Rare Adventures

Tag: Manaus

  • 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 !

  • 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