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