So today we are escorting one of our favourite tours, "The Amazonian Experience". We had to get up early to be ready on the quay at 8am. The tour has
changed a little over the years, but basically it goes like this:
First everyone climb aboards one of the medium sized riverboats - they usually have two decks, toilets and a small kitchen area and carry around 80 passengers.
The riverboat takes takes us to see the meeting of the waters - there are nearly always a few dolphins about and today was no different, quite a few sightings were made.
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| A floating gas station on the Rio Negro |
From the meeting of the waters, it's about an hour on the riverboat to Lake January. The guides (we had three today) provide various amounts of information about our surroundings, and point out things such as the floating gas stations, the differences between the waters of the Amazon and the Rio Negro, and info about the floating villages.
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| One of the most picturesque of the floating houses. |
At Lake January, which is an ecological site, the river boat moors at a floating restaurant and we transfer into several smaller motorised canoes which carry 10 people. The motorised canoes travel around the edges of the lake, looking for wildlife. We got to see Egrets, Wattled Jacana, Large Billed Terns and Caciques as well as loads of butterflies and dragonflies that move far to fast for anyone to photograph. Peter managed to get a picture of a Southern Lapwing though, and I got one of this Jacana chick.
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| Wattled Jacana chick |
The canoes head into one of the smaller tributaries of the lake, (called igrapes), where we our surrounded by the jungle proper. We can hear and see the flashes of birds around us. The butterflies are amazing, including the very large and beautiful Morpho. Our guide explains things about the forest, the trees and the way of life for the local people.
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| Squirrel Monkey at Lake January |
After about 30 mins, it's back to the floating restaurant where we disembark the canoes and make our way to the back of the buildings to the edge of the lake and a to a raised walkway. The walkway takes you through the jungle to a pond of lily pads and to a massive kapok tree with it's enormous buttress roots. If you are lucky, the lilypads will be flowering, or you may see a Caiman, or even better still, you'll see the monkeys. If you are unlucky, you'll also get bitten several times by the mosquitoes in the area and get drenched in a downpour. Today was a good day, we got to see monkeys and a caiman, and some more beautiful butterflies.
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| Cookie Butterfly at Lake January |
Back to the restaurant, and everyone tucks in to a locally prepared meal he food is very good, and prepared with clean water (not water taken from the river)and is safe to eat. I tried the local fish, which has a pretty mild taste to be honest - although the bones were hughe.
And then there is a wander around the very large craft hut. I bought a cute little owl, it looks like it's been made out of some sort of seed or nut. The colours have been sanded or polished out, and a little bit of carving has completed it. It's awesome.
Finally, it's a riverboat ride of 40 or 50 mins back to the ship. Everyone is very satisfied and quite tired by now, and watch quietly as the river goes by.
You can see why it's one of our favourite excursions, and we recommend it to everybody.
We arrived back at the ship around 2.30pm, and we decided to take a very quick look at the main square just outside the port gates. I'd thought that it looked different from previous years whilst we were on our bus tour yesterday, and I was right. The main square has been tidied up and landscaped, and for the first time in several years, we visited the cathedral, which is in need of a little tlc, but is still a nice place to be.
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| Manaus Cathedral |
The ship left Manaus at 5pm and we ended our day in the company of Ian the photography lecturer, and Chris, the Creative Writing teacher. None of us can play darts, but that didn't stop us having a hilarious evening throwing darts at the board, playing round the clock.
Tomorrow we are in Parintins, home of the Boi Bumbai. A new day and a new city. Class!
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