Amazon Rain Forest

I love trees and the calmness inside a forest. But forests is something that is disappearing from our planet bit by bit.
So i want to go to this amazing amazon before humans destroy it forever! =)
Lets make earth a greener place ~

I lived in Manaus for almost 10 years and this place, its magnitude and beauty really changed my way to see the life. But I only realized it when I moved to a big city (São Paulo). Amazon Rain Forest will always be on my mind and heart. ;D
(and, no people, there are no monkeys and snakes walking around the city. get over this idea. xD)

After our tour round the jungle, we found a lodging in one of the pile-dwellings (because of the high level of the water during the rainfall period) typical house of the region. The native family that accommodate us, a very sympathy lady with three daughters and as much sons, invited us to a local fest. So just after a terrific local meal that was offered to us, we set down through the dark path, with our only guide the shinning moon. The silence that over flood the whole area, provoked a deep calmness, but also fear that someone or something was watching you…
In short time a sound of music reached us and suddenly out of nowhere we found ourselves in an organized open area in the middle of the forest! One small church, one shed and a stage composed that small scenery which was full of natives. We arrived just after the mess and little girls dressed in white were in, out and about the church. There was something everybody was waiting for while the music came out of the speakers, with local rhythm of old discs. Under the shed you could get the basic things, as beer, soft drinks and grilled skewered meat. But as we had eaten, we comfort ourselves with a cold beer and waited for the event of the evening.
Suddenly the people started clapping, shouting on joy and opening the way to the church, were two beautiful girls age of 15-16 would pass to the stage. One of the girls represented the near village where we were staying. We were the witness of the most odd “beauty festival” with the 2 village girls as the protagonists.
After the parade, where they showed and twisted their graceful body in front of the audience, bringing out lots of applause, than they stood on the stage for “the big moment”. Here the judge were the same everyone present and the vote counted by the money they would place in a little paper box that each girl held. We than took the first step and placed 1 real on the box of the girl, whom was nobody else then one of the daughters of our hostess. It went on about one half an hour in a hurly-burly way and on every vote the girls under a shy smile, looked for the maybe groom to be.
By the end the balance turn to the girl of “our” village. Her mother could not hold the tears while counting the “votes”. The money of course was for a good purpose, once all the money collected regarded the whole village and not only the winner’s family.
And so finished one beautiful evening under the moonlight, surrounded by the music, in the rainforest, far from civilization and in between people who knows to laugh and entertain their selves with simple things. “What is happiness my love….” (que e felicidade meu amor)

she is holding the three toed sloth.

\h\shh

Staying at an eco-friendly lodge in the Amazon Forest was probably the most restful experience of my life. Away from electricity, road traffic, “civilization” – you get to live near nature, eat from the forest and rivers – and the sheer size of the Amazon was dwarfing.

I wanna see all the monkeys and animals and stuff:D

Anyone else had the pleasure?
I forget what they are called but they live in coconut trees.
But it’s definetly a morning snack I will never forget.
Nothing like starting the morning hike with a dreadful hangover and a larvae. not too bad… ;)

We arrived in Manaus and hooked up a tour from someone we met at the airport – we were wary of doing this because our guide book had warned us of ‘pirate’ guides, so we checked that they were accredited by the organisation mentioned in the guide book, which they were.

We chose the 3 night tour that involved taking a boat up the Rio Negro to the meeting of the waters with the amazon, staying in hammocks on the boat, then later in hammocks in the jungle, eating chicken cooked on the fire out guide made from completely green wood, eating piranha (which I ate despite not liking fish, just for the story), fishing for piranha, going on canoe trips, seeing animals (which around that area were chained up to get money out of tourists, quite different to what I have heard about the national parks etc.) including monkeys, sloths, mccaws, crocodiles.

We came to the realisation that our tour guide was a little eccentric. He had a t-shirt that said ‘Spice Girls Amazon Adventure Tours’ or something similar, and said that they had been to the amazon and he was one of their guides. We noticed that other locals had guarded expressions on their faces when they saw him, and one made a comment questioning his sanity in some way or other.

After the second night, when the less adventurous tourists had left the tour, we were on a canoe with an outboard motor on the Rio Negro, when the motor conked out. The theory was we were out of petrol, and our guide asked another boat for help. They refused to help and backed away (perhaps they knew something about him that we didn’t). We started to row towards an island while scooping out the water that was getting in the canoe with cans.

The the rain came – a huge tropical storm, that started filling the boat up even faster than the holes made it fill up and we rowed as fast as we could towards the island. The guides said something to each other in portuguese about how we were now doomed, and blamed the women on the trip for having their periods which would attract piranhas. Good thing my friend was brazilian and could translate – or perhaps it was a bad thing.

We finally made it to the island and walked up a steep hill passing a sign that said in portuguese something that translates to ‘Warning! you may be the first victim’. We never found out what that meant. We found an abandoned (or at least we thought it was) farmhouse where we sought shelter till the storm passed. Our guide gave us cashaca vodka (this was supposed to get us home safe?), and after it passed we walked and ran through grass that lashed our legs to the other side, where we came across a malaria prevention boat that finally agreed to take us back for a fee – which our guide tried to make us pay but others on the trip refused.

A few nights later one of the girls on the tour complained that she had woken up with her bra removed, and suspected the tour guide. I wondered why you would wear a bra in your sleep, but noticed he had been standing over me weirdly at some point. My tour companion mentioned this incident to the company when we got back, and a few weeks later we found out they had sacked the guide, and he had gotten mad and tried to burn down a building. The girl who had complained about the bra incident said she wished my friend hadn’t said anything, because she wasn’t sure and didn’t want him to be sacked.

So perhaps that was more of an adventure than we bargained for in the amazon. Still, my friend went back the next year with her boyfriend and had an even bigger adventure that went for more than a week.

I want to meet the local indigenous people, learn all about the medicinal qualities of the plants and of course see all the wildlife.