Day 20 - Friday 24th January - Manaus - The Amazonian Experience

The Amazonian equivalent of a bust stop - river boats at Manaus

Today Peter and I are acting as escorts on "The Amazonian Experience" excursion. This is one of our favourite tours and we are really pleased to be escorting it - although being an escort means you have to count people and keep track of them and fill in forms and chase around with hand sanitizer. But we are still dead chuffed to be on this tour. Because of numbers, we are both on the same boat, and funny enough, our tour guide, Ali, is the same tour guide that we had on both previous occasions that we've done this tour. He waved at us from the boat when he saw us on the quay.

So passengers aboard and off we went - first to the meeting of the waters. At Manaus it is the meeting of the Rio Negro and the Solimoes (Amazon). Always good stuff, and Ali always gets a cup of water from each river to show the difference between the two. The reason the rivers don't mix and run side by side for several miles is because of temperature, speed and acidity.

The Meeting of the Waters at Manaus - Rio Solimoes and Rio Negro

From there we went to Lake January, taking loads of pictures as we went.

Floating village in Amazonia, on the way to Lake January

Proud Amazonian fisherman and his catch.  He got a round of applause from the boat when we saw this. 

Houses on stilts in Amazonia

We reached the floating restaurant at Lake January where we dismounted from our river boat and climbed into small, 10 man canoes to be taken around Lake January and into the inlets leading off. Our little canoe went the opposite direction to the other 8, so we were on our own. It was like being in the rain forest proper. We looked out for the birds, listened to the noises of the insects, and watched the jungle trees go by.

We all sat quietly, absorbing our surroundings and feeling the wonder of the place.

Osprey 

I even saw a monkey. I use the words amazing, wonderful, fantastic and brilliant a lot, but that is because they all apply, and they especially applied to this little canoe ride.

Back at the floating restaurant, we then enjoyed a locally prepared meal including two of the favourite fish of the region (sorry, I can't remember the names), before taking a walk over a rickety wooden bridge to the lily pad lake. The bridge lifts you 15ft or so off the ground (to cope with flooding I suppose), but it also means you are amongst the trees and any monkeys that might be about. And guess what? There were monkeys about.

White fronted capuchin

There was a caiman basking at the lake, but I didn't manage to get a decent photograph. It didn't matter because the lily pads on the lake are quite spectacular all by themselves. It's a shame that the flowers only come out at night.

Lily Pads at Lake Janauary, Amazonia

White fronted capuchin

The few of us that were last walking back across the bridge were granted an absolutely wonderful experience. A troop of monkeys decided make their way towards the lily pad lake as we were coming back. Not only did they make their way along the ground below us, but a fair number decided that the bridge was the appropriate route, and followed each other, one by one, up the sides to dash past the spectators stood on the bridge. We stood in awe and delight. What an amazing experience.

Sadly though it was more or less time to get back to the riverboat and make the hour long trip back to the ship. I say more or less, because there was confusion over what time we had to be back, and then, when we were all on board, we seemed to have lost two passengers? But we hadn't really - a certain tour rep can't count!

Everyone agreed it was a wonderful, wonderful day out, and we all wished we could stay longer. But tomorrow we are at Parintins which we know will be very different. Class.

Day 19 Thursday 23rd January - Manaus - Capital of Amazonas

We reached Manaus at lunchtime - Peter had been painting in the morning and produced a fantastic picture of an iguana. I attended a lecture by Louise Bonner about the lost tribes of the Amazon - Louise is a good speaker, and her talks are always really interesting.

After lunch, we went to wait on the quay ready to act as tour escorts on a bus tour - "Manaus - Capital of Amazonas". We were puzzled as to the ships location, as it was on a different floating dock than usual and away from the port terminal. Peter found out later that this was due to a disagreement between the government and the owner of the land who apparently hasn't been keeping to his side of a bargain. As Manaus is due to host some of the World Cup games, the government is keen improve and develop the facilities ready for the hoards of visitors, and at the moment, it just ain't happening.

The Opera House, Manaus

But back to our tour - a simple excursion to include the Opera House, the Palacio Rio Negro, and the Muncipal Market. The advantage of a tour over visiting on your own is the guide. The guides can tell you so much of what you are seeing around you, and ours told us of the recent floods, the effect on the local people and how the government were building new homes for them. All interesting stuff.

One of the fantastic chandeliers inside - from France I believe

We visited the Opera House first, somewhere that Peter and I have visited before. It really is an amazing building. Like many of the historic buildings in the city, it was mostly transported piece by piece from Europe. It is such an over indulgent and opulent building, you could stand and look for years.

The beautifully decorated ceiling of the opulent reception room upstairs in the theatre

We've not been to the Palacio Rio Negro before though and thought it quite grand, a really gorgeous building to look round.

