After giving myself four days to recuperate from my time on the Amazon I am finally ready write my blog entry.
First a prologue:
One of the challenges of Semester at Sea is finding a way into the countries we visit. When I say into, I really mean into. In many of our classes we talk about the culture and the people, but getting yourself to a time and place where you can really experience that in the countries we visit is not as easy as it sounds. Sure we have a luxury cruise ship taking us, but when we dock and 800 Americans get off at once, it makes it a lot more difficult.; especially because each one of us is yearning for those same moments, those connections. It is the main reason I despise group travel. When you go on a tour with 50 other students and professors your experience immediately gets buffered. You start bringing
Day 1:
After porting in Manaus and assembling on the 5th deck our group of 42 students walked down the gangway, shuttled to the port, and met with our guides, Anand, Rameesh, and Marcos. After the most culturally riveting 7 minute walk I’ve ever had, walking down an immensely busy street/marketplace, we arrived at out riverboats. 30 of us were on the “big boat” and 12 of us on the “small boat”. Me and my friend Melissa were on the small boat which ended up being a much more intimate, overall better experience (again, going back to my hatred of big groups).
After getting an introduction from Marcos we set sail for Meeting of the Waters. The Meeting of the Waters seems to be the one sight no tourist who visits
After the meeting of the waters we headed to a lake which was home to some particularly large lily pads. On our way Rameesh started making a Brazilian mixed drink called carpadinas, or something like that. It was lime and sugar mashed together then mixed with lots of rum and ice. It was quite delicious. We arrived at the lily pads which were just as exciting as they sound. There was also a little shop and floating restaurant; so we took the opportunity to purchase a couple bottles of sugar cane rum per suggestion of our guide Marcos.
We then sailed 4 ½ hours up the river to get to our resting are for the night. On the way we had dinner and celebrated Melissa’s 21st birthday. The cooks even found out it was her birthday and made a delicious marbled sheet cake with chocolate frosting and a tomato peel garnish in the center. It was stunningly tasty, as was most of the food on the trip considering the tiny kitchens they had to cook for fifty people. We got to the little lake/tributary where we’d be spending the night. They brought the two boats next to each other and tied them to a tree. It was pitch black outside, kind of scary, but you could see every star perfectly. We set up our hammocks and went to sleep for the night. I remember when signing up for this trip, reading something that said sleeping in hammocks was comfortable, they lied. It took quite a bit of finagling to find your “sweet spot” and only then could you possibly manage to fall asleep. The first night I sleep pretty well surprisingly.
Day 2:
The next morning we woke up early to the sounds of birds and monkeys. At 7:30 we had breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, some weird ham, cheese, fruit, bread, some white pancake type item, juice, and coffee. Not bad. At 9am we left for our jungle trek, a three hour walk through some secondary rainforest to a waterfall where we could swim and relax. This is when we were lucky to be in the smaller boat. Instead of hiking in a pack of 30 we left a bit after they did and had a much more intimate experience. We walked up many steps (as you have to with most places which reside on the coast of the Amazon due to the rising waters) and met up with a local, non-English speaking guide who could lead our English-speaking guide Marcos to the “waterfall”.
As we walked Marcos stopped and pointed out various plants and trees which had different uses to the indigenous peoples. He slashed a side of a rubber tree and showed us the white sap which immediately came out, almost like blood clotting. We saw a large primary rainforest tree which was hollow and you could bang to communicate with people far away. The local guide found us a vine to swing on and he also made us hats out of various leaves to wear.
At this point in the entry I should discuss the heat and humidity in the Amazon. It was HOT and HUMID. Never before had I been so constantly moist and sticky. Everyone had a type of oily sheen for the duration of the trip, which we did get used to, but by hour 2 of our jungle trek it was getting unbearable. We left at 9 just for this reason, but by 11 the noon sun was starting to seep in. Marcos, realizing our anguish, decided to speed up the pace to get us to the badly needed swim we all craved. We stopped making stops and after running across huge ants and people getting stung by bees we made it, only we didn’t see any waterfall. We did see our boats to welcome relief and were told the waterfall was a short walk down a path.
We quickly put our bathing suits on and grabbed some soap and shampoo so we could wash ourselves while taking our swim. I walked down the path barefoot, probably not the greatest idea, and arrived at the “waterfall” which ended up being a small rapid. It was ok, at that point we just wanted in. The water was ice cold, I jumped in anyway. We bathed ourselves quickly, took some photos, and headed back to the boats. We had a great lunch before heading to a nearby village to play soccer with the locals.
When we got there we climbed off the boat, ascended another series of wooden steps, and arrived at their village. Right at the entrance there was a wooden pavilion where the local women soled little souvenirs. I bought a water drinking gourd. The village consisted of a large soccer field surrounded by a bunch of houses. It was quite beautiful. There were 20 or so children roaming around. At first they were shy but as soon as I showed them some stickers I brought they quickly warmed up to me. I spent most of my time handing out stickers and watching some of the people on our trip getting badly beaten in soccer. The local guys were very good.
After hanging out for a little more than an hour we headed back to our boats and headed back to the place where we had our hike earlier. Only this time we were hiking into the jungle with our hammocks in tow, for we were to spend the night in the jungle. We hiked in a long procession, crossing a river and climbing a little hill. It doesn’t sound that hard but in complete darkness with 30 screaming girls makes everything a lot harder. We got to the sight and set up our hammocks while the guides tried to start a fire. We learned starting a fire in the rainforest was not that easy considering most of the wood and ground is usually wet. While we waited for them to start the fire and make dinner we worked on our bottle of rum Marcos insisted we bring into the jungle, calling it “very important”.
