An Amazonian Adventure

Exploring the world’s biggest rain forest was an obvious bucket list item, so I didn’t even hesitate to fit it into our South American adventure.

We accessed the Amazon from Brazil with our guide, whose name was…wait for it…RAMBO! He’s from a local tribe and apparently after spending 5 years in the Army he got this nickname.

The best – and sometimes only – way to access this thick rainforest is by boat. The part of the Amazon we visited was around Rio Negro and Rio Amazon. We boarded our small boat and set off to see the spot where these two epic rivers met – one black, full of minerals met the other, brown, cold and apparently more aggressive. It was quite a spectacular site as the two opposing rivers formed almost a line when they met.

We cruised along the rivers and every now and again spotted fishermen (or maybe some kind of water weed gathers) hiding among the thick vegetation on the river.

Rambo took us around to find various Amazonian residents including

1. The sloth bear – having very much a humanlike face and clinging on to you like a baby it was the cutest animal ever!

2. A baby anaconda – this baby weighed a ton and coiled itself around my neck before I quickly passed it on..I’ve tried pythons around my neck before, but the anaconda was something else. It was a lot heavier and stronger!

3. Enormous carnivorous cat fish!

4. Amazonian monkeys who we tempted with bananas. They aren’t tamed so these little creatures were slightly afraid of us and wouldn’t interact too much. But the allure of food got the best of them so they would stretch and jump to get hold of the bananas
 

We also spotted some residual giant water lilies growing ahead of the season or left behind from the last. Rambo calls them Amazon pizzas!

We then disembarked at a small town to buy supplies for the next few days in the jungle and drove inland to take yet another boat to get to our lodge. This was more of a canoe than a boat. We loaded all our stuff and set off through narrow winding streams and lakes to get to our very basic jungle lodging.

After resting for a while we set off to capture one of Amazon’s most feared predators – the piranha! A few mins away from our lodge we stopped the canoe in a shaded area and Rambo took out the fishing rods. My expression was “sorry, right here?!? You mean I shouldn’t dip my toes in the waters outside the lodge?!?” Of course he failed to mentioned the river was piranha infested! Pro had even ducked his go pro underwater in hopes of getting a shot at some fish!!! Narrow escape apparently.

Rambo took out a few piranha delicacies – beef and pork, cut it in small pieces and fixed it onto the hooks of each of our rods. Apparently piranhas don’t like the fat part of the meat so that had to be cut off..demanding much! With the bait in, we waited. For most part we felt that we were feeding the piranhas than fishing for them. It was either the lack of experience or the intellect of the fish, they managed to gobble away the bait without getting caught.

Rambo of course had no problem whatsoever and kept catching all 5 varieties of piranhas. But they did trick him too many times and kept eating the bait, so it was just our lack of experience.

Piranhas aren’t as big as the one on the movie poster, they were little harmless looking fishies with killer well hidden teeth.

Swa managed to get one but flicked the rod too hard that the fish got tossed off to the other side. This happened twice and the third time was of course the charm! He ended up catching 3 little monsters!!

 Piranhas in stock we set off to watch the sunset. I snoozed off for a while and when my eyes opened we were approaching a beautiful soft white sand beach…how did that happen in the middle of this river?!

We took some stupid photos while waiting for the sun to set – some jumping, some silhouettes and some down right weird shots later we witnessed a beautiful sunset turning the sky and the lake orange at first and then a beautiful shade of pink

As darkness set we headed back to the lodge for a grilled piranha dinner.

The next morning we were up before the alarms. Such is life in the jungle, the sun rises and the surroundings quieten down signaling your body to wake up.

Today Mother Nature reminded us that we were in a rain forest. The skies opened up and poured all morning. But of course this didn’t stop us as we set off to find and swim with pink river Dolphins. This was by far the cutest Amazonian experience (not that one expects the Amazon to be cute!).

At first I was a bit skeptical about getting into the water. Although Rambo swore it was piranha free, who knew?! And what other strange swimming floating creatures could be in these dark waters, it was the mother of jungles after all. I had heard horror stories of invisible creatures getting into your body and taking residence! But after seeing the Dolphins jump out of the water and interact, I couldn’t help myself. Screw the piranhas, I will take the chance!

