At the time when I took these notes, I was sitting on a boat in the Amazon. Now, that line by itself is pretty cool, but it doesn´t end there. The boat I was on was barely moving, we were in the middle of the largest river (by discharge and second by length) in the world, it looked more like a ocean at this point. On our side were forests teeming with unknown predators, remember this is the home of the Anaconda, the Caymans and probably hundreds of other possibly deadly species. So how did I, someone who can hardly swim 50m in an indoor pool to save his life, end up in this predicament ?
We had decided to a tour of the Amazon rainforest when we found out that all our games were in Manaus since it is the entrypoint to the Amazon rainforests. We arranged for a 3 day 2 night tour of the Amazon with a local tourist company, Iguana tourismo and we were all set to leave for the tour on Saturday.
We woke up around 7:30 am and we were supposed to leave the hostel for our first boat ride at 8 30 am. If there´s one thing thats common amongst all my friends it is the fact that we like to leave everything to the last minute. The tour operator had told us the night before that the compant only accepts cash payments, we decided to head to the ATM at 8 am, get some cash, pay the company and head out. Remember, at this point, I don´t have any plastic currency anymore(see previous post), I´m completely reliant on my buddies and the leftover currency(I still had quite a bit with me) that I had brought with me from the US. As luck would have it though, Boochis ATM card did not work outside the US and he had to spend what seemed like quite a while on the phone with the BOfA staff convincing them that he was not a drug peddler in Brazil using a stolen debit card. As this was happening I had to endure an impatient tour operator who was not pleased that we were holding up his tour. Well I guess things could have been worse, we got the cash, paid the company, we were shoved into a cab and arrived at the harbor. We were literally the last ones on the boat and once we jumped in the boat set off and we were on our way to the Amazon rainforest.
The first leg of the journey was pretty cool, it was slightly less than an hour by boat and we got to see what is known here as the Meeting of the Waters. Imagine this, two rivers flowing side by side, one river is completely dark, close to black (Rio Negro) and one river is pretty light, close to white (the Amazon.. Rio Soleimos to be precise). It was a pretty cool sight ! Apparently the two rivers have different temperatures, different speeds(the Amazon is almost twice as fast) and a different pH(I think the Amazon is less acidic). So these factors mean that the two rivers never mix but just flow side by side. This pattern is also evident in some of the local architecture we got to see with alternating stripes of light and dark wood.
The next phase of the journey was in a small van for about an hour. We all got into the van and headed out. It was quite the bumpy ride to say the least. This is also where we met our guide for the next couple of days, Stefano, who is originally from Italy. We learnt from him that a couple of weeks on that road would take us to Bolivia (if we survived the trip). Luckily our ride was not so long and we arrived at the spot where we´d transfer to our boats to get onto the mighty Amazon.
The transfer point was a tiny shack where we got to drink some coconut water just to relive some memories of India. We decided to play the expert there and showed some of our fellow travellers a cool trick, whenever you get coconut water ask the vendor to slice the coconut shell in half for you so that you can eat the delicious and healthy white coconut inside !
Stefano then informed us that we would next head to the lodge in the middle of the rainforest, we´d have to split up and travel in a couple of boats and were asked to choose whichever boat we´d like to travel in. Walker had learnt his lesson from the morning and was quick to pick out an ultra fast boat which quickly filled out. Boochi, Keerthi and I were still waking up and we missed the boat (pun intended). This meant we got on a slightly slower boat, which we later learnt would be our workhorse the next couple of days. This boat looked perfectly acceptable to us, it just lacked a roof and was all wood whereas the other one looked more like a speedboat with brighter colors. Our boat still had a motor and was travelling at a decent speed in the beginning.
As boat-engines go, they fail sometimes, and this was apparently a good day for our engine to fail. So there we were limping across the Amazon on a boat with a failed engine, about 10 of us, me probably the worst swimmer of the lot, no life jackets on the boat. Stefano asked us to take out a book and read, that was when I took out my notebook to jot down some notes about the day.
I had no idea how we were going to get to the lodge, we were ten minutes into an hours journey. There was a lot of water around us, unlike tiny rivers that some of us have canoed across, this one is huge, the largest river in the world ! There was also the fear of being toppled over by the wake from the other boats travelling at high speeds. Luckily there was a system where the boats would slow down whenever there was a stationary boat around, this was mainly to prevent the toppling over of the boats which belonged to the Native Amazonians who parked their boats on the river close to their houses. A form of discipline on the boat drivers part which was admirable and was keeping us afloat. Soon enough, one of the other boats from the same tour company spotted us and promised to send some help. I had no idea how we were to jump from one boat to another in the middle of a river without toppling the boats. I also had no idea about the kind of wildlife in the waters and on the shores on the side, needless to say the situation was a little tense in the boat. Memories of newspaper reports about tourists dying in a foreign country probably sprung up in a lot of our minds. I guess we did have some good luck that day however, we somehow limped our way to a local ´party shack´ in the middle of the river and we got off our boat and onto some solid ground ! Deep sigh of releif. The party shack had a pool table, a television to watch soccer and a couple of chairs one of which one of the tourists managed to break in 5 minutes. We just decided to grab a local refresco called Guarana(an Amazonian fruit) which we would keep chugging for the next week.
