Amazonas: How Africa Spoilt the Amazon

After one night too many (and we only stayed the one night) in the new arsehole of the world, Sao Luis (it takes the grand prize in a fiercely contested battle with Puerto Montt) we caught one of the strangest flights we have been on to date.

Billed as a direct flight from Sao Luis to Manaus, we stopped off in Belém and Santarém before finally arriving in Manaus – it was like the local bus, stopping here and there to pick up any strays along the route. No wonder it was cheap!

After arriving early in the morning and checking into a $12 hotel for couple of hours sleep we were picked up by our tour guide and started making our way into the Amazon – the jungle that is. This involved a 6am public bus from Manaus to god knows where, where we jumped off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, right outside a convenience store of sorts.

From here we hauled aboard a largish wooden canoe (I say largish as it could sit 7 of us at a squeeze whereas most canoes I have previously encountered would hold 3 at most), complete with the smallest outboard you could imagine. This thing would be more suited to a whipper snipper than a boat, but still it did the job, and after an hour and half we made it to our Cabana where we were to spend the night.

Our Little Cabana

The trip in the canoe took us up the Rio Negra (Black River), named after is coffee black waters which is one of the main tributaries to the greater Amazon River. Along the way we saw countless dolphins, both pink and grey varieties, and apparently an otter, which our guides informed us are at the top of the food chain in the Amazon. These guys will attack anything from an anaconda to a piranha, and not necessarily for a feed either.

The cabana, which acted as our base for exploring the jungle, was located on an island (well at least in high water) with two basic huts and a long drop, was to be our home for the next few days. We strung up hammocks in the guest’s hut and then set off for some piranha fishing. This involved a more traditional 3 man canoe, a raw chicken leg, a length of fishing line wrapped around a broken piece of a polystyrene esky, and a hook seemingly fashioned out a paper clip. Yeah you guessed it, we didn’t have much luck. But we did paddle around and explore the river a bit more. The Rio Negra, at high water resembles more of a flooded jungle or savannah than a river, with the water rather sedate and clusters of trees everywhere, separated by waterways and tributaries.

Piranha fishing

And while we didn’t so much as get a bite, the other group were a little more successful. They had rods fashioned from branches and came home with 4 piranha for dinner that night. After dinner we again split up and headed back out onto the water for some ‘caiman hunting’, or so the itinerary quoted. We weren’t successful in this endeavour either, but to be honest I’m not too sure how much we wanted to be successful in this case. My guess is that the caiman of the Amazon are nothing like the salties of the Kimberleys, cos no one in their right mind would stalk the salties of the north in an 8 foot wooden canoe about as steady as a drunk on payday, armed only with a wooden paddle and a flash light. Still, we searched high and low for these guys and just enjoyed to absolute calm and serenity of the river at night. The entire river was like a shimmering mirror, reflecting even the stars above, and it was actually one of the highlights of the tour. Again the other group probably out-did us, as they had their peaceful paddle interrupted by a kamikaze fish that actually jumped into their boat and eventually made its way onto our plates the next night.

The others' catch

After an early night (it’s always funny to be reminded that without electricity, once the sun goes down there aren’t too many options on things to do. Out in the Amazon there are two options – 1: Sit around by candle light and get attacked by every bug imaginable, or 2: go to bed – we opted for number 2 on every occasion) we were up before sunrise to get back on board our trusty canoes and see the sunrise over the river and chance our luck at spotting more dolphins and other animals, who like us had hit the sack early and were up and about at 5am. 

Sunrise over Rio Negra 

Dolphin spotting on the Rio Negra

We were rewarded with the dolphins but not too much else happened on our leisurely paddle until on our way back to the cabana the other group were waiting at the edge of a cluster of trees with their guide evidently excited. They had entered the trees when Luis had heard a monkey screeching at the top of its lungs – he was sure this was a sign that the elusive anaconda was in the area. After a few minutes searching the tree tops we spotted the king of snakes, sunning himself atop one of the taller trees, blending in so much he seemed just an extension of the branch he had anchored himself to. Apparently anacondas, although very common in the jungle are extremely hard to find, and Luis was so excited to have found one he seemed disappointed it was just lazing about in the tree. I reckon he would have climbed the tree if we had let him, but he settled on trying to wake the beast up by any means possible. Still the beast was unmoved and we continued on our merry way.

