HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Waling in the mighty Amazon Forest
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Getting bitten by killer bees
WORD OF THE DAY: KILLER BEES
We woke this morning to the sounds of the Amazon. Birds, cicadas and more birds. It was 5am, and we were off in the motor canoes this morning to see the sunrise and a spot of bird watching and anything else we could spot on the river. It was foggy, so the hopes of seeing a sunrise were dashed but we preserved and saw a woodpecker, and he looked exactly like Woody Woodpecker the cartoon, peck peck pecking away, a lot A LOT of spider webs, with no residents home, thank goodness, other than that it was just the experience of cruising around one of the main estuaries that flows into the Amazon River. We went a lake to see if we could spot pink and gray dolphins and we were unlucky, we didn’t spot any of them. It is a lot like an African safari, it is the wild, they are wild animals and you just never know if it will be a good day or a bad day. We tried and really didn’t see too much but as luck would have it as we motored back to the lodge about 20m from the floating jetty and we saw 2 pink dolphins. Funny the way nature works, we boat 15 minutes to the lake and we see them out the front of the lodge.
Breakfast was served at 7.15am, and again it was an awesome spread of fresh rolls, eggs, ham, cheese, arepas (small pancake, flat muffin things that are fresh and delicious with butter) and platters of fresh fruit. A great way to start off what could, or could not be a busy day. After breakfast the day’s events were explained to us and then we decided what we did and didn’t want to do. There were a few options for tours and they don’t have a fixed day by day program because they think that’s the best way to do it. All tours are done in the most flexible manner to suit our needs. Today’s options:
1. A 2 hour walk in the Amazon
2. A 3 hour walk in the Amazon
3. An overnight out in the jungle that involved sleeping in hammocks and 12 hours of walking….
So people that know me know which option I took. Yep the 2 hour walk in the Amazon. I’m not a hiker, but I am in the Amazon and I knew I HAD to go, you can’t come all this way and not hike in the Amazon right? So I chose the least painful option and picked option 1. I wasn’t going to be peer pressured into the 3 hour walk that 15 other people were doing, and in the end it was just Kate and I with our guide Christoff. We figured a smaller group, of 2, would have a better chance of spotting animals anyway and we weren’t too concerned. There were 8 people that were doing the overnight option and kudos to them, besides all the walking in the humid conditions, they were sleeping out in the jungle, in hammocks, with all sorts of creepy crawlies and the thought of hand sized tarantulas crawling over me in a hammock was SO NOT appealing to me. F*@k that!!! That was also Kate’s put off, so we were more than happy to stay in style at the lodge.
The Amazon basin is 6 million sq. km of river and jungle of which 3.6 million sq. km are in Brazil. The state “Amazonas” is an area of 1.58 million sq. km its Brazil’s largest state with the main city Manaus. The Amazon basin is so big and overwhelming that every traveler coming from here has respect for the nature. Over half of the living creatures until now discovered, are living in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon. There are 50.000 different flowering plants. On every hectare of rainforest grows 600 different species of trees. There are two seasons; the dry and the wet. From December until May/June we have the rain season and from July until November there is the dry season. Because of these two seasons there is low water from August until February and high water from March until July.
The Amazon is world's biggest rainforest. This rainforest covers over 40% of Brazil's landmass and is the home of more than 1.800 species of birds and 250 kinds of mammals. The Amazon rainforest is responsible for 50% of the total oxygen production of the world. Both the Amazon River and its 1100 branches are responsible for more than 20% of the total freshwater supplies of the world. 10 of the 20 world's biggest rivers run in the Amazon basin. The Amazon River itself is more than 6.500 km long and of this, 3.600 km through Brazil. It is not a surprise that most supply routes running via the river and boats are the most important way of transport.
The Amazon Rainforest also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.
Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago. The first European to travel the length of the Amazon River was Francisco de Orellana in 1542. Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome, and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species rich than the wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon Rainforest. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world.
The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. One in five of all the bird species in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon, and one in five of the fish species live in Amazonian rivers and streams. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.
