14 posts tagged “manaus”

Today we thought we would save money by washing our own clothes rather than paying for them to go to a laundry.  I was in quite a good mood and even offered to do Yan's washing for him.

The hotel said it was no problem as they had a washing machine.  I asked Tony if he wanted to help, but I got the reply, "You don't need any help.  Just stick the washing in the machine and turn the switch to 40 degrees".

Is anything ever that simple in Brazil?  One and a half hours later I emergered from the roof, where the washing machine was kept, soaking wet through with water.

The washing machine was a top loader.  I had to fill the machine up with a hose pipe, turn it on to swish around, take the clothes out, put them in a bucket of water and rinse all the suds off, and then into another bucket to make extra sure there were no suds left on the clothes.

I then had to repeat the process.  After the clothes were washed, i had to wring everything out and put them in the spinner.  The outlet for the water on the spinner was pointed directly at me, but it didn't matter by that point anyway as after emptying the washing machine and the rinse buckets into a drain which did not exist, i would stood in my own puddle anyway,

I am sending Tony to do the washing next time, although we did save about two pounds.

We had to say goodbye to Simone, Marcus, who can just about walk now, and of course Yan, who we shall miss alot.  If it hadn't have been for him translating for us, who'd know what sort of mess we would be in.

We said our goodbyes and went to Manaus airport for our 3.40 flight, which actually turned out to be our 5.15 flight!!!

We arrived in Tabatinga, the town right on the border of Columbia, peru and Brazil two hours later and found a hotel.

Today I have spent catching up on writing the blog and uploading photos... the computers here are sooooo slow!!!

With Marcus still not being able to walk, we left him at the Shamen´s house and returned to Manaus.  On the way we visited a park which was meant to house an Anaconda, but it didn´t.  Apparently they had to release it as it was getting too big.  I am beginning to wonder whether the guide just said there was one there so he could get another day out of us.

We did see a very big alligator though and got to hold a Boa.  The snake was in very bad condition and was kept in a box.  if we´d have known, we wouldn´t have gone to see it.

The Shamen and his tribe danced for us again this morning, a welcome to the village dance, which we got to join in the dancing.

We then got back in the speed boat and went to a hotel which is built in a tree.. or many trees should I say.  The rooms are built in different trees with wooden bridges connecting them all.  if you walk round the whole thing, it is 8km!!!  We fed the monkeys bananas and went for a swim in their pool.  We returned to get into the speed boat, but the water was very rough.  We set off and then the engine cut out, so we had to row to the shore and bail the boat out.  Tony and the guide looked at the motor and got it working but by then there was thunder and lightning down the river.  We decided to wait until the storm passed and then got back in the boat.

I got in the boat, and Marcus followed me with a huge yelp.  He had been bitten by a stingray.  When we got back to the Shamen´s house, Simone (Marcus´ girlfriend) had to piss on the sting to reduce the pain.  We found it very amusing at the time but then we realised how much pain he was in.  The Indian´s from the village carried him back to the Shamen´s hut, where they laid him in a hammock.  The Shamen bunrt an ants nest under his foot and concocted some sort of tea for him to drink and put on his foot.  He then shook his rattle at him, and the women of the village were at his side for 10 hours, appliying more tea and keeping the foot wrapped in warm towels.

The extreme pain usually lasts for 24 hours but after the Shamen did his thing, it only lasted for 6.

While all this was going on, me and Tony decided to do something useful and cook a roast dinner for everybody, including the Indians.

All the women kept looking at Tony in the kitchen (the men never cook), and they all loved the food we made.  It was quite difficult as it was all on a open fire and we only had a few pans, but we managed.  We even made stuffing out of their flour (the rocks) and actually made it taste good!!!!

The Shamen prepared more Ayawaska for us, which was a lot stronger but we still didn´t hallucinate, it just made us feel extremely stoned.

We are stranded in Manaus so have decided to go across the river and see the Shamen.  We took a speed boat with our guide who had just had a cyst removed from his balls.  By the time we got to the beach, he was loosing a lot of blood.  Tony had to preform fist aid on the guide (which he wasn´t impressed by).  We had to use our first aid kit as the guide was not carrying even a bandage (which was reasuring as we had just spent 5 days in the jungle with Anacondas, Jaguars and other evil things) and he didn´t know any firt aid.  After Tony used butterfly stiches on the wound, we went for a swim, and then onto the Shamen´s house who was waiting for us.

We went into his ´hospital´which was a bare wooden hut with candles, and him and his tribe performed a ceremony, in full dress, for the ayawaska.  They danced and  played instruments, then gave us a huge cigar.  We all took turns in taking the cigar, then we had to eat some sort of crushed woods from the Amazon (it tasted like soil to me), and then they gave us the ayawaska, a very bitter tasting tea.

The ayawaska is supposed to help you connect to the spirit world by giving you hallucinations.  The one he gave us was not supposed to make us hallucinate, but it helped you dream the answers of particular knowledge you wanted to gain.  None of the group had any dreams as we slept in our hammocks in the Shamen´s hut.