Yes that is an anaconda up there disguising itself as a branch

We returned to the cabana, packed up our gear and started our trek into the jungle where we were to stay the night. They say in Brazil if you want animals you go to the Pantanal (one we missed but will hopefully be back one day to enjoy), if you want jungle you go to the Amazon. So in our 4 hour trek into the jungle we didn’t see much wildlife but we were introduced to a variety of plants and trees that were fascinating albeit unmoving. We learnt about trees that could cure, trees that could heal, trees that could sting, trees that would cut, trees that could hurt, trees that could kill (other trees that is) and of course trees that could just stand there.

Trees of the Amazon

After about 4 hours hiking into the heart of the jungle we made it to our camp for the night, a small clearing next to a stream and only a short walk from a small waterfall. This waterfall was a god-send – after 4 hours hiking though the humid jungle and a few days between showers, the cool water of the falls was more refreshing than I could have imagined. That night our guides cooked up a few chicken legs and the kamikaze fish from the previous evening paddle, and we were curled up in our hammocks watching the flickering lights of the candles slowly burn down and melt away into the night, all before 8pm.

Wilfred feeling right at home in the Amazon

Nighttime in the jungle

After hiking back the following morning to the cabana, the other tour group departed for civilisation whilst Nic and I lazed about in the hammocks and swum around in the river until the larger canoe returned. Whilst waiting we did paddle over to a neighbour, of sorts, who lived aboard a floating house. The family were renovating the house to make it more ‘authentic Amazon’ and their methods were nothing but ‘authentic Amazon’. At one stage they needed to get onto the roof, problem was the roof over hung the balcony by about a 1.5m. Solution: Nail one of the doors you recently pulled off one of the bedrooms to the balcony and climb a ladder from there. Problem Number 2: Need a ladder. No dramas, just knock one up from the scraps you’ve got lying about here, there and everywhere. Problem Number 3: No one was too keen to try out their handy work. Too easy, send up the oldest one of the bunch, he’s already had a good run. Problem Number 4: The tin roof was apparently fricken scolding. Well throw the poor man his thongs, it ain’t rocket science.

The Floating House

In amongst all this action, Nic made quite the impression on the little toddler they had. After being rather shy at first, he came around with a quick game of hide and seek and in the end didn’t want Nic to leave. Later that night he evidently told his mum he wouldn’t go to sleep until he got to see the ‘girl with the golden hair’ again. So she got one of the workers and his brother to row him over to our cabana only to find Nic had gone to bed – yeah outlasted by a toddler, and Fat Cat. Our guides promised him that they would bring the ‘golden haired girl’ over in the morning, and apparently he was satisfied with this.

We lived up to this promise early the next morning and on this occasion we both (somehow and unbeknown to us) made quite the impression on the entire family as they invited us over to have lunch with them. From what we could gather from our guides this was quite unusual but we returned bearing gifts for the little one (we parted ways with a small toy Mario that Bazil has found just before we left Perth. For those that know of Wilfred our monkey teddy, he was not up for adoption) and enjoyed Sunday lunch with the family and a few others from nearby dwellings on the river. Somewhat of an unexpected look into life on the Amazon.

Amazon fishing First World style

Who believes I caught this?

For most that head into the Amazon, I believe it is the highlight of their trip (and we did get this impression from the others on our trip) but for us it was a little spoilt by our time in Africa. We both enjoyed the trip, but when it’s all about the jungle and you’ve already trekked through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (yeah its name has the word impenetrable in it) it’s hard to measure up. I guess this may make us sound a little like travel snobs but we’re not trying to be. It’s just in Africa, when we were hiking through rainforests there was more to it than just the forest itself – the Gorillas of Bwindi, the chimps of the Kalinzu– these were things you can’t get anywhere else in the world. The Amazon as a whole, in the jungle, the river, the wildlife (although minimal), the people and the way of life were incredible and something Nic and I will look back on fondly, it just wasn’t Africa. It lacked the rawness of that continent, and the savageness that lies at the heart of it.

One last sunrise