Rare Adventures

Category: Adventures

Stories about travel and adventure

  • Piranha fishing in the Amazon

    Piranha fishing in the Amazon

    We arrived at the lodge after about 5 hours of travelling through the jungle in a variety of transport and a chance to meet up with our fellow adventurers. We arrived in early afternoon and after a couple of hours to get over the trip and “enjoy” our new environment our new environment it was time to head off for into the jungle for our first adventure.

    Top of my list was always the river adventures, so I was glad it was the first thing on the itinerary. By a coincidence our companions in the canoe were all the French people on the trip, Antoine the physio from La Plagne and champion photobomber in the pics, Genevieve and Jean the fragile looking 70 something adventurers from Paris but were tough as old boots, and of course the long suffering Wooksie who was well outside her comfort zone in the jungle.

    We all piled into the small wooden canoe with our guide Ismail, who was also the Brazilian jujitsu champion at one time, which is why his knees are all strapped up. So, we headed back out into the lake to navigate the shallow channels surrounded by wading birds and eventually we made it back out to the main river and ready for action.

    Piranha action

    A few hundred metres up the track we pulled over to the bank and tied the canoe to the branch of a tree hanging in the river. Ismail then handed out our tools, which were 2m long thin branches with fishing line on the end, no reels or sophistication here, the hook was tied to the line with a strip of wire, which gave us the first indication of how sharp the teeth of the piranha would be.

    The bait was the skin from the chicken we had had for lunch, which made sense because it is tough, so it would be difficult for the fish to get it off the hook. So armed with our fishing rods, I ended up helping the others put the chicken on their hooks and into the water we cast.

    Within seconds the fish attacked the bait, with really violent attacks that had the rods shacking, but these cunning little fish weren’t easy to catch as they ripped the skin off the hooks but eventually, I swung one over the side of the canoe.

    This raised new problems, firstly we had to get these violent little critters off the hooks, which we did by shaking the fish off the hooks. This created the next problem, what did we do with the fish in on the floor of the boat. My pal Antoine took no chance and put his feet in the air so they couldn’t bite his feet whilst leaving me to deal with the problem.

    As we were getting short of bait, we just used the fish as more bait, so basically the Piranha were now eating their mates. Then Wooksie caught her first fish and helpful swung it out of the water and into my lap – brilliant, a deadly fish in my lap. I shook the fish off the hook, so it was now loose on my seat. I decided to flick it back into the river, after a couple of efforts I said to myself “stop faffing around and pick it up”, it is this lack of personal risk management that has got me into trouble before and duly I picked it up and was immediately bitten by their infamously savage teeth.

     With blood all over the seat, Ismail decided we had had enough fun for one afternoon, and it was time to take a break and get my finger treated.

    We pulled in our gear and headed up the river.

    Riverside pub

    After 10 minutes enjoying the tranquil surroundings we saw our destination, a barge moored beside the river. This was an unexpected sight and as we drew closer we realised that the barge performed many functions.

    It was the local supermarket for the riverside communities, it sold beer to acted as their local pub, the owner was installing a big new TV so it was about to assume the role of local cinema too, and lastly it was also the local hospital and I had my injury dressed.

    So, we sat back and enjoyed a relaxing beer as the sun went down over the river, we sat back and enjoyed a couple of ice cold beers. Just behind us was another canoe from our lodge who pulled in and joined in the fun.

    Strangely, Ismail suggested that it was safe for swimming and people should jump in for a dip, which the young people did. Luckily, I was told I shouldn’t jump in due to my find, and to be honest I was very grateful for the excuse not to enter the water with those fish only 1 mile away!

    After an hour it was time to head off for our next adventure, the day wasn’t over yet.

    Crocodile hunt

    The freshwater crocodiles in the Amazon are called Caymen; they grow to about 3 metres and live along the riverbanks eating anything that wanders past their nests.

    The sun went down very quickly and before we knew it, we were heading back through the dark. The method for finding the creatures is to shine a torch along the banks and the beam catches their eyes and reflects their location.

    We didn’t have much luck until we entered the narrow creek back to the lodge. Ahead of us the other canoe suddenly ran into the shallows and their guide jumped out and splashed around in the narrows.

    We passed their boat and the hunt intensified, suddenly Ismail jumped over the side of the boat into the muddy shallows, and then reappeared with our Caymen, not a full grown adult but a stroppy teenager with a bit of attitude.

    As we examined the beast in the canoe it was quite difficult to capture the moment because of the high powered lights, but it was lots of fun and our French friend Genevieve insisted on waving at it rather than touching it.

