Last night, Bill and I returned back to the Hotel Ideal in Manaus after a 3 night, 4 day tour of the Amazon and surrounding jungle. We went with the two other couples that we had met on the slow boat from Tabatinga to Manaus and had a blast, spending two nights in a rustic lodge and one night in the jungle.
Although the tour was not exactly what we had discussed, it was close enough to be considered successful by any standards. Oftentimes while travelling, things get lost in translation. [This is sometimes because of the language barrier, sometimes the gringo barrier]. Like the promise that we would all paddle our own canoes really meant that we would share a small motor boat sail at a medium pace. And the repeated instruction to pack light because we had a one hour hike into the jungle to set up camp actually meant that we had to get out of the boat and go up a hill to a spot 20 yards away.
We were fortunate to have two interesting guides to show the way – Elso was the Brazilian guide that would translate into English and Luis was the native from the area that would help track, etc. Here is a picture of the whole crew:
Upon arrival to the lodge, we sat down and had a nice lunch of fish and the usual accoutrements (Brazilian meals without fail seem to come with salad, rice, spaghetti, and an interesting condiment that we’ll get to in a later entry called manioc). Following that, we jumped in the boat and headed out to go piranha fishing. Let me go back a minute on that last statement. For the past couple of weeks I have been suffering from acute lower back pain, so I haven’t been jumping much of anywhere…much.
Piranha fishing was interesting for the first few minutes, but then became a quest as everyone else (save for me and Karen) started to catch them. None of us really wanted to hurt them (even though they can eat people – go figure), so we would do catch and release. I feel safe saying “we” because I did ultimately catch a fish – the largest in fact – but it was a sardine. Here is the guide helping to remove a hook from a newly caught piranha (Bill got bit taking the hook out of a fish he caught):
The rain began to fall and we were running out of “monkey guts” (a.k.a. chicken fat) for bait so we quickly sped for the lodge. The rain kept us from the original schedule of caiman hunting and we all quickly agreed that drinking excessive amounts of caipirinhas was really the only option.
Let’s take a quick diversion at this point to discuss caipirinhas. If you’ve had one, then you know where I’m going with this, if you haven’t then you need to go to your nearest liquor store and buy provisions; I’ve posted a recipe to save you some time. These things are not only delicious, but will mess you up really, really fast.
We each had a couple of caipirinhas and then somehow got talked into a dance contest by our guides. We all ended up with different partners than our betrothed. Unfortunately for Mike, he was paired up with me and I was feeling competitive. I attempted something that was completely different, but equally as challenging, as the final move in Dirty Dancing.
Some of you may at this point be wondering how I was able to do this with such a bad back. I can’t really say for sure, but I can tell you that I got what I deserved the next day. Although I wouldn’t recommend it in the future for anyone with a bad back, the acrobatics were enough to clench the first place title. I think we can all agree it was worth it.
Most of you are probably thinking, “Poor Bill”. Admittedly, I won the “Most Drunk” award by everyone’s account, but Bill came a close second. He was shocked and amazed that he couldn’t do a headstand and repeatedly kept attempting them. It’s a wonder either of us could walk the next day.
But I think the dumbest things that we did that particular night was to jump in the river at night. You know that it is a bad idea when you ask the guide and they say that they don’t recommend it. Let’s face it, jumping into alligator infested water at night (especially when one lives underneath the property that you are staying at) is not overly intelligent. It really did seem like a good idea at the time and after the guys went, the girls had to follow suit. Karen was the only smart one, having drunk just a couple of beers and opting out of the adventure. The good news is that we all survived and aside from Bill calling everyone pansies for not swimming the entire width of the water, we felt all the braver.
But the next day would begin the real adventure…