2019 Travels
Brazil


October 15-29, 2019

With great excitement we arrived for our visit to the Amazon in Brazil. We flew into Manaus and met our tour guide who took us on a five-day jungle safari deep into the Amazon. It was an amazing experience; partly because of the wildlife and partly because we stayed with a family who lives on a floating house on the banks of the Amazon. It was interesting and educational to see how a family lives in the jungle, surrounded by ferocious animals. Each day our guide took us out on adventures we won't soon forget.

Below: This is the floating house we stayed at. Up on the hill is a small farm they operate. They have electricity, running water, TVs and laptops, but life here is rustic. 'Homesteads' dot the river bank and everyone gets around by boat (there are no roads anywhere in the area). Their daughter gets picked up for school on the school boat.

Brazil

Brazil

Below: Here two of the teenage brothers are toasting a big batch of farinha (a type of cornmeal) which is a staple and served with every meal.

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Below: From the front porch of the house, Jamie and I fished and caught about 40 piranha which the family cooked and served for dinner. They are delicious but there is one rule: don't fall off the porch.

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Below: The eight-foot-long Amazon River Dolphin (a freshwater dolphin) is common and we could see them from our house.

Brazil

Brazil

Below: Our guide took us on several jungle hikes. In some places the vegetation was so thick he had to use a machete to cut a path. The jungle is teeming with life and is a bit scary. We saw poison dart frogs, tarantulas, spiders, lizards, snakes, alligators, monkeys swinging from trees (lots of monkeys) and three-toed sloths. There is a huge variety of birds including toucans, canaries and colorful macaws.

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Brazil

Brazil

Brazil

Brazil

Brazil

Brazil

Below: One night we went hunting for alligators in a canoe in the dark. Common sense says you should not go hunting for alligators in a canoe in the dark but our guide wanted us to have a 'full experience.' He was successful in catching a young alligator (Black Caiman) with his bare hands which he let Jamie hold. These alligators grow to over fifteen-feet long.

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Below: Here's Bill holding an eleven-foot-long anaconda which was killed by a harpoon fisherman about twenty minutes previous. We're not sure if that made us feel safer or not.

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Below: This fisherman speared a freshwater stingray.

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Swimming in the river was one of our scheduled activities. We said "No, thanks!"

Below: One day, to our surprise, a 14-inch-long arowana jumped out of the river and into our boat. This fish would cost several hundred dollars in a fish store in the States.

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Below: Every day we saw squirrel monkeys playing in the trees. You'll never guess the secret to getting them to come closer for a photo.

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Brazil

Brazil

Brazil

But this safari was not all fun and frolic. Hiking in the jungle was treacherous. The temperature was 90-degrees every day with high humidity and we had to fight off the biting insects. We also got caught in the rain several times. Our guest house did not have hot running water or any creature comforts. It did have creatures, however, with insects and spiders crawling all over the place, piranhas swarming on all sides, and bats flying right through the porches at night. But ... that's life in the Amazon and we're very glad we got to experience it.

For something completely different, we spent a week in Rio de Janeiro and visited the popular attractions.

Below: View of Rio from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. Copacabana Beach (where we stayed) is at the top-left.

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Below: We took a cog train up to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue.

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Below: Rio has plenty of nature and wildlife itself. We saw toucans, big lizards and lots of marmosets.

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Brazil was very interesting. Next stop: Argentina.