Week 16 Summary

Week 16: Manaus, Amazon Rainforest
Day 106: April 17th

We woke up to the sound of jungle birds singing and roosters crowing. After a nice breakfast we packed up our things. I went for a swim/bath in the river and we soon took our things and got back in our boat. The boat is essentially a large canoe, made by hand at the house I might add, with a small motor attached to a 4 foot pole and propeller. We took the boat through the Amazon River tributaries and small lakes until we found a quiet cove. We parked the boat and journeyed into the jungle. We wandered around the jungle a bit and Eduardo showed us cool things. We saw a walking tree that constantly grows new roots that protrude a couple feet from the ground. As the old roots for the tree moves in the direction of the growing new roots. In this way the tree can “walk” around the jungle. We found a babbasoo coconut tree and chopped open the coconuts to find firefly larva inside. These grubs are edible and contain so much protein you only need to eat four per day to survive. We all ate one and I found it disgusting but others didn’t mind the taste. We also found ants that when rubbed over the skin provide natural insect repellant. These ants bite however so I wouldn’t recommend this method. We found a tree around 6 feet wide that had fallen over and made camp next to it. We had no idea the intensity of the project we were beginning. We started by clearing out a 40 square foot area of all small trees and bushes with machetes. Some of the trees have a trunk lined with thorns so we had to use other branches as a broom as we had no gloves. We then proceeded to cut down two thick trees about 50 feet tall. We carried these back to the camp with a bit of difficulty as the jungle is quite thick and hard to maneuver in. Then we cut down six forked trees to use as supports. We used the large trees still in our campsite as supports and places the long beams against them. The forked trees were placed underneath and then we cut many vines out of trees to lash these three pieces together about 6 feet off the ground. Then we cut several more, I think around 16 in total, long trees to build the top of the frame in a more triangular shape. We made some mistakes and cut trees that weren’t quite the right size or shape and had to make adjustments on the fly. After four hours of work we were exhausted, blistered, bleeding, and starving. But the camp was not done yet so we continued until we put up a large tarp as a roof and hung our hammocks underneath. It was nearly dark by this time and we had run out of water. We took the boat to the nearest place to buy water, about 30 minutes away on the river. While on this trip we dropped some nets in the water. We grabbed some snacks and beer and a chicken before we took a quick swim next to the dock. Eduardo wouldn’t let us swim in the river at night because of the caimans and other threats. Finally we returned to our campsite after stopping on the way to collect our net and a few more fish. We started a fire in order to cook the fish, chicken, and some rice for dinner. I was so tired I laid down in my hammock and was instantly asleep. I woke up for dinner and as soon as we ate everyone was in their hammocks.

Day 107:

I woke up the next morning and had to go to the bathroom. I accidentally woke up Sarahi and noticed Eduardo was awake in his hammock as I grabbed some toilet paper and headed out of camp. After taking care of business I started walking back toward the camp but somehow missed it through the dense forest. I tried to retrace my steps but soon had the feeling I was completely lost. I heard some noise and assumed it was someone else taking care of business and walking back to camp. So I followed the noise but soon found a family of monkeys jumping noisily through the tree tops. At this point I realized I was really lost but I didn’t give up and headed toward the river. I found it eventually and expected it would help me have an idea of where to go. But after a few more minutes of wandering I decided I was hopelessly turned around. I was worried that everyone in camp was still sleeping but decided to yell helllooooo multiple times anyway. Eduardo replied with some strange animal call that I hoped was the camp and after a long game of Marco Polo in the forest I thankfully found the campsite again. We ate crackers and very grainy coffee for breakfast but we soon heard thunder. The rain approached quickly and we frantically cut down many palm branches to build a roof of sorts over our fire. We scrambled to find firewood as the rain began to pour. We relaxed in our waterproof shelter and collected rain water from the tarp to drink. Eventually the rain stopped and we walked to the river and hopped in our boat. We spent a little time putting up a net and then returned to the floating store to buy water and fishing hooks. We went for a swim and stopped to cut dry firewood from a half submerged tree. You know you’re in the rainforest when wood in the river is drier than in the forest. We returned to the net but only caught a few small fish so a few of us took the firewood back to camp while the others moved the net. We met at camp and ate some leftover rice for a late lunch. Eduardo made us fishing poles out of saplings while we chopped up many babbasoo coconuts and shaved off the edible section. Then we pounded the pieces into a fine powder to use as flour in a cake. It was almost dark when we returned to the water. We used leftover rancid chicken meat as bait and after dropping the baited hooks in the water the key is to splash in the water with the fishing pole. This simulates an animal thrashing around in the water and attracts the piranha. We all caught at least a small piranha except Hannah who caught a sardine. It was dark by now and the mosquitos came out in swarms. We went to check the net and found over 50 fish!! Unfortunately 40 of them were small piranha which we had to painfully take out the net the next day once they were dead. The other fish were mostly mapara, sort of like a catfish with no scales and great filets, but twice as delicious. We returned to camp and prepared the fish as well as some fresh rice. While the fish was cooking we built a table out of three triangle formation trees and split Palm branches. It looked nice and we were extra proud when we had a table full of fresh fish we had caught ourselves. It was without a doubt one of the best meals of my life. As soon as dinner was over everyone was instantly in bed. We heard a jaguar in the distance but soon I drowned it out with my snoring.

