Me Tarzan, You Jane!

Yes everyone, my guide through the jungle's name was Tarzan, and he did actually refer to me as Jane at one point...

I made it out alive!  There was one point when we were camping out in the jungle that I thought I may be eaten by a jaguar or puma, but luckily we only heard them from afar. And yes - we did actually hear the cry of a black puma - while being woken up multiple times throughout the night by animals walking around our camp (don't worry - most likely they were only armadillos...I hope...) we heard a sound unlike anything else we had heard so far.  After waking up Tarzan for the 9 millionth time because of the animals (this was Danielle really, although I was definitely a bit freaked out, I was trying not to show it as much) he told us it was a puma.  Eek!

The Amazon is so amazing!  There are no roads at all - you have to take a boat everywhere through the different river estuaries, and are surrounded by jungle.  They even have a school boat instead of a school bus.  

So other than freaking out a bunch of times at the sound of crunching leaves, and trying to calm Danielle's fear of the many bugs we saw, hear is the lowdown:


Day 1:

• 3 1/2 hour trip into the jungle.  We indeed were in the middle of nowhere, and it was soooo amazing to feel like you are the only people on earth.  This trip consisted of an hour and fifteen minute boat ride across the meeting of the waters (black and white water meeting for the first time - you see the actual split in the water - very cool), an hour car ride through dirt roads in a VW van from like '72, and another hour and fifteen minutes through the channels of the amazon rain forest. 
• A quick swim in the river - yes I went in, and the piranha do NOT nibble at your toes.
• Dolphin watching - fresh water dolphin - both pink and gray!
• Piranha fishing - I caught about 3.  Their teeth are INSANE!
• Caimen hunting at night.   

Day 2:

• Paddling in the river at sunrise (so beautiful!) and bird watching.  Soooo many different birds - including toucan (totally kept thinking of Fruit Loops) and parrots.  Saw a fire eagle too.
• Monkeys jumping in trees.
• Hike in the morning through the jungle.  Saw mostly some cool looking bugs and lizards.
• In the afternoon headed to our campsite - about an hour ride from the lodge we were staying in - the middle of nowhere.  Set up our hammocks.  Yes we slept in hammocks with mosquitos nets, and definitely were out in the wild.
• Caught a fish for my dinner.
• Cooked dinner over the campfire. Tarzan is a good cook!
• Attempted to sleep, but didn't really.  Was counting down the hours until day light!

Day3:

• Morning bird watch.  Saw two tapirs eating breakfast.
• Breakfast over the campfire.
• Morning hike through the jungle to do some turantula hunting.  Found a lot.  Those things are  HUGE!
• Lunch by campfire.  Danielle and I actually started the fire on our own!
• Short afternoon hike to find some monkeys, but failed to do so.
• Packed up our campsite to head over to a local indigenous family's home, where we ate dinner and spent the night.  We might as well have been in the jungle, except this time we were woken up by the many farm animals roaming around.  We also toured their land where they have a pineapple plantation and various other trees...

Day 4:

• Sunrise bird watch.
• Breakfast with family.
• Visit to a rubber plantation, and made a condom...well a jungle condom...and it probably wouldn't do any good...
• Back to lodge to finally take a shower and use a real toilet!  Danielle and I were under the impression that we were going back to the lodge in between the camping and family's home, so did not bring an extra set of clothes = we were GROSS!
• Lunch.
• Three hour boat/car/boat ride back to Manaus.

So that's all folks.  I'll follow up with one last post soon.

Tchau!