Manaus is our ultimate destination. We've come 1000 miles up river to the giant city. You can't believe that this place has nearly 2 million people. Once a center of the rubber trade, now a big port exporting forest products and wood. There are container ships galore as well as the ubiquitous riverboats. They have become such a part of the scene to me now. Tomorrow we will visit the city with the famous opera house but today is our highlight.
I again hired a guide to take us upriver to swim with the pink dolphins called botos. Manaus is situated at the confluence of the Solimoes river (white from Peru) and the Rio Negro (black water- tannin- from Colombia). There is a long meeting of the waters for 11 miles.
We went up the Rio Negro for 80 km with Matthias Raymond. I found him through a google search a month ago.I got 3 other couples to join and had so many requests that I filled a second day for him as we are in port overnight. Even then I has people begging me to add them as the ship does not offer a tour like this. I was kind of nervous as I felt responsible. No worries though. Rodolpho, who I corresponded with initially, met us at the dock and introduced us to Matthias . He grew up in the jungle for 12 years and is now a jungle survival teacher and guise saving to net a degree as a naturalist and then write a book. His English was excellent. We took off in a speedboat at full throttle past the city, under the bridge that is eventually going to cross the Negro-someday- things go slowly in Brazil- been years already.
The river is very wide- over a mile. Unfortunately we hit a severe thunder and lightning storm with very heavy rain. The boat had a flat canopy with side flaps which we lowered. After 2 hours we rode out of the storm, though ,as there was residual thunder, we headed first to lunch with an indigenous family. The family consisted of a husband and wife, 2 children - 3yo girl and 9yo boy- and another couple. They supplement their small income hosting the occasional group as us. We were served chicken, fish, rice and macaroni as well as manioc, mango juice and cucumber. they were shy but nice. Matthias explained about their plants and uses. Acer palms for the berries, cassava roots for the manioc,etc. Cara cara birds flying about. They had a refrigerator,a stove and even a TV but no money to pay for the electricity so not used. There is a power supply out here but kind of useless. We bought some beads from them and one of the couples bought a mask and blow gun- yes they use them to kill monkeys. We then made our way to the dolphin station.
The pink dolphins live throughout the amazon. they are up to 5-6 feet and about 350 lbs. Some are all pink though many have some gray. Their snouts are very narrow and they have sharp teeth, also no dorsal fin. The woman who runs this station- the only one in the country- has a floating platform extending into the river from a good sized hut with a deck. Six of us got down unto the platform which made us waist deep in the water. Her son , Erico, then grabbed a pail of fish and slipped into the water calling the nearby wild botos. the know the drill and began to swim over. Because the Negro is black, you almost cannot see them until they are upon you so they startled us. Erico held the fish underwater to tempt them and then raised his arm over his head to get better pictures as they jumped up for the fish. After 15 minutes we were all comfortable touching them. We then jumped all the way into the river- no idea how deep- and for the next hour we played with the dolphins. The bumped into us and let us feel them. They leaped up for the fish. They swam between us and under us and even between our legs. I had never tread fresh water for an hour before but it passed like seconds. Unforgettable experience. we were absolutely delighted- laughing and joking. Matthias took pictures as did the 2 persons who did not go into the water.
We reluctantly left the Negro which is incredibly clean even though the water is so black, and continued back towards Manaus. Just before reaching the city we stopped at an Indian reservation where a small group of Dessana Indians performed many of their dances for us. we then walked through the village. they have been relocated here from the outer reaches of the jungle so the government can provide better services for them. Even so they live quite primitively in a group of 120 or so. There is some electricity and 1 phone attached nearby to a loudspeaker. whoever answers the phone goes on the loudspeaker to call for the recipient. Everywhere we walked we were watched by a flock of black vultures ominously glaring down at us from their perches in the trees.
We had a great day especially after the weather cleared. It seemed so odd to leave the jungle and within 2 hours be back in such a large city as Manaus.
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