Day 108:

The next morning we ate a breakfast of crackers and coffee before packing up our camp. We packed everything back into the boat and headed back to the house from the first night. We met another backpacker from Australia and then took a jungle hike as a group. We walked to the spring where the house collects the water we had been drinking. Then we continued walking until we found a water vine. You can cut out a section and drink the water that drips out. It’s the best water I’ve ever tasted. We reached a pond where we found out we had to swim across. We were all wearing boots and dry clothes so we built a raft out of rotting wood and vines and put our belongings on top. Then we towed the raft while we swam across the pond. We returned to the house for a fantastic lunch and a swim in the lake in front of the house. Then we took the boat back to the road where we rode in a Volkswagen bus until we reached the main stretch of river. Here we took a boat back to Manaus and then a car back to the agency near our hostel. It was a fabulous time and we were sad to see it end. But we were so happy for a shower and clean dry clothes. After getting cleaned up we went out to dinner at a pizza buffet. It was delicious but I felt terrible for a couple days because it was such a shock to my system after eating mostly fish and rice for days. We went out to a bar afterwards but were all so tired we soon returned to the hostel and slept great.

Day 109:

We were happy for a day to recuperate but liked eachother so much that the whole group changed their plans and stayed together for a couple more days. We took our dirty laundry and walked awhile across the city with Eduardo to his aunts house who agreed to wash our laundry cheaply. Then we stopped by a museum nearby. The group split up at this point and Sarahi and I relaxed at the hostel. We had a late lunch and set up a tour for the next day. That night we went with Eduardo William and Hannah to a beautiful beach on the banks of the rio negro. We swam for a little while and walked around the well developed beach area. We rode the bus back and soon went to bed.
Day 110:

The next day we had breakfast at our hostel and then headed back to the tour agency. We were taken by two cars to the outskirts of the city to the house of the shaman. He was an older guy who did not speak English and was a little strange but nice. We had booked the tour to try ayahuasca, a Peruvian Indian medicine and ritual. The medicine is made from cooking together a vine and the leaves from another plant. The resulting tea looks like coffee but tastes much worse. The tea is believed to cleanse the drinker and provide clarity or revelations. It is also common to have visions and hallucinations. We spent the day relaxing, napping, and preparing for the tea drinking experience. Around six at night we drank the tea while sitting on a back porch covered by a tin roof. It began to rain and continued all night. After drinking the tea Sarahi was the first to throw up. This is a common part of the experience and is part of the cleansing process. I threw up as well but then laid down and had a good time. My mind was very active and I had some visions when my eyes were closed. I thought about a lot of things from my past and had some very random thoughts. Sarahi did not have much of a positive experience and felt sick most of the time. Iris was also sick much of the time. The rest of us enjoyed it although everyone threw up. Eduardo drank three cups and William had two. No one had life changing revelations but we did feel “cleansed the next day”. We all fell asleep by midnight on hammocks or mats laid on the floor.