Amazon Adventure

On Thursday, April 7, we woke up early for a 6:30 am meeting and a 7 am departure for a trip to the Amazon with 28 students in tow.  I was the "trip leader" for this particular group, and I only knew 6 of the students, so I was going to be meeting some new kids.  There were 4 groups leaving at various times, but most of us left together.  We had a flight to Manaus with a short layover in Brasilia and arrived in the early afternoon.  We were to be picked up at the airport by our tour guides, and everyone was hungry and needing a bathroom, so we took a few minutes to scatter and then gather back up and boarded the bus.  We met our guides, Fabio and Allen--both Brazilians.

After a half hour bus ride, we arrived at the docks, boarded our boats and were on the mighty Amazon River.  We had seen it from the air, and it is really mighty.

We selected our hammock that would be our bed for the next two nights and grabbed a late lunch that the crew had prepared.

Then everyone crowded the decks of their boats to see the sights as we cruised about the waters.

The Amazon and the Rio Negra join around Manaus, and there is a distinct line in the water where they meet.  The Rio Negra is black, as it's name implies, mostly because it is fed from areas with rich decaying vegetation.  The Amazon is muddy at this time of the year because of the rainfall.  They have two seasons--rainy and summer.

Then we cruised about for a while, seeing how people lived since they have to cope with water levels that will be 8 ft higher by July.  We also saw freshwater dolphins swimming nearby, lots of river birds, and various tributaries that feed the Amazon.

Then we cruised through one of the tributaries and stopped at a place with a boardwalk and walked back to see the giant water lilies and some wildlife.

 Next, we loaded up into smaller boats and went into some smaller creeks and rivers where we watched the sun go down and wondered about things falling into our boats like Anacondas, etc.

Our last activity of the night was some Cayman hunting.  A cayman is an Amazon alligator.  They are not too big, but can get up to 6 ft.  Our small boats cruised down the side of the river and the guide shined the light into the reeds and banks.  When he saw two little red dots--the eyes, we slowly pulled up to the cayman and he quickly reached down and grabbed it behind the neck.  One of the boats had one get loose as they were passed around for everyone to hold, and there was some loud screaming coming from across the river.  We all to to hold this one, and then had a biology lesson.  Not too many of these make it to adulthood with lots of predators as eggs and hatchlings, but they can then live for many years.

We headed back to our boat in the dark and ate dinner while we cruised.  The hammocks didn't feel too bad after such a long, fun day.