Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 241 - To the not so dark depths of the Amazon

Manaus to somewhere on the Amazon - Ararinha Jungle Hotel

The first day of our Amazon trip started with a tour of the fish market at the port, it was interesting as the fish were so different to anything we are used to and many of them are so huge. From there we caught a small boat, stopping off at The Meeting of the Waters. This is where the Rio Negro and the Amazon meet, but because of differences in temperature, speed and density the rivers appear to travel side by side and don't mix. Although it was pouring rain we managed to see this unusual sight, the darker Rio Negro alongside the sandy coloured Amazon.

After the boat trip we were taken in vans along a muddy road to the next boat, as it had been raining the road was in a pretty bad state. We watched the van in front do a 180 trying to stay on the road, our trip wasn't quite as much fun as our van had more people and the luggage and the weight helped it stay on the road better. The final boat then took us along the Amazon for an hour or so to our jungle lodge, fortunately the rain had stopped by this time.

In the afternoon we boarded the boat again to take a cruise along the Amazon to look for animals, we found a couple of sloths, plus the famous pink dolphins and some not so famous grey dolphins. There was a bit of bird life as well - egrets, hawks, vultures, jacanas, and macaws high above us travelling in pairs.

The area was lightly inhabited, there were houses on stilts built to stay above the flood waters, floating houses, and boats regularly passing by during our search.

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