    The adventures of the evening were not quite over. As daylight came to an end there had been rumbles of thunder and gathering storm clouds were ominous, then as we put the Caymen back in the water there was the first crack of lightening and a warning about what was to come on the way back.

  • Culture vultures land in Buenos Aries

    Culture vultures land in Buenos Aries

    We landed back in Buenos Aries for our second visit of the South American adventure. The first visit only lasted about 15 hours but we did manage to get in a tour of the main sights before heading to the airport, so we were looking for something different on this visit.

    The trip up from Ushuaia using Flybondi had been surprisingly incident free. After our previous experiences, we were relieved the find the flight on time and we landed in Buenos Aries on schedule, tired but with the evening to look forward to.

    We then encountered the Howard Johnson hotel chain, in particular, their hotel naming convention. Now I get the need for branding and consistency but do the hotels have to have almost the exact same name?

    Howard Johnson Hotels

    So after a long day we got an Uber from the airport to Howard Johnson by Wyndham Buenos Aries, which it turns out is  hidden away in a shopping mall. After walking around in circles trying to find it, we finally found the hidden entrance, waited 10 minutes while a couple of other customers faffed about before it was our turn.

    The receptionist  looked at our reservation and laughed, “You have the wrong hotel”, firstly I didn’t like having to wait anyway, but when he chose to laugh it really did agitate me so I let Wooksie deal with it. It was the first time the pace of our South American adventure started to catch up with us.

    Turned out we were at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Plaza Buenos Aries Florida, when we should have been at Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima, a mile away, a simple mistake to make I’m sure you will agree, and in fact, a naming convention almost designed to cause trouble for innocent customers.

    So, we called another Uber for 4 persons, and the driver turned up in a VW Up which is hardly a 4 seater. It patently wasn’t big enough to take us and our bags comfortably but I wasn’t giving in that easy, we then had a stand off as he wanted to cancel the trip but after another very dirty look from me we piled into the car with two big bags on our laps, and finally we made it to Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima.  We then discovered that Buenos Aries shuts down on a Sunday night, so there was no big night out for us so a light dinner and a good night’s kip.

    Culture options.

    For this trip to Buenos Aries we wanted something a bit different, we had already done the city tour so wanted to see a different side of the city. Wooksie was adamant that she wanted to experience the traditions of Tango, we had touched on it in Boca, so we decided we would go to a see a Tango show.  We also had time in the day for something else so we decided to do the  tour of the street art in Palermo, and in particular the Soho district.

    In the morning, we went for a stroll in the spring sunshine around the parks and the around Porteno backstreets, was good to feel the sun again after Patagonia and Ushuaia in particular.

    We are not particularly arty, in fact, not arty at all, so the walking tour of the street art was a bit left field for us, but it turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip. We had a really nice, paced walk around the back streets of this famous suburb and you could really feel the buzz, I would imagine nights out in that area would be a lot of fun, there was even an Irish pub.

    Street art in Palermo

    The street art itself was brilliant. If we had wandered around the streets ourselves, we would have missed so much, not just the art but all the history and buildings that make up the area. Bright vibrant colours on all the walls, apparently vandalism is defined as someone who damages someone else’s art.

    Nearly all the walls had artwork on them, from artists all over the world who had come here to leave their mark. I now know the history of graffiti, not to be mistaken for murals of course. It was difficult to really capture all the vibrant colours in the photos as there were so many of them, so I created this video to capture them all.

    The time flew by with a great tour guide and interesting company in the group, but before we knew it, we had to bail out and head back to the hotel for our big night out at the Porteno Tango show a few blocks from our hotel.

    We got ourselves ready in our least scruffy T shirt and jeans for our big night out. Just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango (at 745 pm) I received an email from Antonio Jungle Trekking that said our  accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it poured cold water on our  evening at the Tango, you can read the full story in our Cautionary Tale blog.

    Wooksie started to come to terms with possible unravelling or Jungle Trek in Manaus and at least started talking to me again in rather clipped phrases, one of the terms she used sounded similar to  anchor.

    A night at the Tango

    Thankfully, our arrival at the Porteno Theatre went without a hitch, the booking was all in place so no problems to navigate, the welcome was warm, and we were directed to our dining table which had a great view of the stage. 

    We then found ourselves in the company of another English couple touring South America in the wake of the BBC Race Round the World, exactly the same as us. So, we had much to talk about, and tales to tell of our adventures and experiences and the pre-show dinner and drinks just flew by.

    A word on the dinner, the food at the theatre was as good as anything we had enjoyed at restaurants and the Merlot was really good quality, it was relatively expensive but was good value for money.