By the time we almost finished the bottle the fire was ready and the chicken was grilling. They skewered the pieces of chicken on long wooden sticks and roasted them over the fire. By the time the chicken was finished cooking we were all starving. We were all given large leaves to eat on which held our chicken and white rice. That chicken was some of the best chicken I’ve ever had. After eating there wasn’t much left to do except to try and fall asleep. I rolled into my hammock and gently rocked myself to sleep. I slept quite well surprisingly. The rum probably helped.
Day 3:
I awoke to sunlight, sounds of the waking animals, and our guides burning garbage on a small fire. I was surprised to see them throw plastic bags and cups onto the flames. I always thought burning plastic was never a good idea. Apparently when you’re in the Amazon Rainforest and there are no trash receptacles at hand, burning plastic is acceptable. Soon after, we took down our hammocks and began our trek back to our boats. Breakfast was waiting for us and we were hungry.
We arrived to the breakfast we had been accustomed to at this point, with some papaya thrown in. As we ate, the loud engines started up and we started making our way to the “dolphin sanctuary”. I feel sanctuary conjures an image of a safe haven for dolphins where each is known by name and a close eye is kept on any possible medical issues they may have. In reality this place just has lots of fish to feed them, so they just keep coming back. The complex was made of a couple floating buildings and docks attached to each other. They have a team of strapping young Brazilian men who swim with you and feed the dolphins as boss lady (they’re mom?) throws them fish. They are professionals at taunting the dolphins with the fish in order to get them out of the water so we can not only pet them but get a nice photo op. I was one of the first ones in the water, and it was fun until there were 40 of us crowded in the water, mostly girls screaming the second a dolphin brushed their leg.
Also at this “dolphin sanctuary” they had a penned in area which contained thirteen of these large, vicious sports fish. I asked what they were called, but I barely understood what they said. The main attraction here was holding a long stick with a string dangling off and a small fish attached to the end of it. After only a few seconds of dangling the fish just above the water, one of these mighty water dragons viciously devours the poor fish in a matter of milliseconds. It was awesome. After doing these fun activities we hung out for a little longer before getting back on the boats and having lunch. During lunch we sailed across the river. We had a afternoon siesta until 3pm when we set out to go Piranha fishing. Our “small boat” of twelve loaded into a motorized canoe stocked with bamboo fishing rods and some red meat for bait. Our guide sailed us to a small inlet where we tied up the boat and cast our rods. Unlike all other fish, Piranha are attracted to vibration. So we were told to splash the water with our rods every so often. After sitting in one place for twenty minutes and catching nothing we zoomed off to another location. On our way our guide turned the boat around quickly and pointed to a sloth hanging in a tree. Amazing! At the next spot we had a bit more luck. We caught two different types of Piranha before one girl on our boat caught a MASSIVE Piranha. I didn’t even know they got that big. Marcos took it and showed their spikey teeth. Soon after is started down-pouring, as it does frequently in the Amazon, without much warning. We just continued fishing as we all got drenched. Sadly I did not catch anything, but I was ok with that.
When we got back we all dried off and hung our clothes up to dry. At this point I was running very low on clean clothing; so low that I had to where one of Melissa’s t-shirts. It was almost too small for me. When it got dark we went out in our motorized canoe again, this time to go Caiman spotting. We had a young, expert Caiman catcher with us. He used a bright spotlight to look for the reflection of the Caiman’s eyes in the water. Cruising through the grassy waters at night is mildly terrifying. After a few bad tries, eventually he caught one. A smaller sized Caiman, about 2 feet long. We all took turns holding it and taking pictures. After that we all thought we’d head back to the boat, but our Caiman hunter had his eyes set on something more. So we kept looking, and eventually we came upon a family of baby Caiman’s. They were only a few inches long and adorable. Of course, when you find the babies, mommy isn’t too far away. So we made a quick exit and headed back to the boat.
During dinner I started not feeling so well. My bowels were rumbling, and while I didn’t quite feel nauseous nor have a fever, I knew something was up. Someone gave me some Pepto-Bismol and I just lied in my hammock the rest of the night, trying to fall asleep. I awoke in the middle of the night feeling worse, I needed a bathroom ASAP. Our boat had one bathroom and the bigger boat had two. I went to ours first, it was uber-clogged. It appears someone else beat me to the punch. I wanted to go to the other boat but it was pitch black and climbing over Piranha-infested waters was involved. Not to mention there were lots of crew members sleeping all over the bottom decks of both boats, I was already stepping over bodies. I was in a HUGE pickle.
As I contemplated suicide another bathroom-seeker started coming down the steps, and she had a head-lamp! I told her the situation and we agreed to help each other climb to the other boat. Once there, we checked the bathrooms. Also clogged, but hey, at least it wasn’t our boat. Unfortunately, as I committed my act of vandalism, my worst fears became reality. I won’t go into detail (even though I pretty much already have) but that day will forever be known to me as D-Day.
Day 4:
After my tumultuous evening the sun finally began to rise. I had no appetite for breakfast besides a piece of bread. All of us were not-so-secretly very excited to get back on the M/V today, back in our own beds, with air conditioning, clean showers, and clean clothes. The last activity we had was an indigenous ritual ceremony two hours east of
After the performance and some more picture taking the boats made their final 2-hour journey back to
As the riverboat finally docked I said my final goodbyes to our guides and quickly hurried to the gangway. The crew patted me down and checked my backpack. I sanitized my hands and slid my ship card through the little, black slot. Never before has air conditioning felt so good. Now, this very welcomed homecoming does not mean I completely regressed the second I got back on the boat. Excuse me, ship. Sure, I was VERY happy to shower, have lunch, take a long nap, and be in the vicinity of a reliable toilet once again, but I definitely got something meaningful out of my time on the Amazon. It made me stronger; something I will build upon on in my further travels.
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