Pretty soon after that our replacement boat arrived and we were away on the waters again. This time on a much faster and safer boat and we actually made it to the lodge !
We had decided to a tour of the Amazon rainforest when we found out that all our games were in Manaus since it is the entrypoint to the Amazon rainforests. We arranged for a 3 day 2 night tour of the Amazon with a local tourist company, Iguana tourismo and we were all set to leave for the tour on Saturday.
We woke up around 7:30 am and we were supposed to leave the hostel for our first boat ride at 8 30 am. If there´s one thing thats common amongst all my friends it is the fact that we like to leave everything to the last minute. The tour operator had told us the night before that the compant only accepts cash payments, we decided to head to the ATM at 8 am, get some cash, pay the company and head out. Remember, at this point, I don´t have any plastic currency anymore(see previous post), I´m completely reliant on my buddies and the leftover currency(I still had quite a bit with me) that I had brought with me from the US. As luck would have it though, Boochis ATM card did not work outside the US and he had to spend what seemed like quite a while on the phone with the BOfA staff convincing them that he was not a drug peddler in Brazil using a stolen debit card. As this was happening I had to endure an impatient tour operator who was not pleased that we were holding up his tour. Well I guess things could have been worse, we got the cash, paid the company, we were shoved into a cab and arrived at the harbor. We were literally the last ones on the boat and once we jumped in the boat set off and we were on our way to the Amazon rainforest.
The first leg of the journey was pretty cool, it was slightly less than an hour by boat and we got to see what is known here as the Meeting of the Waters. Imagine this, two rivers flowing side by side, one river is completely dark, close to black (Rio Negro) and one river is pretty light, close to white (the Amazon.. Rio Soleimos to be precise). It was a pretty cool sight ! Apparently the two rivers have different temperatures, different speeds(the Amazon is almost twice as fast) and a different pH(I think the Amazon is less acidic). So these factors mean that the two rivers never mix but just flow side by side. This pattern is also evident in some of the local architecture we got to see with alternating stripes of light and dark wood.
The next phase of the journey was in a small van for about an hour. We all got into the van and headed out. It was quite the bumpy ride to say the least. This is also where we met our guide for the next couple of days, Stefano, who is originally from Italy. We learnt from him that a couple of weeks on that road would take us to Bolivia (if we survived the trip). Luckily our ride was not so long and we arrived at the spot where we´d transfer to our boats to get onto the mighty Amazon.
The transfer point was a tiny shack where we got to drink some coconut water just to relive some memories of India. We decided to play the expert there and showed some of our fellow travellers a cool trick, whenever you get coconut water ask the vendor to slice the coconut shell in half for you so that you can eat the delicious and healthy white coconut inside !
Stefano then informed us that we would next head to the lodge in the middle of the rainforest, we´d have to split up and travel in a couple of boats and were asked to choose whichever boat we´d like to travel in. Walker had learnt his lesson from the morning and was quick to pick out an ultra fast boat which quickly filled out. Boochi, Keerthi and I were still waking up and we missed the boat (pun intended). This meant we got on a slightly slower boat, which we later learnt would be our workhorse the next couple of days. This boat looked perfectly acceptable to us, it just lacked a roof and was all wood whereas the other one looked more like a speedboat with brighter colors. Our boat still had a motor and was travelling at a decent speed in the beginning.
As boat-engines go, they fail sometimes, and this was apparently a good day for our engine to fail. So there we were limping across the Amazon on a boat with a failed engine, about 10 of us, me probably the worst swimmer of the lot, no life jackets on the boat. Stefano asked us to take out a book and read, that was when I took out my notebook to jot down some notes about the day.
I had no idea how we were going to get to the lodge, we were ten minutes into an hours journey. There was a lot of water around us, unlike tiny rivers that some of us have canoed across, this one is huge, the largest river in the world ! There was also the fear of being toppled over by the wake from the other boats travelling at high speeds. Luckily there was a system where the boats would slow down whenever there was a stationary boat around, this was mainly to prevent the toppling over of the boats which belonged to the Native Amazonians who parked their boats on the river close to their houses. A form of discipline on the boat drivers part which was admirable and was keeping us afloat. Soon enough, one of the other boats from the same tour company spotted us and promised to send some help. I had no idea how we were to jump from one boat to another in the middle of a river without toppling the boats. I also had no idea about the kind of wildlife in the waters and on the shores on the side, needless to say the situation was a little tense in the boat. Memories of newspaper reports about tourists dying in a foreign country probably sprung up in a lot of our minds. I guess we did have some good luck that day however, we somehow limped our way to a local ´party shack´ in the middle of the river and we got off our boat and onto some solid ground ! Deep sigh of releif. The party shack had a pool table, a television to watch soccer and a couple of chairs one of which one of the tourists managed to break in 5 minutes. We just decided to grab a local refresco called Guarana(an Amazonian fruit) which we would keep chugging for the next week.
Pretty soon after that our replacement boat arrived and we were away on the waters again. This time on a much faster and safer boat and we actually made it to the lodge !
So dramatic nash and you don't even like Hindi movies!
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