Our boat took us to the lodge where we were going to stay, it was smack in the middle of the rainforest. The lodge was basically a number of buildings made of wood with a wooden deck out in front. The deck had a couple of wooden chairs to soak in some sun (which was available in plenty). We were asked to douse ourself in bug spray in advance to avoid the little predators of the jungle.
Upon arrival, we were treated to a much awaited and scrumptous lunch. The lunch had a salad made of cucumbers, onions and peppers. There was also mashed potatoes, noodles, rice and something that resembled a chicken curry, if youre thinking thats a lot of starch/carbs you guessed right. We immediately made some friends, there was a friendly couple from Winnipeg, Canada(Erin and Frano I think) and a couple of other people from England, we had a good chat over lunch, substantial parts of which involved - which games people were watching, where they had come from before Manaus and where they were headed to next after Manaus. This we learnt would become the staple of conversations for the next 2 weeks. We also met Lisa from Miami(originally from Colombia) soon after, who we learnt is a Gator(UF alumnus) who was travelling with another Gator, this meant that our party consisted of 5 Gators, I know what better company could we ask for. Alas, to spoil the party there was also a Seminole(FSU alumnus) amongst us, Nic from Orlando, who would actually turn out to be splendid company as well !
After lunch we were shown our dormitory where we would spend the night, the dorm was a slightly big wooden building, it had 3-4 rooms with about 50 beds in total, each bed had a mosquito net above it to minimize the damage. We were told to take a 2 hour siesta but we decided to chat with our fellow travellers instead because each one of them was so cool !
After the 2 hour break we got into a similar wooden boat as before and I sat next to Roger from England. Now I would learn later that Roger has been to EVERY single World Cup since (and including) 1994, so that is 1994 in the US, 98 in France, 2002 in Japan/Korea, 2006 in Germany, 2010 in South Africa and now 2014 in Brazil. That was enough for me, I was sitting near a super-cool traveller, one of the coolest I´d met so far. He was full of stories from his travels and I was easily impressed by each of them.
Our boat was taking us to a fishing spot where we´d be fishing for Piranhas. Yep, you heard that right, we were going Piranha fishing in the Amazon. We had some chicken as bait for the Piranhas which we attached to our fishing rods. Each of us had a fishing rod and we were in a shallow part of the river. The bugs were giving us a full welcome by then, it was around 5 in the evening. I immediately felt some tugs on my rod and before I could get it out of the water my bait was gone. This happened a couple of times to us, those Piranhas are smart I tell you, we were losing chicken fast. We were told that the fish we caught would be served to us at dinner, in hindsight saving the chicken for dinner might have been a better idea. We ended up having quite a jolly time on the river, about ten of us were out fishing, there were a lot of fish jokes going around obviously. A group of three friends from DC joined our group a little late and they were enjoying it too. At the end of it we only had two Piranhas which Nic had caught, so not a lot to show for in terms of fish but definitely a ton of fun !
We headed back to the lodge where we started watching one of the games on a TV with satellite reception and basically waiting for dinner. All of a sudden we were told that we´d be heading out into the waters again. We were going to try and see some Cayman alligators. Now the Amazon is pretty cool during the day, but the sight as we headed out into the pitch black night literally blew our minds. We could see the night sky in all its glory, earlier in the year Alicia and I had learnt in the STL science museum that its impossible to see the night sky in all its glory in the cities because of all the lights in the city. This makes the sky appear lighter, I was told the amount of pollution plays a part in this too. But then in the Amazon there was little of both so the view was just unbelievable, we could literally see the Milky Way. Boochi was pretty loud in his appreciation of the view as well, it went something amongst the lines of ¨Shiiit MAN¨ ! I told myself, this is pretty freaking cool.