Oh I forgot to tell you, we also saw a tranchular in the jungle...

Today, we said goodbye to the natives and headed back to Manaus to book a flight to the border.  We need to get Peru, but we cannot fly there as you need a ticket back out of the country.  However, you can go to the border and cross the border by boat and you don´t need proof you are going to leave...

We went to book a flight to Tabatinga, but there are no flights until Saturday.  There are no boats as they are fully booked and roads here do not exist so we can´t get a bus.  We are now stranded here for another fives days.  Even if we had lots of money, there is actually no way of getting out of this place soon.... aarrrgggghhhhh

Today we saw ´The Lazy Animal´, a slough.  Antonio climbed up the tree like a monkey and brought the animal back down with him so we could hold him.  These are the funniest little creatures I have seen.  They sleep for 22 hours a day and live for upto 150 years!!!!

The slough looked at us with a huge grin on it´s face.... it looked as though it wqas constantly stoned.  Very amusing.  We put the slough back into the tree and got back in our canoe to go to our next place of rest...  an Indian´s house.

We arrived at the little hut made from palm trees and wood, where we were greeted by the indian family.  They were so welcoming and friendly.  They showed us the plant they extracted war paint from and how they made their flour.  They make it from a Manioc plant and it is a vital part of any Brazilian meal.  Everyone covers their food in it.  It is a cross between cous cous and flour, me and Tony call it rocks...

We slung our hammocks up in their hut and drank with them.  We really enjoyed ourselves, even though we didn´t speak the language.  You know what they say, drunken actions speak louder than words. 

Today we trecked into the jungle to look at all the different trees and plants in the Amazon.  Our guide (Antonio) explained all the different plants and what they were used for.

The first thing we came across was a natural insect repellant.  It was a termites nest.  You had to put your hand on the nest, let the termites crawl over your hand and then you rubbed the insects all over you and then brushed them off.   We didn´t try this one, but the guide showed us.

We found a plant for abortion, one for Malaria, a plant to make candles and insence with and a water vine, which when cut, you can drink the water from inside.

Me and Tony got stung by wasps in the Jungle.  It was very painful.  These aren´t little wasps at all.  I don´t think they would have bothered us but Tony decided to walk right through the wasps nest, which they weren´t too happy about and proceeded to chase after us stinging us numerous times.  We managed to find a plant in the jungle which was like an antiseptic and it took the sting away.

There is a tree in the Jungle called the SOS tree.  It is an enormous tree and and has an extremely wide trunk.  If you hit the trunk with a piece of wood, the sound can be heard across the forest.

We asked the guide how he didn´t get lost in the jungle.  He told us about an Indian tradition.  The Indians found a wild boar and cut off the nose.  On a friday, the child takes the nose of the boar and watches the sun set through the nose.  The child continues to do this for seven days and after this, the child will never get lost and will always be able to find his way back.

we got back to camp and made some coffee.  We learnt a new trick to get the coffee grains to settle at the bottom of the pan.  The guide stirred the coffee with the embers of the fire.... it worked....

I hate mosquitos.  I have been bitten so many times and they seem to be ignoring the insect repellant I have used.

Today we got back into our canoe and headed for our next camp.  we stopped at a floating shop on the way to pick up some supplies of water and biscuits.  I managed to fall out of the canoe while trying to get off it, so everyone then decided to go for a swim.

We arrived at our next destination late in the afternoon, and set up camp.  We had to make a frame for our hammocks out of trees and put a taupe on top in case it rained.  We made a table and set up a camp fire to cook food on.  Tony was delighted as he got to use his Machetti!!! 

I was very tired and went to bed early but Tony and the guide went spear fishing at night.  They didn´t manage to catch any fish, but Tony did catch a small Camen, which made him very happy :)

Today we are setting off to go into the jungle.  Firstwe had to get a taxi to the port, then got a speed boat accross the two rivers.  Where the two rivers meet can be seen, as they flow next to one another.  One is the river Negro which is very dark and one is the river Solimoes which is muddy.  Because of the different speeds and temperatures of the rivers, they do not mix together straight away.

We then got a VW campervan from the port to our motorised canoe which was waiting for us.  We all got in the canoe and sailed down the river to where we were staying for the night, in a jungle lodge.

On the trip is me, Tony, Yan and a Swiss girl Simone and a Brazillian guy Marcus who we met on the boat.

We had dinner at the jungle lodge and went off in our canoe to catch some piranas for tea.   I caught one, and didn´t know how to get it off my line, so Tony went to get the pirana and caught one on his line.  He took his off his hook(so us tourists could get a picture) and caught yet another one!!!!  So we had lots of fish for tea.  After fishing we continued in our boat to a lake where we watched the dolphins until the sun set.

In the evening we went Aligator spotting.  The guide caught a small aligator which we were able to hold.  After an exhausting day we went back to the lodge to sleep.