Into the Amazons!

There are days that you won’t forget because of the people, place or event. Those are great and I am a firm believer that every day, week, month and year should have at least one of them involved. I may not be able to able to go to Goblin Valley every weekend, but having game night with my friends can be just as rewarding. Then there are the times that are so completely amazing words just can’t describe the experience.

                The Amazon rain forest has always intrigued me. Home to my favorite animal, the jaguar, it has been a place of adventure in my mind since I pulled out Amazon Trail 3^rd Edition out of a cereal box. Imagine the Oregon Trail, but fishing and trying to collect pictures of all the animals along your journey. It’s time to tell the truth about what you’ve heard…It’s all true! It’s amazing and I don’t even know where to begin.

First, the temple really does sit right on the river. You can see it from our hotel/camp on the other side. 

We passed by it on the way to the pier and it is very stunning.  We crossed the Rio Negro and it took about 20 minutes to get across to our hotel on the other side. About the river, it looks more like a lake than a river. It is incredibly wide. Technically it’s not the Amazon river because the Amazon river forms when the Rio Negro (the river we see right now) and the Rio Solimoes meet together further downstream.

                Our hotel looks like something out of a film. The cabins are built over a small pond with a balcony overlooking the water. Here is a picture of some of our friends that live here in the pond. 

It is pretty hot and steamy so I am always looking for chances to drink water or be in water. After a rousing water polo/football game in the pool, we headed out for our first activity.

                Piranha fishing. No worm here, straight beef cuts . after all that you hear about piranhas you would think it would be pretty easy to catch them with meat. That depends on which boat you went on. Our group was large enough to have three boats. If you were with Fitzgibbon/Ortolano crew, it was pretty easy. If you were on our boat…we only caught 4. But I still had a wonderful time. There are many fish that enjoy beef here, so the trick to catch a piranha is luck (whole principal of fishing, it’s like a lottery).I didn’t catch any but it was amazing to see all the birds and to float into the trees.

                I also watched the other fish carefully eat the meat off my hook without biting. After many attempts of trying to disguise the hook, I decided the fish were just too smart for that. I told the group in my boat “This will make a great Sunday school talk about the temptations and how we think we can eat just what we want without the dangers, but we will get hooked!” An hour and a half later, I was still watching those feet selectively eat off my hook. Moral of the story, you really can do whatever you want and not pay the negative price. 

                After that we went looking for caimans with a light. Our boat didn’t get one, but one of the other boats did and we got to hold it (her to be exact)! It was really still until it got to me and I was surprised at how strong it was for being so small. I was able to hold on, but she peed on me. That made it even funnier and I couldn’t stop laughing that I was holding a caiman. Imagine a leather bag that could take a “bite” out of theft.  

Afterwards we headed back to our hotel in the dark and it was beautiful to see the water fly by. There is a full moon (or at least almost full) and the water looked like glass, broken by our ripples behind us. Pretty amazing. And that was only day 1. Stay tuned!

100% original photo-no alterations whatsoever