Now we were ready, on the pitch black waters in a wooden boat. All we needed to do was find some Caymans. The way we found them was cool, there was a little boy from the lodge at the front of the boat with a flashlight on his forehead, he would then shine his flashlight in sweeping edges across the water to look for something. If he found something interesting he would shake his head a couple of times and then the guy at the rear end of the boat would navigate in that direction. We´d then end up in shallower waters amongst some water plants and the guy in front would look more closely for the Caymans. We learnt later that what he was looking for was the reflection of the flashlight in the alligators eyes, thats how he would locate them. This happened a number of times and we were in about 3 -4 bushes before he ultimately spotted two Caymans. These alligators are tiny(less than a meter or 3 feet in length) compared to the ones Alicia and I saw in Florida last month. The boy in front actually scooped up two alligators from the water and handed it out to us to hold, Walker and Keerthi got to hold it and got some pictures with it. The boy also explained that these two were females with a display of the corresponding body parts !! I think, to me personally, the main draw was not the Caymans but just a night-drive out into the Amazon in the middle of the night.
We had some dinner and headed to our beds where sleeping under mosquito nets brought back some memories of visiting the Dominican Republic to see Alicia. It was then that I jotted down a couple more thoughts.
I was amazed at how the guides were able to navigate the huge river with its tricky branches that we kept swerving in and out of without the use of anything close to a GPS, their sense of direction is alive and kicking every day.
I had forgotten my bug repellent and my long cotton pants in Manaus, again I was dependent on Walker and Boochi for bug spray and I would have to sleep in my jeans the next night in some of the hottest and humid weather on the planet.
I recalled my conversation during dinner with Zoran from Croatia (he had a Croatia hat on the entire day) who was also a part of our 3 day 2 night group. He told me he tries to travel a bit, he later told me he had been to all seven continents including a number of cities in India that I personally have been waiting to visit. His daughter has visited all 7 continents before the age of 18. Again, another super cool guy that I would meet during the course of this trip.
I also recalled talking to Stefano during dinner, he mentioned how once to support himself he had made and sold pizzas to his friends for dinner. I made a note to myself to try and raise the level of my Indian cooking to a similar level so that I can do the same if need be.
After that, I think I was ready to head to bed, I´m sure you´d agree that it had been quite the day :)
Upon arrival, we were treated to a much awaited and scrumptous lunch. The lunch had a salad made of cucumbers, onions and peppers. There was also mashed potatoes, noodles, rice and something that resembled a chicken curry, if youre thinking thats a lot of starch/carbs you guessed right. We immediately made some friends, there was a friendly couple from Winnipeg, Canada(Erin and Frano I think) and a couple of other people from England, we had a good chat over lunch, substantial parts of which involved - which games people were watching, where they had come from before Manaus and where they were headed to next after Manaus. This we learnt would become the staple of conversations for the next 2 weeks. We also met Lisa from Miami(originally from Colombia) soon after, who we learnt is a Gator(UF alumnus) who was travelling with another Gator, this meant that our party consisted of 5 Gators, I know what better company could we ask for. Alas, to spoil the party there was also a Seminole(FSU alumnus) amongst us, Nic from Orlando, who would actually turn out to be splendid company as well !
After lunch we were shown our dormitory where we would spend the night, the dorm was a slightly big wooden building, it had 3-4 rooms with about 50 beds in total, each bed had a mosquito net above it to minimize the damage. We were told to take a 2 hour siesta but we decided to chat with our fellow travellers instead because each one of them was so cool !
After the 2 hour break we got into a similar wooden boat as before and I sat next to Roger from England. Now I would learn later that Roger has been to EVERY single World Cup since (and including) 1994, so that is 1994 in the US, 98 in France, 2002 in Japan/Korea, 2006 in Germany, 2010 in South Africa and now 2014 in Brazil. That was enough for me, I was sitting near a super-cool traveller, one of the coolest I´d met so far. He was full of stories from his travels and I was easily impressed by each of them.
