We took a canoe back to the other side of the Amazon, dropped off some of our stuff and put on bathing suits, and went back in the canoe for our next adventure. The day was a lot cooler than our first day, and Almodo was taking us to a cool waterfall. We took our canoe, which is motorized, but moves at a turtle’'s pace. We went to another part of the river, and stopped at a family'’s floating shack. We stayed for a couple minutes while our guide said hello, and then we made our way to the waterfall. It was part of the river, but not the main part. The water fall was really cool, and there were a couple local kids swimming in it too. The water was cold, but it was hot outside so we all went in. Catherine and I jumped off of it while everyone watched us. We'’re doing all we can to prepare ourselves for bungee jumping in South Africa.
We didn’t stay long because it was already 1 o’clock and we hadn’t eaten since before our jungle walk at 6:30. We headed back to what we considered home for 3 days, …our floating “lodge”. We were surprised to see that Spencer and John, two of our SAS cabin neighbors and good friends, had found the same company and were doing the one night version of our trip. They looked very relieved to see us, because they weren’'t sure if they had chosen an Amazon scam (very common).
We had the same food we had for every meal, fish that groups had caught the night before, rice, beans, and vegetables. They also had watermelon for us, which was almost always gone by the time I got to it. Today was going to be a busy day for us because we were leaving right after lunch to go to a beach, go piranha fishing, and alligator hunting.
There were about 10 of us in our canoe, plus our motor driver and our guide, Joshua. Joshua really liked me and Catherine, and since we were in the front row, he was really more of just our guide (much to the dismay of the rest of the canoe). We had a LOT of fun. He took us to the Rio Negra, and as many times as we were told by everyone that we should NOT swim in the water…, we did. It was so warm, but the color makes your body look like you have iodine all over it, and we probably have hundreds of diseases now. But it was fun and we got video of all of us in it. Joshua said we we’re fine, but he also said it was fine for us to swim next to the lodge on our first day, the same place they caught piranha on the last day. We took jumping pictures on the beach, which are amazing of course.
After we went swimming we went fishing for piranha, which was so boring. Catherine and I just sat in the canoe, eating snacks while everyone else tried to catch fishies. We didn’t even get one bite. But!- There was a baby pink dolphin swimming behind our canoe, which had my attention for the rest of the fishing trip. No one caught a fish big enough to bring home and eat, so we didn'’t stay that long. Joshua told me and Catherine that he had a surprise for us. I thought it was going to be more dolphins, but it was actually way cooler. First, we took our canoe to the middle of the Amazon to watch the sunset, which was so amazing.
Then he took us to this island that only the natives know a lot about. We sat in the canoe, not too far off the island, as he told us about the swallows that migrate here. He was telling us that they come back to the island right as the sun is going down. He said we would wait a couple minutes, and then millions of swallows would swarm above us. Sure enough, within minutes of the sun setting, we heard this “whoosh”, and the entire sky turned black. Down side? They pooped everywhere, so you didn'’t want to look up with your mouth open, which was hard because it was so cool. They swarm went backwards once, and then they swooped down into island. The big black cloud of them lasted about one minute, but more continued to fly in for about 20 minutes. Dad, you would have been so proud of me for actually listening and wanting to learn about bird stuff. I got the whole thing on video, with the sunset in the background. I have so many videos I’m hoping to upload when we find fast Internet. Brazil was way too slow, and we'’re worried we won'’t get high speed Internet until China in April.
As soon as the sun set, we went back into one of the side rivers to go alligator hunting. They call it that, but we don'’t kill any of them. Just catch them. We had to be completely silent, while Joshua used a tiny flashlight to search for alligator eyes. He had our driver pull up to the side within a couple minutes of starting the hunt. The trees and bushes go into the river, so they were pulling us through all the brush. Finally, they had us stop and they both got out. While Catherine and I really enjoyed being in the front of the canoe for the whole day, I definitely regretted that by nighttime. Both the natives had gone out to find their alligator, and those of us left in the canoe were definitely prime alligator meat. I thought I heard something, and in a matter of seconds I went from the first row of the canoe to jumping in between Spencer and John behind us. They'’re pretty big guys, and I figured they would get eaten first. Joshua got mad at me for making noise and letting the gator get away, but we heard him wrestling with one in the water right after. He brought the little guy back to the canoe and sat with us while he held it. It was a small one, and we got to touch it’s belly. He opened the mouth for us to look inside. It was pretty cool, but I was definitely happy when we let him go back in the water.
As we made our way back to the lodge, Catherine and I put our heads back and saw more stars than I think I have ever seen in my life. I wish they had an Astronomy class on the ship, so I actually knew what I was looking at …but they were still really pretty. The lodge has no electricity, so we had to use our flashlights for the rest of the night. They had beds for us in little rooms, but Catherine, Marna and I wanted to sleep in hammocks again. They have the center of the lodge area made for people who want to sleep in hammocks, and we actually slept that night.
I still woke up around 5, and waited for Joshua to wake us up to go watch the sunrise. No one came until 5:45, and the sun rises around 5:50, so I was kind of bummed. I had heard from the people before us that this is when they saw the most dolphins, so I was really excited. We did go out to the middle of the river to watch part of it, and we did see one pink dolphin jump up in the water a little. But it definitely wasn'’t as cool as the sunset the night before. Afterwards, they took us on a little canoe trip through a side river, where we saw lots of baby monkeys that were adorable. I wanted to bring one home with me so badly. I named one of the pink dolphins Pinkie, and one of the monkeys George, and even though I couldn'’t take them home with me, I know I have some long lost pets in the Amazon that I'’ll need to go back and claim soon.
We didn'’t do much more on our third day. We packed up our stuff, and got everyone'’s emails so we can keep in contact and share pictures. We had so much fun in these three days, and were so glad we decided to do this trip (thanks mama c for planning)
*We already miss our three Italians-Sylvia, Lucia, and Ana
*Our amazing friend from Switzerland, who stuck with us for the whole trip-Marna
*Our German friend-Lars
*The most urban Brazilian we have ever met-Lorenzo, who was having a difficult time living without his Subway for 3 days..He was so excited to find out I worked there once
And all of the other people from Russia, Canada and other countries that made this trip so much fun.
Thursday
Thursday was a short day for us. We had eaten dinner on Wed night with Marna and a girl from SAS at a cherascaria (sp?), a Brazilian steakhouse. We were all so tired, and didn'’t want to do much on Thursday. We met up with Marna once we got off the ship, and found an internet café. We ended up staying there for a while, and getting some pictures up. Catherine and I tried to find stamps for our postcards forever, and when we finally did. We didn'’t have enough time to wait in the line. We got back to the ship with about a half hour to spare, and cut it pretty close. I didn't get to spend all my Rais because we didn’t have time, so I came back on the ship with an extra 20 dollars in Brazilian money. But we had an unforgettable five days, and we are so proud of ourselves for not only making it out alive, but actually enjoying it so freaking much.
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