Getting back to jungle-mania...
We arrived in Manuas from the Amazon river boat, left our stuff in the hotel where the people who didn´t want to go into the jungle were staying, booked a trip, had breakfast, packed our stuff, emailed loved ones to tell them we were still alive and got into an old car that took us to port again so we could get on a boat to take us to our jungle-destination. All in about two hours. Busy busy, and back onto water after very little time on solid ground.
The boat first took us to where the rivers Rio Negro and Rio Sallamon (I´ll edit the spelling of that one later) mix. Or rather don´t mix. There is a clear line where the black Rio Negro hits the brown water of the other river. Quite strange looking, and it goes for a long way. It´s tanins - like in tea - that make the Rio Negro black, and it really does look black.
From there we continued up the Rio Negro to a souvenir shop, where there were also giant lily pads. They were well over a metre in diameter, and were used by bugs and birds alike as landing pads.
We then continued, stopping at animal abuse point. Three people - two of whom were children - jumped onto the boat to show the tourists their animals from the jungle. It made me very uncomfortable to see people paying them to have their photos taken with animals like that, so needless to say I didn´t participate. They had a baby anaconda, a sad looking sloth, and a baby monkey. The boy carrying the sloth bandied him about like a teddy bear, and the poor thing obviously just wanted to get back into a tree, as they are made to cling. The next worse off was the baby monkey, which was tiny and clinging to the little girl´s arm. He/she needed its mummy! The anaconda was the one I felt least bad about, as there is the possibility that they can be brought up as pets and cared for alright, given the right person. Of course it was impossible to judge whether this was the case, but it could well have suffocated it´s captor if it really wanted to. It was only eight months old, so just a baby, and obviously raised from small by humans. It was still massive though.
After that it was lunch on the boat (more boat food - yay! Though not half shabby this time) and then we made it to our floating log cabin (another night on the water). There we met our guide, and soon were out piranha fishin´.
As the river waters were quite high, we were surrounded by half-submerged trees. We had to go through these many times - difficult, and sometimes painful. Piranha fishing was no exception. The rods were made of sticks, with nylon string tied to the ends. The bait: fresh meat. We got a few bites, but nothing too exciting. It was quickly clear we wouldn´t catch enough for dinner. Our guide finally caught a baby one, but it still had very sharp teeth. We threw it back. I was the next closest to catching one, pulling one up several times. One big one I almost had, but I didn´t lift him far enough out of the water in time. Damn.
That night we went alligator hunting. Alligators, pirranhas, birds, monkeys, snakes, jaguars, panthers, so many plants. You don´t know the true meaning of biodiversity until you´ve been to the Amazon. It was astoundingly beautiful and infinitely fascinating. Anyway, baby allis. Our guide spotted one quickly in his torch light, with the charateristic red eye reflection. He jumped out of the canoe, and was back in five, holding one. It was about 30cm from head to tail. I was the only other one to hold it. Better this time as we weren´t harming it, and releasing it again once we were done. From counting the rings on its tail, Charles (the guide) determined it was 12 months old. It eats mainly insects - poisonous ones. This causes problems if it bites you. It had long been set free by its mother; left to its own devises. All the older, larger alligators aren´t around that area when we was there, so just babies. The one I held will grow to be about three metres. A lot smaller than the largest species, which only grows to eight metres.
The next day we went to a nearby village. We were greeted by a very old woman, who was the mother of pretty much the whole population. She was very nice, but spoke to us in Portuguese and expected us to know what she was saying, no matter how many times we told her otherwise.
The village was small, but full of a huge variety of plants. We saw vegetables growing that we´d never seen before, plus many old favourites like bananas (smaller than us westerners are used to), passionfruit (slightly bigger, and yellow-skinned, used mainly just for juice), avacados (massive - more than twice as big as in NZ, and delicious) and other favourites. We also saw acaí berries, which have only recently become popular all over Brazil. You can only eat the skins, as the rest is seed. The skins are boiled to make various things like ice cream, an acaí mash thing and jam. The seeds are used to make jewlery as they are very hard. Acaí berries supposedly have many health benefits. They are a deep purple, and have quite a distinctive flavour.
That afternoon we went for a paddle through the trees in our canoe. Lots of bugs, and we eventually saw monkeys! All around us, in the trees above. Scurrying around, but obviously quite curious.
In the evening we went to a native dwelling, near the village, to stay the night. There was a mother and father, with most of their nine children, plus some others, like a nephew and a granddaughter. It was a wooden building on stilts next to the water. Very basic. The family obviously had it set up so visitors could stay in hammocks. A bit of a money making venture for them. We couldn´t communicate well unfortunately though, due to the language barrier. They had chickens, dogs and cats. And a pre-emptive rooster.
Next day it was jungle trek day. And what a beautifully overcast day it was. By the time we got to the track, it was raining quite hard. And then we had to paddle up it for about 20 minutes till we reached land. It was hard rain, what with us being in a rainforest and all. Still, it was great to be walking through the Amazon, with someone cutting our path with a machete. Charles, a Native from north of Manuas, had an extensive knowledge of the plants in the jungle. Whilst we have an extensive knowledge of how to operate in our environment of cities and so on, so do Natives know how to operate in their environment. It´s astounding that their isn´t more outside interest in the huge range of plants in the Amazon, with their many uses.
Firstly, he showed us the Amazonian panadol. You make the leaves into tea, which lower fevers and reduce pain. We bit the leaves, and they numbed the tongue. He would just stop at a tree or a vine, recognise it straight away, and show it to us. There was the vine quinine, the cure for malaria (and used in some malaria medications that we´re familiar with too). There were ants that you get to climb on your hands from their nest. You can then squish them, and rub the scent all over your skin. Natural mosquito repellent. You can also make them into tea, which supposedly cures peoples´ vision problems that we generally correct with glasses and contact lenses. There was a vine that you can cut and place on insect bites, which makes them go down. You can also dry it and smoke it to "help relax". There was a tree that produced a smelly resin. When out in the jungle, hunters use it´s inflammability to light fires. They also place it around their campsite in a circle. Its unpleasant smell keeps out everything from insects to jaguars. We saw a rubber tree. The dried line of sap on the outside was far more stretchy than a rubber band. Charles coaxed a couple of tarantulas out of their holes for us to see. They were massive, and not fully grown. Frightening for some. There was a small plant whose roots are extremely toxic. You can kill someone with them, or grind them, put them into water, and kill all the fish. Easy fishing, but now highly illegal. It sucks the oxygen out of the water, so kills everything. There was a diarrhea cure as well as other things he showed us, but I think you get the idea, and I´m having trouble remembering them all. Lots of teas though.
After a freezing and extremely wet boat ride back to the lodge, we got ready to go back to Manuas. The rush was not over. We had to take a speedboat back to get there in time. Then we had an hour and a half to get ready to leave. We had another night bus, that would begin the long and massively potholed journey from Manuas to Santa Elena in Venezuela, where I currently am.
A very busy, and very exciting end to my stay in Brazil. After almost two months there, it was sad to see it go. I´ve learnt a lot about Brazilian culture, a little Portuguese, and had a great time. Bring on Venezuela and it´s confusing Spanish.
