Going Wild in Brazil: Manaus and the Amazon

When my sister Carrie did SAS when I was eight, her trip to the Amazon
was the one of the stories I was most impressed by. Ever since then,
I've dreamed about going, and the Amazon is one of the things that
made me want to do SAS the most. I can't believe I've really been
there now! My four days in Brazil went by really fast - it was a lot
of fun.

DAY 1:
Day 1 was my day to explore Manaus. Manaus is a huge city (2.5
million people) in the middle of the jungle. There aren't many roads
that go to Manaus, so the only ways to get there are by boat or
plane. Manaus is also fairly divided between its downtown, which is
where our port was, and the nicer part of the city, where more upper-
class people live. As soon as we stepped out of the cruise terminal
we were immersed in a market. There were a ton of street vendors,
ranging from the normal (food, clothes) to the strange (underwear,
tattoos). We walked around downtown to find things to buy and found
some good finds. It was a little overwhelmingly busy. We walked to
the Opera House, which is one of the most well-known landmarks of
Manaus. It was very pretty - it was inspired by Parisian
architecture, and is a beautiful building.
Later that day, we wanted to find a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner.
We had a recommendation for a really good one within walking distance
from the ship, so we set off, hungry for dinner. Unfortunately, we
got a little lost, and asking people for directions with the language
barrier was at times interesting. The people we asked were all really
nice, so we found it eventually - but unfortunately, the restaurant
was closed. Not knowing what to do, we flagged down a taxi, with the
thought that we'd ask the driver for another good steakhouse.
However, the taxi driver we pulled spoke no English, but somehow we
got the idea of restaurant conveyed. She took us to Picanha, and it
was an amazing dinner. The waiter spoke English, which was very
exciting! All the food was so amazing: the roasted cheese, the fruit
juice, the rice, and of course, the meat. The meat was cooked
perfectly, and seemed to melt in my mouth. It was one of the best
dinners I've ever had.

DAY 2:
Time to go to the Eco Park Jungle Lodge for my overnight trip in the
Amazon! I was really, really nervous about the mosquitos in the
Amazon, but it was actually not bad at all. This is because the lodge
is located on the Rio Negro, not the Amazon river. The Amazon is very
muddy and high in sediment, which attracts a lot of bugs. The Rio
Negro is full of black water, and is more acidic, which does not
attract mosquitos. I definitely appreciated that! Before we did
anything, we had time to explore the lodge. It was a nice lodge - it
had a natural sandy beach by the river, where the water was
unexpectedly warm. It had refreshing natural swimming pools, which
were very beautiful to swim in. It also, very randomly, had a
trampoline! As a gymnast, I got very excited about this, and
naturally I took every opportunity I had to get some gymnastics time
in. It wasn't the bounciest trampoline, and a funky-looking spider
had taken residence in part of the net, but it was still a lot of
fun. After exploring, we had lunch: like every other meal at the
lodge, it was a buffet of amazing food. I especially like the fried
plantains and the passionfruit ice cream.
Our first activity was a tour of a local's home. It was very
interesting - we learned how they use the land around them and how
they make the food and products they use and sell. After dinner, we
went caiman searching. We went onto the river in these motorized
canoe boats. It was really cool at night - the jungle really comes
alive then, and there's a symphony of frog, insect and animal noises
that's really beautiful. We saw several caiman eyes - they glow red
in the light the guide shined around the jungle - but we saw none up
close. It was still a lot of fun to just be on the river at night,
even without caimans.

DAY 3:
Today started very early with a 6:30 canopy walk in the jungle. It
was worth waking up early for though. Walking through the jungle at
that height was very beautiful and fun, and we saw our first Amazonian
monkeys! There was a large group of them leaping from tree to tree,
which was really fun to watch. We had breakfast after, which was
unexpectedly entertaining: A small green parrot decided he was hungry
and started to nibble on people's food. Shortly after, a big scarlet
macaw came and stole an entire breakfast roll from someone and flew
off with it. Gotta watch out for those parrots!
Right after breakfast, we went on a two-hour jungle walk. It was a
lot of fun to see the jungle from the ground, but it unfortunately got
very hot and humid. We saw some crazy bugs from this view - a few
people even ate these tiny termites! They said it wasn't all bad,
just had a weird aftertaste. I was not brave enough to try a
termite! We also saw funky spiders and large bullet ants. They're
called bullet ants, because apparently if they bite you, it's as
painful as getting shot. We had downtime after the hike. With our
downtime, people mostly either went swimming or hung out in the
hammocks. I also took advantage of more trampoline time!
That afternoon, we went to my favorite part of the trip: the monkey
village. It was back at the head of the canopy walk, and they set out
fruit for the monkeys. A lot of monkeys came! It was super cool.
There was one red monkey that liked to check people's heads for lice.
There were some monkeys with babies on their backs, which was really
cute. They were mostly just jumping from tree to tree and swinging
upside down by their tail - literally monkeying around! It's crazy
how they jump between trees - it looks like there is no way the branch
will support them, but they never fall!
After the monkeys, it was time to go piranha fishing. We attached a
piece of raw beef to the end of homemade fishing poles.
Unfortunately, there weren't many piranhas. Only a couple people
caught one, and I wasn't one of the lucky ones. We did get to look at
the piranhas before they threw them back in the river, which was
interesting. They were a lot smaller than I expected! They were also
prettier - their scales really shine in the sun.
That night, all the SAS students hung out at the Jungle Lodge at a
dock by the river. It was a lot of fun, and our dock also turned into
a popular spot for bats. After awhile, the bats started freaking
people out, so some went to bed. Three of us (me, Alex and Amanda)
decided to go on the trampoline for awhile, which was lot of fun in
the jungle at night!

DAY 4:
Our last day in the Amazon! We went to the Meeting of the Waters,
which is where the Amazon River and the Rio Negro come together. The
two rivers have different compositions, temperature, and speed, so
instead of mixing together, they flow side by side for a couple of
miles. It's a really cool thing to see. The black Rio Negro waters
contrast greatly with the muddy-brown Amazon, and they really don't
mix at all. After that, we went to a small Amazon village. It
started to pour as soon as we got to the village. We waited to go to
the village until the rain stopped, but it got very muddy! The
village was very small, and it was fun to walk around. There were a
lot of chickens and dogs running around. The coolest part was a
little girl who was carrying a baby sloth! The sloth was one of the
cutest things I've ever seen. We got to pet the sloth, and it was
very soft. It just looked so sleepy in her arms - it made me want a
sloth!

And now we have left Manaus, and are on our way out of the Amazon. I
had a lot of fun in the Amazon! It is a very, very beautiful place.
It's crazy to think that there is so much more to the Amazon than the
small section that I experienced - it's truly amazing. I feel really
special to have been able to experience this rainforest, if only for a
few short days. Now, we're on our way to Africa!