Despite the expected early wake-up and start to our day, we again found ourselves struggling with heat and intense sun just baking down on us. What made this day a little bit worse, however, was the fact that we were in a wooden canoe. Despite yesterday’s heat, we had a little bit of reprieve in the motorboat when you would get some airflow when the boat was moving. Now we traveled up the river at the speed of molasses whilst getting absolutely fried. I had my adventuring hat, sun shirt, long pants, and closed toed shoes to protect from all the various bugs (and sun), in addition to a required life vest which was causing us to absolutely broil.
To make matters worse, we didn’t actually know what we were looking for in the canoe (if anything). Our guide didn’t know any English, and to be honest I couldn’t understand any of his Portuguese either. It was so heavily accented, I thought it was a different language entirely. Occasionally he would say a word and point. Rarely could either of us see what he was pointing to. He eventually supplemented his pointing with a field guide to birds which he passed back to me. Now, I have made jokes in this blog about me being a birder, but in reality, birds don’t really pique my interest unless they have pretty colors and that kind of thing. So when he pointed out the Rufescent Tiger-Heron to me in a tree, I took its picture out of politeness. I don’t think I’ll be able to notice the difference between that and other herons that might be flying from the wetlands within a mile from our house in Los Angeles.
The sounds of the jungle such as birds and howlers and the relative quiet of the canoe were initially nice ambience, but the birds eventually found the weather to be too oppressive and silenced their songs. The howlers couldn’t even howl about the weather after a bit. We were then left with just the constant droning of flies orbiting our heads. With very little skin exposed, they didn’t have much they could bite into, but they were awfully persistent in their harassment. About 90 minutes in, our guide pointed out a bird that is known for being camouflaged. Needless to say, I’m still not convinced I didn’t just take a picture of part of a tree. On our way back, he pointed out a hummingbird. Again, we have without exaggeration probably 120 hummingbirds visiting our house in Los Angeles per day, so this didn’t really move the needle, especially when seeing them as mere specs at 200 meters.
Perhaps you are thinking that we are ungrateful visitors to a very special ecosystem. I just think there would have been a better way of handling this situation. There was no explanation as to what we were actually hoping to do or see in the canoe. It just seemed like a death mission with no clear objective. Our guide was sweating profusely and dragging his hands through river water to then run through his hair. There was no shade to be found. You would think the whole point of the morning outings would be to avoid the heat of the day, and yet the sun seems to be at its highest point when we’re working our way back. It’s hard to enjoy the environment when the best outcome is (maybe) seeing a bird in the distance while having no ability to make a canoe go faster than it can be paddled. It’s far from an ideal situation.
Many explorers met their demise in the Amazon due to their own hubris and underestimation of the harsh climate. I’d like to think that we are not those people, and our displeasure at being out in the heat of the day is an example of this. It seems like common sense to not be out in the heat of the day, with no shelter from the sun, on a boat with very limited speed. And that’s my two cents. We had a decent amount of time to recuperate — not needing to head back for another lengthy boat ride until 330pm. Shortly after lunch, it sounded like another boat was approaching, but in fact it was a rainstorm that seemed to develop out of nothing. We were met with a downpour that lasted for about 20 minutes. This cooled the air down slightly. Nicole and I debated whether this would have been better or worse to be stuck out on the river in.
A few more showers came and went throughout the afternoon with the strongest hitting just as our boat was supposed to depart. I was reminded of Salt’s (everyone’s favorite senior travel couple) boat excursion on a Lake in Kenya. Their itinerary had them heading out on a boat that day, and weather be damned! At times, perhaps the schedules should be more flexible so that guests don’t get scorched/soaked/die. We left about 15-20 mins later when the rains have finally subsided.
Within five minutes, we saw another Uakari monkey. The weather on the water was a much more comfortable temperature after the rains even if the air felt a bit more humid and heavy. It was like a completely different experience than this morning. We also saw some more howlers before becoming a captive audience to another lecture while out on the boat (luckily not while roasting in the sun) and continued on to a lake where we were meant to watch a sunset. Because of the passing storms, the sun didn’t really appear due to all the extended clouds, but that was fine. We had a snack out on the water (luckily again not in the heat) before doing our night boat ride.
One guide on front and one in back had large flashlights that they shined on the riverbanks in hopes of spotting animals. Apparently a few days ago, they saw a black jaguar which is a very rare site. We wouldn’t be so lucky. In fact the only animal they stopped for was an owl. I personally thought it was a much more interesting effect to see all the gold spots on the water as a result of all the caiman’s eyes reflecting back in the light. As dark fully fell, thousands of sardines apparently thought our boat was some sort of predator. Their only defense mechanism is to launch out the water into the air. Unfortunately for Bricole, at prime location in the second row, this meant sardines kept jumping into the boat, or hitting us in the chest/arm/face etc. After a squeal from me, we would scramble to find the fish and throw it back over the side before it met its demise.
As I told Nicole, when people ask how our trip to the Amazon went, I think I should start by saying, “Well you know that feeling when you’re hit in the face with a fish…” There are several fisherman here staying at the lodge and they’ve been having bad luck the last couple days. I don’t mean to brag fellas, but I think Bricole caught about 20 fish in one hour and scooped them up with our bare hands. Only suckers use fishing equipment.
Tomorrow we head out. We were offered another boat tour (this time at sunrise) but we politely declined. There is a limit to how many boats one can take. The boat they use is not especially fast so it takes a while to get anywhere and you ultimately end up seeing the same stuff over and over with only slight variations in animals. Because it’s the dry season, the animals look much farther away in the trees, so we will sleep in until our mandatory breakfast at 630am. This essentially concludes our Brazilian adventure as we now have mostly travel days ahead of us. Tomorrow we’re off to Tefé and then Manaus before leaving at the highly uncivilized hour of 330am to get to Panama City. It’s awfully hard to get sleep around here.
