Brazil #5 - Manaus Jungle Lodge - April 2006 
(click any picture to get enlargement)


This is the last part of the story of our trip to Brazil.  From Salvador we flew to Manaus, which is situated in the Amazon area.

Our flight had a connection in Brazilia, the Capital of Brazil which is located in the middle of the country.  After landing we were told the continuing flight to Manaus was cancelled, which scared us.  We had a reservation at a remote jungle lodge and they had VERY limited transportation options.  Luckily we were able to get on another airline and we arrived in Manaus on time.


After waiting for two hours at the airport, we were finally met by a person from the lodge. He took us to the river where we boarded a boat and headed towards our jungle lodge... see the dotted red line on the map to the right. 
The other items on the map are the excursions we went on, which will be described later on.


 A nice river-side hotel. Is this our pickup boat?   Nope, this boat is our shuttle.

The river, called Rio Negro (Dark River) had a weird color.  This river was VERY wide and becomes the Amazon River Looking back at Manaus as we slowly plowed along.

The Amazon area gets a lot of rain, so the vegetation was lush and green.  

There is a wet season and dry season each year.  During the dry season, the water level is 50 feet less than during the wet season! 


Our visit coincided with the end of the wet season, so the river was almost at it's high point.  

Many trees were sub-merged and the boat had to avoid them.  We could only see the tops of the trees which were closer to shore.


Along parts of the shore we were surprised to see nice white beaches.  

We were told the entire bottom of the river is covered with this white sand... remnants of a previous ocean in the area?


There was a lot of erosion along the banks of the river.

The guide said this was natural, but the waves caused by the boats can only make things worse.


After 3 hours we finally made it to the Acajatuba Jungle Lodge.

These pics to the right are views of the lodge during the dry season.  The dock floats and is moved to keep it in the water. At the lowest water point, people have to walk 500 meters to get to the lodge! 


We were very tired from the many hours of travel today. We had a welcome drink and relaxed as the sun was setting; nice!

We then unpacked and had dinner.  At 10pm the generator was turned off and the place went pitch dark.


We were the only guests who stayed up for one last drink. We made ourselves comfortable in the deck chairs.

We then saw lightning, heard some thunder, and then is rained HARD.  It ended up raining a few times each day and nothing ever had a chance to dry out!


The lodge could hold a lot of people and had about 30 little huts; with 2 units per hut.  

The walkways were luckily covered, as it rained so much.  When it was dark, the many walkways made it difficult to get back to our hut... the wine probably didn't help either!


The room was nothing great.  There were strings over the beds & we learned they were for hanging clothes... but it didn't help, as NOTHING dried... and the bathroom was even worse!

The main highlight of our stay was the animals.  We first met the birds... a multi-colored guy and two blue ones who looked identical.  They were not real friendly, but were fun to watch.

Within the first few minutes after arriving, Nicole made friends with one of the nicest animals that either of us had ever met.... a 7-month old black monkey. The monkey, although a baby herself, was a surrogate mom to a baby squirrel monkey who was constantly attached to her new mom.
The monkeys were recent additions to the lodge.  The workers set up a hammock for the monkeys to sleep in... they were so cute!


The monkeys were getting used to grabbing food from people.  Here Nicole is explaining that her drink is not for a monkey.
The monkey thought for a bit ... 

... and then, with lightning speed, was grabbing at Nicole's limes.


This monkey was so gentle and would softly (but quickly) grab any little thing that she could play with.  We found that our drink straws was a perfect play toy. Note that the baby monkey also loved attention and was almost always attached to her back... and could sleep through anything! 

Whenever we were at the lodge, the monkeys came to visit and we were 'forced' to play with them  :)
Their hands & feet were so much like those of a human.  Unlike a human, the monkeys could use their snake-like tail to assist them... and against our two hands, they got what they wanted!

We also had a medium sized squirrel monkey that began to hang out with us.  He was so nervous compared to the black monkey, but after hanging around Nicole, he settled down nicely.

Of course, when one monkey got attention, the others got jealous and wanted a piece of the action.
They liked hanging around us versus the little kids.  While we read, they would take naps... usually on our bags!


Nicole removing 'the cute pest' from the dining area ... again!
Sometimes the animals would get into trouble or want our attention when we were tired or reading :(

Oh yeah, there was also a  pig-like creature that walked around underneath the huts.  He dug up roots and make grunting noises that made us laugh.

He didn't want to be petted though, which didn't bother us since he was quite muddy!

 


This concludes the story about our lodge in Manuas... to continue to the various excursions we took from the lodge... click on :  Manaus Lodge Excursions

To return to the main page, click on :  Brazil Trip Page