Our boat was taking us to a fishing spot where we´d be fishing for Piranhas. Yep, you heard that right, we were going Piranha fishing in the Amazon. We had some chicken as bait for the Piranhas which we attached to our fishing rods. Each of us had a fishing rod and we were in a shallow part of the river. The bugs were giving us a full welcome by then, it was around 5 in the evening. I immediately felt some tugs on my rod and before I could get it out of the water my bait was gone. This happened a couple of times to us, those Piranhas are smart I tell you, we were losing chicken fast. We were told that the fish we caught would be served to us at dinner, in hindsight saving the chicken for dinner might have been a better idea. We ended up having quite a jolly time on the river, about ten of us were out fishing, there were a lot of fish jokes going around obviously. A group of three friends from DC joined our group a little late and they were enjoying it too. At the end of it we only had two Piranhas which Nic had caught, so not a lot to show for in terms of fish but definitely a ton of fun !
We headed back to the lodge where we started watching one of the games on a TV with satellite reception and basically waiting for dinner. All of a sudden we were told that we´d be heading out into the waters again. We were going to try and see some Cayman alligators. Now the Amazon is pretty cool during the day, but the sight as we headed out into the pitch black night literally blew our minds. We could see the night sky in all its glory, earlier in the year Alicia and I had learnt in the STL science museum that its impossible to see the night sky in all its glory in the cities because of all the lights in the city. This makes the sky appear lighter, I was told the amount of pollution plays a part in this too. But then in the Amazon there was little of both so the view was just unbelievable, we could literally see the Milky Way. Boochi was pretty loud in his appreciation of the view as well, it went something amongst the lines of ¨Shiiit MAN¨ ! I told myself, this is pretty freaking cool.
Now we were ready, on the pitch black waters in a wooden boat. All we needed to do was find some Caymans. The way we found them was cool, there was a little boy from the lodge at the front of the boat with a flashlight on his forehead, he would then shine his flashlight in sweeping edges across the water to look for something. If he found something interesting he would shake his head a couple of times and then the guy at the rear end of the boat would navigate in that direction. We´d then end up in shallower waters amongst some water plants and the guy in front would look more closely for the Caymans. We learnt later that what he was looking for was the reflection of the flashlight in the alligators eyes, thats how he would locate them. This happened a number of times and we were in about 3 -4 bushes before he ultimately spotted two Caymans. These alligators are tiny(less than a meter or 3 feet in length) compared to the ones Alicia and I saw in Florida last month. The boy in front actually scooped up two alligators from the water and handed it out to us to hold, Walker and Keerthi got to hold it and got some pictures with it. The boy also explained that these two were females with a display of the corresponding body parts !! I think, to me personally, the main draw was not the Caymans but just a night-drive out into the Amazon in the middle of the night.
We had some dinner and headed to our beds where sleeping under mosquito nets brought back some memories of visiting the Dominican Republic to see Alicia. It was then that I jotted down a couple more thoughts.
I was amazed at how the guides were able to navigate the huge river with its tricky branches that we kept swerving in and out of without the use of anything close to a GPS, their sense of direction is alive and kicking every day.
I had forgotten my bug repellent and my long cotton pants in Manaus, again I was dependent on Walker and Boochi for bug spray and I would have to sleep in my jeans the next night in some of the hottest and humid weather on the planet.
I recalled my conversation during dinner with Zoran from Croatia (he had a Croatia hat on the entire day) who was also a part of our 3 day 2 night group. He told me he tries to travel a bit, he later told me he had been to all seven continents including a number of cities in India that I personally have been waiting to visit. His daughter has visited all 7 continents before the age of 18. Again, another super cool guy that I would meet during the course of this trip.
I also recalled talking to Stefano during dinner, he mentioned how once to support himself he had made and sold pizzas to his friends for dinner. I made a note to myself to try and raise the level of my Indian cooking to a similar level so that I can do the same if need be.
After that, I think I was ready to head to bed, I´m sure you´d agree that it had been quite the day :)
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