Today we are docked in Manaus, but true to form, there is always some sort of little twist! Today’s challenge is that we cannot walk in the port, but will need to take a shuttle to the port entrance. This would normally be fine, but we have 33 people on our trip today, and coordination, as we have found, can be challenging. The good news is that everyone does meet in the lounge before disembarkation, so at least we are all together. As it turns out – BONUS – Rafa has managed to dock our river boat right across the pier from where we are docked – so no shuttle bus! Excellent! We tell everyone in the lounge we will be meeting Rafa outside, just go left off the gangway – he has on a bright shirt. Smooth as silk, right?
Wrong! By the time everyone straggles off of the ship, we end up missing a handful of people who clearly didn’t listen when we told them not to get on the shuttle. And, well, yes, they got on the shuttle. Which means we have to now go find them at the port entrance. Sigh. Herding cats. After some brief consultations with the river boat captain and the local guide, we end up boating over to the main entrance where Rafa and Ed go in search of our missing tour members. They arrive, unhappily, but nonetheless here on the boat with us finally and we are off to explore the Amazon for another day.
Our little boat seats us all pretty well, it’s the typical semi-rickety little quick river ferry that is used to cross over to close in towns (not the big overnight ferries as we had in Santarem). They are everywhere in these waters, whipping around and across the river. It’s fine, if not a bit noisy and the sound system occasionally doesn’t work, so I end up shouting information back to the other folks on the rear deck. With the breeze, it is quite delightful out on the water and we spend our time alternately listening to David, the local guide, and staring out the window at the river coastline. After about an hour of boating, we reach our first destination – the pink dolphins! We are swimming (in a manner of speaking) with the pink dolphins that are indigenous to these parts. The location is this little floating dock out in the middle of the river, where those of us partaking in the swimming don our life vests and hop in the water on a platform submerged about 3 feet.
The water is great, and the dolphins are amazing – but you have to be really careful because the platform isn’t that wide and all of us manage to fall off it into the deep water at least once! I float over to the corner where it’s a little safer (or at least easier not to fall off) and watch as the dolphins swim around and jump up after being fed by the “trainer” guy. They are aggressive little things too – they know they are getting fish and they will bump you out of the way to get their treat! They almost knocked me over as I was getting out of the water!
Only 10 of us are allowed in at a time, so when we switch off, I get to stand on the platform taking pictures while Ed gets in – which is great because you can really see the dolphins so much better from up on the main platform. You don’t have to worry about the water or being knocked over or you know, drowning, which makes viewing much more fun.
Rafa is in the water along with Ed and a couple others from our group – and the dolphins seem to really like him, but maybe not in the right way! They tend to circle him and are apparently bumping him in places he’d prefer not to be bumped. Makes for a pretty hysterical time – particularly for those of us who are safely out of the water. Once we’ve all had our turn, we dry off as best we can then head back to the boat – but not before stopping at the little snack counter for a nice cold Antarctica Beer! Nice refreshment to fortify us until our next stop at the Tucano Indian tribe.
Another 1/2 an hour or so on the boat, and we are dropped off at the meeting grounds of the Tucano tribe where members are here to dance for us. The tribe is dressed in their traditional costumes of feathers and loin cloths for the men (tightie whities for the little boys) and handwoven skirts for the women. Chests bare, feather headdress for the men, feathers in the hair for the women, they dance around their large palapa communal hall playing handmade bamboo flutes and stomping out tunes with anklets adorned with seed pods. There is even a mom holding her baby and dancing along with the rest of the tribe – very sweet (I ask for a picture of her at the end). Of course we aren’t allowed to just sit idly by, the tribe comes and grabs all of us to dance along with them which makes for a fun little interaction.
After the dance we are left to explore their makeshift outdoor kitchen where they have smoked ants, grubs and other delicacies for us to try. We both try the smoked ants, which are actually pretty palatable – like smoky little popcorn kernels. I avoid the grubs, simply from a consistency standpoint, but the folks who try them say they aren’t bad. Have at it!
Then its back on the boat to cross through the meeting of the waters – this time the Amazon and the Rio Negro where you can actually feel the temperature difference between the two rivers. It’s super hard to get a good picture of the confluence, but suffice it to say, it’s an amazing sight – the tan, muddy waters of the Amazon right up against the dark black Rio Negro. Pretty impressive. What isn’t hard to get a picture of are the fires burning out in the jungles. You can see them particularly well from here, driving home the damage that is being done to this special ecosystem of the earth. It’s a shame.
From here, we are ending our tour at a floating restaurant, Rainha da Selva (which means Jungle Queen), for a buffet of local delicacies, including river fish, fruit, fried plantains, etc. The setting is awesome, on a deck overlooking the Solimoes River on one side, the jungle on the other. After lunch we go for a walk up a wooden boardwalk that leads us through the jungle, past the monkeys who are coming to visit (ostensibly to see if we have any food for them), and out into the rainforest preserve for a beautiful view of the flooded forest and the water lilies. A picturesque setting, so peaceful and green, and not a mosquito in sight (which is a huge bonus as we’ve all been petrified of swarming bugs carrying deadly rainforest diseases).
Back to the boat, we relax for the 40 minute ride back to the pier, crossing through the meeting of the waters again and enjoying the scenery – if not the heat, which is back with a vengeance, even allowing for the river breeze.
We are let off right at the pier again, with a very quick walk onto the ship and the A/C. Docked overnight, we could choose to go out again this evening to explore a little of Manaus proper, but we are quite happy to stay aboard, in the nice cool air and enjoy shipboard cuisine. Plus, while we are not the easily frightened tourist type, everyone here has made a point of telling us to be very careful out in the streets of Manaus – don’t wear any jewelry, keep your purses close, backpacks on the front, etc. Even David, the local guide, told me to take off my thin gold necklace if I was going out on tour with them tomorrow. So, really, why? We’re happy to spend an evening on the ship doing what we are becoming much better at….doing nothing!
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