    In the UK we don’t really do show things, it’s not really us but this was a great experience. The whole Tango experience was different to what we expected, the dancing was more akin to what I would have expected in Paris with café culture scenes.  I think we were expecting Flamenco dancing, which we now realise is associated with Brazil 😊.

    Even though the Tango is associated with Argentina, it clearly has its origins in France and Italy with other European influences, a bit like the whole of Argentina really. So, this was the last act in our Argentina adventure as the next day we headed to Brazil to continue our adventure.

    We had a wonderful time in Argentina and I’ve documented the little surprises about the country and what to expect if you decide to come here.

    The pictures tell part of the Tango story, but I put them all together to make a little video of the night, which I hope you will enjoy.

  • The journey into the darkest Amazon

    The journey into the darkest Amazon

    After all the trauma with the booking, we were relieved to be in Manaus ready for our adventure. We didn’t have much information on how we would get to the lodge in the middle of the Amazon.

    The journey to our Jungle Lodge was all part of the fun and very quickly got into the spirit of adventure, you could even say it started with a bump, literally. Amazing Tours  picked us up in a minibus from the Intercity Hotel, the bump in question was when the minibus hit a car when turning into the hotel to pick us up, so the excitement started early !

    We then had a tour of the city picking up lots of youngish European trekkers, who all spoke wonderful English so by the time we got to the port we all knew each other, and our favourite football teams, very well. There was a rich mixture of back packers, a couple of Spanish girls who were working in Sao Paulo and an elderly couple from Paris. It’s wonderful how quickly people mix and integrate when they are on an adventure.

    First stop was the port, where we all decanted from the minibus in search of our next mode of transport. In front of us was a vast waterway, which in fact was the place where the Amazon River is officially formed by the meeting of the Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes.

    Once all the bags and people were loaded on to the little ferry boat, we headed across the river to have a look at the natural phenomena called the Meeting of the Waters, where the two rivers are different colours and the water doesn’t mix, so there are light and dark brown waters running in parallel, this is covered in more detail in this post.

    We then bumped into a boat load of noisy Polish ladies, who we later discovered were heading to our lodge as well. The waterway acts as a major highway for traffic with an assortment of ferries going in different directions and lots of boats ferrying goods around. I

    We then arrived at the little port and disembarked; to find a fleet of little old style VW Type 2 vans waiting for us, this was turning into a real adventure. These vehicles are based on the 1960s design and were laid out with two benches for us to sit on. So, our intrepid travellers loaded ourselves into the vans, opened the sliding windows and set off into the wilds of the Amazon.

    At this point there wasn’t a lot of jungle but we noticed that many of the wooden houses were built on stilts, it wasn’t clear if that was to avoid the snakes and nasty things of the jungle, but we later realised it was because the whole area would be under water in 6 months’ time.

    After an hour of driving we were glad for a stop to grab a drink and an ice cream at a remote petrol station, to have a chat with our companions and start to adjust to the world of the jungle. As we reboarded the van, we didn’t realise this was the last we would see of civilisation for a few days.

    We headed off down a very straight main road with the company of huge lorries and motorbikes. Another hour down the road we turned off into a muddy track, which ran for another 45 minutes – these old buses have a hard life.  Eventually we arrived at another river port, there were motor bikes lying around so we were grateful these didn’t feature in the transportation plans.

    We were loaded onto another wooden ferry boat for the next stage of our adventure, unfortunately there wasn’t enough space for the passengers and the bags, so one of our French companions, Jean, was despatched to the front of the boat to enjoy the baking sun and keep a lookout for danger!

    The trip up the river was tranquil (except for Jean) as there was no one else around and it was a beautiful windless day, the only ripples on the water were those created by our boat. It was our first opportunity to see the illusive dolphins, unlike their sea water cousins they don’t follow and play with the boats, the only sightings are their grey bodies as they make their way along the river.

    30 minutes later, it was time for another transport change. Our boat was rammed into a muddy bank where a small wooden boat was waiting. At this time of the year the river levels are very low, as we cruised up the river it was clear that the high water mark was at least 5m higher than the current water level, the consequence of this was that the tributary river, creeks and lakes dry out at this time of the year.

    Once again, we had another change, we had to clamber into smaller boats for the next stage of the journey to the lodge. We headed into the creek which was little more than a stream, the waterway was very narrow and shallow which required a lot of skill from the driver. The boat was navigated using an outboard motor arrangement, the rear steerage was tricky, and we beached on occasional banks and needed a team effort to get us back in the channel.

    The boats then entered a large lake with sticks poking out of the water, it transpired that these sticks were the navigation channel that had to be followed. The water level of the lake had dropped to only a few inches in places, and we could see numerous wading birds enjoying their fishing opportunities in the shallow water.

