the group, 3 Irish gals. We had a nice boat ride to the other side of the river and actually took a quick jump into the water at the meeting point of the two rivers. You could see the difference of colours and feel the temperature change, while being in the water. It was Manawesome!
On the other side we got picked up in a Van, which was a T1 Volkswagen, what a ride! 🙂
We then stopped to buy beers for the trip and started saying „Sláinte“ for the first time. „Sláinte“ (pronounced Slansha) is „cheers“ in Irish. After a 90 minute drive in the van we took another boat that took us to a lodge in the middle of nowhere.
We took another bath in the river right before the lodge and after lunch we headed out on the boat to explore the area a little bit.
Kenrick and his local companion simply known as „capitao“ (big captain) took us to a spot where the locals said should be a snake. And guess what, they found a boa constrictor and we got to hold it and take amazing pictures. Not a bad start I would say.
Afterwards we watched an amazing sunset on the river. It gets dark around 6 p.m. and that is when a lot of wildlife starts to get busy in the Amazon. So we went on the boat and tried to catch a small cayman. Kenrick imitated the sound of these reptiles and managed to catch one of the size around 60cm. We also took pictures and headed happily home after this wonderful day.
The next day we woke up very early to see the sunrise. It was amazing watching the sun rise over the river. After breakfast we rested a bit, packed our stuff because we headed out to the jungle to make camp one night and really experience nature to the fullest.
After a one hour boat ride, Kenrick and Capitao looked for a good spot to set up the camp. We started cutting trees with a machete and collected firewood. We had lunch over the fire and made plates and spoons out of palm roots and leaves.
After lunch we took the boat to fish some piranhas and Kenrick started making his infamous „Caipirinha“, which I called „Caipiranha“ later. We got pretty hammered while fishing but it was so much fun and we ended up catching almost 10 Piranhas.
At camp we drank more and grilled our fish. After dinner Jun came up with the great idea to start a Karaoke without music in the middle of the jungle. Oh, we had so much fun. We sang our hearts out I would say.
From there one we got a little carried away by all the Caipiranhas but one thing that happend is that our tarp, which we had built earlier, just fell down. So we had to set it up pretty drunk. That was an experience.
The next morning I woke up with the worst moscito bites ever. I had over 100 stitches I am sure.
Jun, Capitao and I went for a bath in the River which was amazing. Then we had breakfast and got off to an amazing walk in the jungle. Kenrick showed us a plant, which you can drink from. It tasted really good almost sweet. We saw a bug that was tarned like a piece of wood. The experience was mindblowing.
Then we packed our stuff and headed back to the lodge. After a final lunch it was time to say goodbye to the girls and to Capitao. Kenrick and us headed back to Manaus.
We did another tour with Kenrick on Monday to some waterfalls around Manaus. It was really cool to take a shower underneath the falls and be part with nature again. We had a great time.
Everytime I spent some time in nature I understand how important it is for our well-being. We are sometimes so disconnected from it. It really does recharge ourselves and brings us joy that we cannot experience otherwise.
To sum it up the trip was a blast and I do not miss a single beat of it. I am pretty sure I will return to the Amazon in the future and I again highly recommend you to travel there as well!
For now Amor e paz from Brazil!