These Dolphins were completely wild but playful. They would come and rub against you, bite you. I freaked out at first (was it a piranha?!) but it wasn’t painful and they were just being their excitable selves. Their skin felt like human skin and they didn’t seem to freak out at our touch. So, dancing in the rain with Dolphins – check!

We then went to Rambo’s friends place in the jungle and snoozed on hammocks while Rambo cooked the most delicious chicken stew and rice. This guy is multi talented! It was the perfect comfort food our wet bodies craved. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and snoozing after that heavy lunch.

  
We were meant to camp in the forest tonight but the blessed rain was not going to allow that. So Rambo’s friend Dorian kindly offered us hammocks in his hall. When night fell Rambo made a kick ass barbecue before taking us caiman spotting.

Now this caiman spotting was something else! Decked up in rain covers we set off in the dark and walked down to the river and boarded a small canoe. It was pitch dark. Complete black. Rambo sat at the front of the canoe with a flash light on his head. He was like a lighthouse or a flood light. Turning his head around and lighting up the river banks. Not seeing is a scary feeling! The waters were so still and the blackness was daunting.
Rambo nodded in one direction and the boatman changed direction. He slowed the boat, Rambo casually reached out and lifted a caiman!! Just like that! Oh shit! The waters are infested with man eating alligators and here we were floating around in the darkness! For its recreation value!!!!

The caiman he caught was small but strong. It had to be held by its head and tail, else one can get hurt. Rambo passed it around and the boys had fun! But I was completely freaking out. They could grow up to 2 meters and are aggressive! One wrong move, the boat could topple and we could be eaten alive! I wanted so badly to have my feet on the ground. But Rambo had other ideas! After releasing the caiman we went around the river and he taught us how to spot the little monsters. Their eyes gleam in the light. Apparently you need to have 100% visibility when you reach out and snap it out of the water. Rambo showed us 3 scars from when he tried to catch them without really seeing them. I couldn’t handle the predator infested water in the darkness anymore and was more than glad when we came back.
Later that night the boys drank local Rum and smoked an Amazonian weed. We sang and danced and told stories.

Rambo was a colorful guy! He claimed to have 3 families – two in the indigenous tribes, one in Manaus! Apparently he fathered 18 daughters and 15 sons with 5 wives!! His oldest is 32 and youngest was 2! He was apparently in the army special forces and was a qualified sniper, survivor, parachuter and commando! He spent 3 months living in the jungle eating rodents, frogs and insects as part of his training. Were these fairytales told around the bonfire to gullible tourists or was this the way of life in the jungle one would never know. But he seems to be more than deserving of his nickname, Rambo.

The next morning the rain had ceased. So we once again boarded the canoe and headed up stream. Rambo found us a spot to enter the forest and we hiked around the thick jungle. Ever so often he would point to a tree or pick a fruit and explain its medicinal properties or how the tribes would use it. The guy was good with his hands he made a bowl out of a leaf, a spoon out of a bark, a spear and even a carrier for our water bottle.

   
At one point Rambo turned Tarzan and started swinging himself on the thick vines that were hanging down from colossal trees.

Of course the boys followed suit!

Later that day we cruised along the Amazon River spotting various animals, flora and fauna. We had spent most our time in the Amazon around the negro river which had a starkly different landscape than the Amazon River. Now seeing this part of the forest, I think I preferred it to the other. But I can’t really say for sure since I only spent a few hours there. But one thing was for sure, there were more animals in this part of the forest, on the banks of this river. We saw a variety of birds, monkeys and even a sloth bear in the wild.

Our time in the Amazon was coming to an end and we made our way back along some of the same parts of the river we had used to get here. Half way through we had to stop. The entire river was covered with a very thick vegetation that wasn’t there 3 days ago! If you had an Ariel view you wouldn’t be able to say that there was a river here, let alone the majestic Amazon River.

Rambo tried really hard to wade through the jungle and maneuver through the growth. It was impossible! There was no getting through this, so we turned around and took another path.

A few mins later the sky opened up and rain poured down. It was actually quite a nice experience, I loved cruising along the river drenched! Before we could make it to port the rain had stopped and the sun was out. That’s how unpredictable the weather in a rain forest can be, sunny one minute and a proper downpour the next and back to being sunny. It was either that or the cry protesting the end of our Amazonian adventure!