    After another 15 minutes we turned the corner into deeper water and there was our destination, Ipanema Lodge sat high up on the banks of the lake. The driver beached the bow of the boat into the muddy bank, and we all scrambled out of the boat, stretching and stiff, and clambered up the bank to have a look around our home for the next 3 nights.

    Here is the video of the trip – hope you enjoy it

  • Amazon treks –  a cautionary tale.

    Amazon treks –  a cautionary tale.

    Our search for adventure took us into the Amazon jungle. This wasn’t planned at all, but our journey through Patagonia had been quicker than we expected so we had accrued a few days.

    Making last minute decisions is part and parcel of our approach, but the decision to take on the Amazon at short notice did come with risks.

    There were one or two other potential options for the last week, but as I had always wanted to do a jungle trek (and after some negotiation with Wooksie) it was agreed that we would do a jungle trek to use up the spare days, it also had the benefit of saving us coming back on a future trip.

    Reflecting on this story, there is a lesson that if you are going to commit to something as risky as an Amazon trek then you need to do your research properly, rather than doing it on the spur of the moment like we did.

    In addition, we made an assumption that if you offered to pay more, you would get better accommodation, but clearly that was lost in translation.

    The last 2 years we have booked the Inca Trail and a safari in Tanzania without needing a travel agent, so know about the potential pitfalls and the need to take care about the selection process of suppliers.

    We were in Ushuaia when we had the discussion, and I have to admit there were a few logistical challenges, not least that we were on the edge of Antarctica and the treks were mostly from Manaus in Brazil, which is only just south of the equator. We were embarking on a 6000 mile journey as the crow flies, which involved 3 flights and 10 hours on a plane over 3 days to get there.

    Wooksie only agreed to the Amazon trek on condition that the accommodation was good so she could escape some of the heat, many people don’t realise that redheads struggle with body heat regulation, so it was a really important criterion.

    Unlike the Inca Trail and safari, where I did the research months in advance, this time we only had 7 days to get it booked and get to Manaus. Most of the offerings were 2 or 3 nights at a lodge, with a night camping out in the jungle in a hammock, which was an absolute “no no” for Wooksie, and me to be honest.

    So, we set out our defined our requirements, namely, aircon room, private bathroom and no camping in the jungle and sent them off to some of the travel companies in Manaus.

    We tracked down 5 companies that were offering jungle treks and seemed to fit the bill. At such short notice the potential suppliers dropped down to 2, namely:

    In the discussions, I made it very clear that Wooksie needed good accommodation to be able to cope with the heat that we anticipated, at the end of the day, she is a red headed English Rose and has to be handled with care.

    Our safari accommodation had been really outstanding, its cost a lot more but we got what we paid for. It also set an expectation for what we should expect in the Amazon, but of course, this is a different country and different continent,  

    We chose Antonio as he seemed to understand our requirements the best and his English was very good,  so we committed to go with them, on Sunday 15th Nov. for the tour going out on Thursday 20th Nov, after confirming I was a bit surprised they didn’t ask for a deposit, but I booked our flights and we headed to Buenos Aries enroute to Manaus for our trek.

    The problem with rushing through the selection process is that it is difficult to do the quality control and checking, so I was taking their word and depended on them being honest, and unfortunately, we had a nasty surprise coming.

    On the Monday night in Buenos Aries, just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango at 745 pm I received an email from Antonio Trekking that said the accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it ruined our evening at the Tango.

    I have no doubt that this was a callous attempt to get our booking and that they were never intending to meet our requirements. They hoped that we had no other options so were up shit creek without a paddle and would take their package in desperation.

    I’ve always been careful not to burn bridges unless I have to, fortunately, I hadn’t told Leonardo  we hadn’t chosen them at this point, so a quick check with them confirmed they still had availability and by 1am we had switched the booking to Leonardo Trekking them and all seemed well.

    We have covered the adventures in our other blogs, one to cover the journey to the lodge, the fishing expedition and the jungle treks. So, I am just focusing on the sharing our experiences with the lodge.

    We arrived at the Ipanema  Lodge midafternoon after and an entertaining journey and it was a really nice set up.  We found a lounge and a communal dining area overlooking the river, was a very positive start, so we then headed to our room to settle in.

    Things took a turn for the worst at this point, there were lots of rooms in amongst the trees but we followed a walkway to our room, the walkway was clearly not finished as it didn’t have a roof or any rails to stop us falling over the edge. This was OK in the daylight but when faced with a monsoon in the dark later it became a lot more challenging with a 2m drop each side.

