The Wild Amazon
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil - Day 4
And like that, we ventured forth into the wild Amazon. Today marked the start of our first big adventure on our trip. A touch before 7am, Katie and I munched on some delicious rolls and quiche before our first driver of the day arrived. The trek into the amazon starting by taking us out of Manaus by car, then boating across the meeting of the waters of the Rio Negro and Rio Solimões (after which the river is called the Amazon), through jungle dirt roads, and finally an hour and some boat ride down the Juma river. All told, we were now about three hours from the nearest city in the Amazon Jungle. All of the structures at Juma Lodge sit on twenty something feet stilts. It has several common rooms and around ten private rooms, all connected with canopy walkways. Our greeting party was an adorable, young Woolly Monkey which they called 'Pequeno Demônio' or Little Devil. We named him Nico (because that's what we thought the staff said). He was very interested in Katie with her water bottle and my hair and all our gadgets. We also met our guide for the stay, Ralf, and got settled in a room that is going to be hard to ever top. We got the "panorama" suite which was a circular room with views of the Amazon all around. Just before noon a storm came in, and it started to downpour. A full grown Woolly Monkey, which we named Lady, wanted to get out of the rain and ran into a little screened in nook in our bathroom. She seemed a little scared, but laid down and closed her eyes when we started petting her through the screen. Throughout the stay, we had many run ins with Nico and Lady.
A lunch was served and then we were off on our first activity: Piranha fishing! Seriously, we went fishing for piranha. We were joined by four other surprisingly young guests and Victor who captained the boat. Ralph handed out primitive fishing poles and little containers of raw beef bait while explaining how to properly bait the hooks. We flung our lines into the water and then splashed around the surface to attract the piranha. Ralf said that you will feel a tug and then you need to jerk the line quickly to hook the fish. In one of my personal proudest moments, I quickly caught the first one (a Black Piranha). Not long after Katie caught her own, but this was no regular piranha...this was a beast! It was a White Piranha which is a smaller breed than the black one that I caught, but it was far bigger! Ralf said it was huge for it's kind and to be careful! While we continued fishing with assistance from Ralf, Victor sat in the back of the boat preparing the piranhas for dinner.
The Amazon has two seasons, wet (apex being in June) and dry (November) so we were near the highest the water would get this year. We all know the Amazon is a rain forest, but I learned that there actually isn't much difference in the amount of rain that falls throughout the year and that the majority of the 20+ feet of water level rise is contributed to the snow melt from the Andes mountains. As we zoomed around and weaved between the greenery, it was hard to believe that the "bushes" that were peaking out of the water were actually the tops of trees. The water is so black, you can't see very deep and when you mix that with being completely calm, you get this crazy mirror effect. It was honestly disorienting trying to figure out where the water was at times. There are two kinds of water in the Amazon, black and brown. Brown water is typically a large moving body of water that is brown because it is sediment rich water. Black water on the other hand is typically still, has a higher PH, and is more acidic. It is not sediment rich, so there is no minerals from soil that would help regulate PH/acidity. In addition, decaying leaves release chemicals that further increase PH and acidity. This environment is difficult for a lot of plants and insects. Juma is black water which is fortunate for us since mosquitoes prefer brown water.
For dinner that night we ate the piranhas we caught. That little guy in the middle was mine! Katie's is the monster on the bottom. After sundown we once again hopped on the boat to go caiman spotting! Ralph, hence forth referred to as "The Ultimate Badass" found two caiman and jumped into ankle deep water to grab one. In the dark. In the middle of the Amazon. Katie volunteered pretty quickly to hold the little guy and as a reward for her bravery she got peed on. Aww! Ralf told us a bit about it's anatomy while pointing out various other caimans that he caught glimpses of with his headlamp. After we threw him back, Ralf and Victor turned out all the lights and we sat in a tiny boat in total darkness in the wild Amazon rain forest, listening to the sounds of the jungle all around us. It was truly an amazing and terrifying experience. The ride back went by quickly as we had an incredible view of thousands of very twinkly stars and the Milky Way.