Palacio Rio Negro - this used to belong to a Rubber Baron

A fantastic staircase inside the Palacio Rio Negro

And then we were taken to have a quick look round the Municipal Market. Again, this is another building created in Europe (Liverpool actually), and shipped across. It has just been refurbished (ready for the hoards), and is a pleasant place to walk around and see the fish, craft and meat markets. 

Manaus Municipal Market............   Made in Liverpool!

And then it was back to the ship. I found out that evening that, despite repeated warnings from the ships customer services manager about keeping valuables out of sight, one of our passengers had been mugged. The poor lady had had a gold chain ripped from around her neck. Thanks to some locals that gave chase, she got it back. Fellow tourists and visitors take note.

We stop in Manaus overnight. Peter and I have been here before and know that it is difficult to find a bar that looks safe, so we didn't bother trying to go ashore for the evening. Tomorrow we have another excursion, one of our favourites -that we are really looking forward to - "The Amazonian Experience". So we have to be up early in the morning. Class!

Wednesday 22nd January - Boca Da Valeria

Boca Da Valeria on the Amazon River.

Boca Da Valeria is a "primitive" village in the Amazon which is visited by 20-40 cruise ships a year. When I say primitive, it is in a sense, but if you are expecting naked tribespeople holding spears and living in mud huts, then you are going to be disappointed.

Civilisation has reached this and all the villages nearby. The people who live here use diesel powered engines for their canoes, satellite dishes are common (for the football of course,) western clothing is worn and schools in the villages are equipped with modern books and computers.

But there is no running water, (unless you count the river), there are no roads, and all the houses are wooden huts on stilts without windows or doors. Electricity is provided by generators which are used sparingly. There are no supermarkets or shops and if you want to eat you have to forage for, catch or grow your food. The only way to travel is by boat, and every house and family owns one. The people of Boca Da Valeria live a very different life to our own.

It is a big event when a cruise ship anchors in the river outside Boca Da Valeria. Schools are closed and families from the surrounding villages pack their wares and children into canoes and come to meet the tourists. Boca Da Valeria has a population of 75, but this swells to several hundred when a cruise ship appears, all of them after as much as they can get out of the rich visitors.

Boca Da Valeria village.  The church is on the right.

And we love this place. We managed to get one of the early tenders which meant we were able to walk through the village before many of the surrounding villagers had had time to arrive and set up their stalls. As usual, the children try to take your hand as you get off your pier. The children do not beg directly, but they will be hoping for sweets and trinkets. If one of the passengers reveals a bag full of sweets or crisps, they are likely to get mobbed as the children get almost aggressive in their aim to grab as much as they can. Peter and I keep our hands in our pockets and try not to encourage them, no matter how adorable they are.

Once off the tender and past the gauntlet of children, we turned left from the landing pier to walk through the village to see what there is to see. As I said, the villagers are here to get as much as they can from the tourists, and one of the most common ways is to pose for photographs. Children are dressed in tribal feathers and costumes to pose with pets. Sloths, parrots, a catfish, a toucan and a caiman were on display today. The tourist takes a picture and then gives a token of thanks, usually $1. I have always been very wary of giving the villagers money for this, as I am not sure that the pets are looked after properly. There is a man who poses with a bow and a painted backdrop though, which doesn't seem like exploitation to me, so I don't mind in his case.

Boca Da Valeria village women sharing a bag of children's clothes given by a tourist

But we do enjoy the crafts, and our humble opinion, these guys are getting better at it. We ended up buying a wooden model of a river boat this time.

Hand made boat from Boca Da Valeria

Peter also got talking to the artist there. His name is Freyzer Andrede, he lives in Boca Da Valeria with his grandfather and teaches art in five of the surrounding villages. We've seen him in Boca Da Valeria each time we've visited. Freyzer speaks pretty good English, and seems to hold Peter in very high regard (having accessed Peter's work through the internet). Freyzer swapped one of his fabric paintings for a promise that Peter will post one of his watercolours to Freyzer when we get back to England. Since we really like Freyzer's work, that was an easy deal to agree to.

Fabric Painting by Freyzer Andrede

And as we've done every year before, we took a boat ride up the surrounding tributaries to see more of the way people live. We talked a few other couples into it too, maintaining that it is still one of the best $10 they will ever spend. And they all loved the trip too.

A canoe boat taking tourists to see the houses and villages further into the forest. 

Suburbia in the Amazon.  Each house has it's own garden and drive on the river. 

Flooded trees along the riverside

Sadly the village bar was closed today, otherwise we may have spent longer in the village, but no matter, as always it was still a wonderful visit. Amongst other things, I got to see a load of Yellow Rumped Caciques squabbling in the trees, and a Yellow Headed Caracaras. Fantastic!

And then it was time to go back to the ship. It always seems a shame to leave this place, but we have Manaus tomorrow. Peter and I are acting as tour escorts on a city excursion - this should be interesting.

Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2013
Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2012
Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2011