    This brings us to the room. The bizarre thing is that the room technically met our specification because it did have a private bathroom and an aircon unit as we requested. The room was actually a large wooden shed with gaps in the walls and the aircon was totally useless, it was a pathetically small unit in a wooden shed with gaps between the wood, so it had absolutely no impact. 

    We had, unfortunately, been allocated a room that was not in the shade, it was in direct sunlight so the temperatures in the room soared during the day (well over 40C), so the heat was stifling in the room. The balcony had not been built, so the door to the balcony led to a 5m drop into the jungle so had to be kept close.

    It had a private bathroom, which was an anteroom off the shed with a pipe that fed cold water to a shower, which was quite pleasant in truth, and the water ran out through a hole in the floor. Basically, from Wooksies perspective, this was a total disaster but despite everything, she almost kept her sense of humour.

    The accommodation was fine for young backpackers, which is largely what our travelling companions were. In hindsight, it was always going to be wooden accommodation, so temperature regulation was always going to be a problem, but the big lesson not having any images.

    There are about 5 of these lodges in the Amazon Rainforest 4 or 5 hours from Manaus and my conclusion is that all of the lodges are like this, and that accommodation is very basic. Having rechecked the websites, it is very difficult to find any images of the accommodation and if we had had more time I would have asked for images which would have solved the problem and set our expectations.

    As you will read in the other reports, we had lots of fun, the food was very good, with wonderful helpful staff, but the reality is that this is a hot endurance experience. We elected to head back civilisation after 2 nights rather than 3 to save Wooksie any further suffering, we had also done the main jungle experiences, we didn’t need the 3rd night as jungle doesn’t change much whichever direction you walk!

    The reality of a jungle trek is a very basic experience; these lodges are out in the wilderness with no creature comforts. We thought that if we paid extra, we could get a higher level of accommodation, but I am not sure it exists.

    Unlike a safari, where there is a wealthier clientele who will pay extra, I am not sure that market exists in the jungle trek sector, it is hot, steamy and basic.

    A tour of our room at Ipanema Lodge

  • Manaus – where the Waters Meet

    Manaus – where the Waters Meet

    There aren’t many reasons to come to Manaus if you are a traveller looking for adventure. It is a big city, home to over 2 million people who have lots of cars and vans living busy and congested lives a long way from the rest of Western civilisation.

    It is hot and humid all year round, has very little in the way of architectural history apart from a few buildings that are the legacy of the Portuguese rule, and it is far off the beaten track so if you are here then it is probably to explore the Amazon.

    One unexpected discovery was that Manaus is home to a professional football team called Amazonas FC that is only 6 years old. This is very unusual as most teams count their age in decades and centuries. Apparently, they were formed because Manaus had fallen off the Brazilian football map in recent years, despite it being a World Cup venue in 2014.

    By sheer coincidence, they stayed in the Intercity Hotel on the same days as us. It is quite an interesting thing watching a professional football team building up to a game. Strict food consumption, then the team meeting in a conference room the night before and then just generally killing time before they departed for the stadium 2 hours before the game.

    To be honest, it looked a very boring lifestyle, but then again, 9-5 in a factory or office is boring as well, but a lot less glamorous if they are selected to play, and they had a nice bus.

    Manaus is in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest and is at the convergence of the two monster rivers that form the Amazon. Both rivers are significant in their own right, but when they combine, they create a huge waterway. The Rio Solimoes originate in the Peruvian Andes, whilst the Rio Negro originates in the Colombian jungle thousands of miles away. Everything going on in the city is related to these massive waterways which provide the most efficient transportation system through the surrounding jungle.

    The convergence of the two rivers causes a natural phenomenon, “The Meeting of the Waters”, hardly original!  The phenomenon is that the rivers converge but don’t mix, one is a dark brown, and the other is a light brown. So, there is a stream of dark water from the Rio Negro, which is slightly denser and colder than the water coming from the Rio Solimoes, which has a light brown coloured water.

    We went out in a boat to see the effect, and you can put your hand in the light brown water which is one temperature and 10m away put your hand in the dark water and feel that it is colder.

    Apart from the “Meeting of the Waters” we could not really find anything particularly interesting to do as we prepared for our jungle trek. We have seen plenty of old colonial buildings in our travels, so we restricted our activities to using the hotel pool before we headed off into the jungle on our adventure.

    We did take time out to visit the Manaus shopping mall in search of some additional trekking supplies, but to be honest, it seems that the jungle trekking industry is not particularly prominent, but we did manage to find a couple of long sleeve tops to prepare of the trip.

    We also discovered that Christmas comes early in the Amazon