The biodiversity of plant species is the highest on Earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometer (247 acres) may contain more than a thousand types of trees and thousands of species of other higher plants. According to a 2001 study, a quarter square kilometer (62 acres) of Ecuadorian rainforest supports more than 1,100 tree species. One square kilometer (247 acres) of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tons of living plants. The average plant biomass is estimated at 356 ± 47 tons per hectare. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued.
We left the lodge at 8.50am with Cristoff, looking like Rambo in his army fatigues and a 50cm machete in his hand ready for some jungle action. The lodge backs directly onto the Amazon, so we left via a walking track for about 10 minutes before we left it and started our bush bashing. With Cristoff in front of us, hacking his way through vines and trees to make way for us, we were on the lookout for Amazon animals, birds and the weird looking fauna that lives in this wonderful environment. Cristoff showed us an ant’s nest where you could out your hand on it and they crawl on you and then you squish them and their little corpses become a mozzie repellant. He showed us sap from a tree that you can light and it becomes a fire touch, he showed us nuts and leaves you could eat and we tasted. It was so humid in the rainforest though and Kate and I were sweaty Betty’s. There were millions of mozzies buzzing around us the whole time, but we had out on bug spray and they didn’t seem to be biting us, but there is nothing worse than seeing and hearing them buzzing around you for 2 hours. At one point I was following Kate and I saw a few bee looking things flying around her, so I told her to keep moving, but it was too late, we had disturbed a bees nest and they weren’t happy and we literally ran for about 10m and these suckers were stuck on our cloths and still biting us. I copped the worst of it getting bitten 15 times on my left upper arm and I had one lodged in my hair that Cristoff took a few minutes to locate and remove and Kate got a bite to the face. I do remember running and yelling “get them off me” as I shook my hair clean out of my hair tie!!! It probably looked ridiculous but man their sting was really painful, I swear I saw teeth the size of a dog, so I am calling them killer bees which Cristoff was quick to inform us that they weren’t dangerous and proceeded to cut some bark off a tree and told us to rub the inside of it on the bites and within minutes it killer 60% of the pain. This is the Amazon; they probably have a cure for everything in here.
We got to see some cool scenery, with a stream we saw with the sun shining on it was a bright red, some funky plants and of course the killer bees, but other than that we were unlucky in the animal department again, but we trekked for 2 hours in the Amazon Jungle and it was an amazing experience. Sweaty, dirty but amazing all the same. The ground was all spongy from the years of leaves dropping from the trees and decomposing on the ground, amongst the rotting logs, freshly fallen logs covered in moss the only thing that worried me the whole time was the holes in the ground. They obviously belong to animals of some sort and every time I walked past one I was waiting for a set of teeth, 10 legs or a tongue to come out and attack me. But alas it didn’t happen; sometimes your imagination can be an enemy in those situations. Kate and I thought for a while that Cristoff was lost, we would backtrack a few times and he would stop and take a second before moving on again, so we were very very relieved when we came upon the path back to the lodge and he said ‘he knew where he was now’. So exactly 2 hours from the minute we left we found ourselves back at the lodge and I am so glad that I didn’t do the 3 hours. 2 hours was more than enough for me.
Lunch was at 12.30pm with the usual massive spread and then the afternoon activities were explained. At 3.30pm there was the option to go and visit a local family via the motor canoes and in the evening they were going Caiman (crocodile) spotting after dinner. I have to say I was absolutely shattered and decided not to do the family option and stayed at the lodge and slept and read the afternoon away. The group returned at 6pm and then after dinner they departed for the caimans at 8.30pm. Cause I had slept all afternoon, I just couldn’t rouse myself and also skipped the night caiman tour. I was knackered. The group saw and held a baby caiman so I sort of regret not going but seen one crocodile seen them all right?
So I have all the names of the new people and in no particular order I’d like to welcome to ‘my’ tour:
Wendy and Tony-Australian
Maria-Australian
Marina-German
Rebecca-Canadian
Dom- English
Cam-Australian
Natasha-Australian
Jade-English
Gerard-Netherlands
Luigi-Italian
Stephanie-Swiss
Danielle-French
Maxine-Australian
Taz-English
Moon Sung-South Korea
Michelle-English
Heather-Australian
Chris-New Zealand
Nez- Australian
So goodnight from our second night in the Amazon. We are in the Amazon. It is still hard to believe.
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