Rare Adventures

Tag: jungle treks

  • Jungle Adventure: Monsoons and ancient trees

    Jungle Adventure: Monsoons and ancient trees

    The second day of our Jungle Adventure was largely shaped by the events of the previous night.

    On our way back from Piranha fishing  and Caymen hunting the weather really turned. We had spent the evening listening to the thunder and watching the storm clouds gathering, then as it got dark the lightening forks started to appear in the sky.

    Our little canoe made its way along the navigation channel of the lake in pitch darkness, so the navigation sticks in the channel were hardly visible, we ran aground a couple of times but managed to get back into the channel with lots of pushing and panting.

    As we came around the corner of the channel into the deeper lake, the rain started. We were probably about 400m from the shore and the lights of the lodge were visible in the distance. The rain started as a few big dollops of water landing on our heads and within 30 seconds it turned into a torrential downpour, with claps of thunder and fork lightening all around us.

    Jungle Monsoon

    As we made our way towards the bank, we became aware of hundreds of jumping silver fish, this awareness mainly came about because they were hitting us on the heads from both sides and landing in the bottom of the canoe. These things were everywhere, I have never seen anything like it.

    By the time we made it to the bank we were absolutely soaked, and the scramble up the mud bank to the Lodge was not a simple manoeuvre either and ended up with a few face downs in the mud. I have seen a lot of tropical rain over the years, but nothing matches what happened here in the jungle.

    However, we were the lucky ones, because the canoe that we overtook in the Caymen hunt was not behind us. It transpired that the other canoe could not find the channel across the lake, and as such ran aground. Visibility was bad enough without the rain, but with the water curtains provided by the monsoon conditions they got completely lost and arrived back at the lodge a good 30 minutes behind us.

    We then discovered the jeopardy associated with the location of our room, in the monsoon conditions the walkway was in pitch darkness and slippery so even getting a jacket was challenging, thank goodness for the torches on our phones.

    So, after a very exciting day of adventures, we all headed to bed for a good night’s kip wondering what tomorrow would bring. However, while we were laying in our very hot room, there were a group of poor souls camping in the jungle in those conditions and getting thoroughly soaked, and that shaped our view of the next day.

    The big trek

    We were up at the crack of dawn for the day trek into the jungle to look for giant snakes, monkeys and anything else the Amazon has to offer. After a hearty breakfast we set off into the jungle with a guide at the front and rear so nobody could wander off and into danger.

    One of the first things we learned was that this part of the Amazon is not famous for its animal diversity. The Peruvian Amazon has a much better animal eco system, this part of the Amazon is famous for medicinal plants, sort of nature’s pharmacy.

    The other thing we discovered is that the end of the dry season is not the best time to explore the jungle, this is because the water level is very low and most of the creeks dry up. This particular event should have involved a canoe ride into the jungle, but we ended up hiking instead.

    The temperature in the morning wasn’t too bad, but the humidity was still high, and we were all sweating profusely after 10 minutes clambering along the steep banks of what should have been a river.  We couldn’t walk along the riverbed as it was still boggy, and probably the home to a wide range of nasty insects.

    Our tour first took us to the overnight camp used for jungle night; the overnight monsoon had dropped so much water on the shelter it had collapsed onto the happy campers. If Wooksie had any thoughts about agreeing to the night in the jungle they evaporated when she saw the campsite, we would be staying in our very hot, but dry room at the Lodge.

    We headed off deeper into the jungle and spotted our first animal, a howler monkey high up on the trees. To be honest, these creatures, are so far away they are impossible to see unless you have got eyes like a hawk.

    The guides gave our intrepid adventurers range of fungus and potions that they found lying on the ground in shells, most of them were really small so it is unlikely we were ever going to find them again, or if we did, we would probably die from eating the wrong thing.

    The journey through the jungle involved navigating a number of obstacles and temporary bridges to get across the streams where the riverbed hadn’t completely dried out. There were plenty of funny incidents and comments along the way to keep our spirits up in the rapidly rising temperatures.

    It was during the trek, and seeing how Wooksie was struggling with the heat, that I decided to cut our 3 night stay in the jungle down to 2 nights, at the end of the day, the jungle seemed to be the same in every direction and the river and canoe activities weren’t possible due to water levels, so 3 more days of walking around in that heat didn’t seem like too much fun.

    We stopped to look at a huge snake in a tree, which unfortunately I couldn’t see, and after a few hours of tough walking, discussing politics and the state of the world with my mate Antoine, it was time to head back to the Lodge, a nice lunch and a cold beer.

    The big decision facing Wooksie and I was where we would have dinner, the plan was to go to the overnight camp with the rest of our travellers, enjoy the jungle barbecue and come back to the camp afterwards.

    As we lay in our room, recovering from the walk our conversation was constantly interrupted by the booming sound of thunder. After the monsoon the night before, we were only too aware of what would happen after a few hours of thunder, and so did our travelling companions who made sure they packed their wet gear.

    As the afternoon went on the thunder got louder and more regular, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out it was going to be a very wet night in the jungle. So, being people of a certain age, we decided that we didn’t need to be heroes. There was no point getting soaking wet in the jungle just for the sake of some barbecued fish, and opted to stay at the Lodge, enjoy the hammocks, the view across the lake and enjoy a little bit of time out.

    As it transpired, despite 3 or 4 hours of thunder hardly a drop of rain fell, it could be best described as a spring shower at worst, so our companions did not get washed away after all, and we felt like we had missed out on something, but we stayed in a comfy incident. After 2 hours in the hammock, I had a horrible cramp attack so I dread to think what it would have been like in the jungle.

    The last trek was a walk in the jungle to look for sloths and to see the incredible tree of life, at 450 years old it is one of the oldest trees in the Amazon and hopefully the loggers don’t find it.

    That marked the end of our Jungle Trek, and we embarked on the trip back to civilisation and an unexpected day in a hotel, where Wooksie could enjoy an aircon room to cool herself down and I sat by the pool drinking beer and cocktails.

    However, the surprises weren’t totally over, as when we got back to the hotel we found we were sharing it with Amazonas, the Manaus professional football team who were using it as their base to prepare for their next game and to meet a genuine Plymouth Argyle supporter, which they were all so excited about.

    As with other things we have discovered on this adventure, once you have seen one the impact of the other diminishes. This was our first visit to the Amazon, but we had been in the Costa Rican jungle only 4 months ago, not to mention jungles in Thailand etc, in the end, they all look the same !

  • 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