Manaus, State of Amazonas
January 2nd - 5th, 2017
Day 1 - January 2nd, 2017
The journey to Brazil, began with a departure from JFK airport located in New York. From JFK, we took a connecting flight from São Paulo to Manaus. We arrived in Manaus around 11:30am. We were greeted in the airport by our tour guides Rafael Estrela, Marcus Guerra and Tayke Monteiro. We arrived to our hotel The Taj Mahal by bus. Each student chose their roommates, whether it was for the remainder of the trip or just for our stay in Manaus. Catalina Cadavid, Kimberly Dudeck and I shared a room in Manaus, Rio de Janeiro as well as in Curitiba. |
Our day began with a buffet styled lunch served a few blocks away from our hotel. We were able to pile as much food on our plate as we wanted. The food was then weighed before we were set to indulge in it. My plate was filled with a number of fish dishes, vegetables and of course the traditional rice and beans! My favorite dish on my plate was the Moqueca, which is a Brazilian fish stew. After everyone was set and paid for their meals, we walked to the historical Downtown area. Our tour guides enlightened us on the history of the early Brazilian culture as we walked and viewed numerous historical statues and buildings located in the Centro of Manaus.
The area we first visited was called Praça São Sebastião (São Sebastião Square). This area occupies several monuments, the Church of Saint Sebastian, the palace of Justice and the well known Teatro Amazonas also known as the Opera House. The ground floor was assorted with rubber in order to keep the area around the Opera House as silent as possible. After our tour of the downtown was brought to an end, we proceeded to Jardim Botanico Adolpho Ducke (Adolpho Ducke Botanical Garden) by bus.
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This is where we viewed a few paintings, many different fish and snake species as well as hiked through the world’s largest urban forest in order to climb the 42 meter Torre de observação (Observation tower), where we had the opportunity to view the forest from above at a 360 degree angle. I’m deeply afraid of heights and could not stop shaking from the moment my two feet were placed on the first step of the tower, to the moment my feet were finally safe and sound on the ground floor! Viewing the forest from above was truly breathtaking; i’m proud of myself for conquering my fears. Yay!
After our visit in Jardim Botanico Adolpho Ducke (Adolpho Ducke Botanical Garden), we returned back to our hotel where we then exchanged our US dollars for Brazilian reais (real). One US dollar is worth 3.22 reais (real). Around 7:30pm we headed to the same restaurant we ate lunch at for dinner. Unfortunately, I was feeling very ill and could not participate in our groups first dinner. Although I did make the attempt, and walked to the restaurant with the rest of the group; as I sat down and looked at the menu, I felt the room spinning. Professor Tait accompanied me in the walk back to the hotel (we did pass the hotel due to chit-chatting along the way). My first night in Manaus ended with a long shower followed by a phone call to my mother.
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Day 2 - January 3rd, 2017
Our second day in Manaus began with breakfast provided by the hotel. Our group found out the location of the dinning area ten minutes before the time we were set to leave the hotel. As we rushed to get as much food as we could in our stomachs, our tour guides were downstairs waiting for us! Ops! We were also greeted by another tour guide/graduate student, Dave Menezes Sicsu. After we all devoured our food, we proceeded to walk through Parque Heliodoro Balbi (Park Heliodoro Balbi), where there were biking trails, many status and historical buildings. |
Our visit to the tribe began with their tribe leader explaining the tribes history, their instrumental techniques as well as showing us four traditional dances and allowing us to participate in one of them as a group. It was a very fun experience! The tribe later hosted face paintings and were nice enough to take pictures with us. In the hut we were in, there were many handcrafted items that ranged from dreamcatchers to bracelets. The tribe encouraged the exchange of reais for their beautiful merchandise. I took home yet another dreamcatcher, however, this one was far more exquisite than my last purchase. Our visit to the tribe ended and our boat ride to the stunning Pink River Dolphins began.
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We arrived to a floating platform where we were able to see the feedings of the Pink River Dolphin occur as well as swim with them. From our knowledge, we thought the Pink River Dolphins were in captivity. This led most of us to decline the proposal of swimming with the Pink River Dolphins. The classmates that chose to swim with the Pink River Dolphins were Tyler Mccallion, Andy Tonnesen and Christian Porreca whom paid 20 reais to do so. Shortly after they were in the River with life-vest on, Colleen expressed to us that the Pink River Dolphins in that area were not in fact, in captivity. By this time, it was too late to take part in this excursion. Most of us left our money on the boat and were not prepared to swim. A tour guide accompanied the boys in the river and used fish as bate, in order for the Pink River Dolphins to appear. The mammals jumped out of the water and snatched their “dinner” from their hands. These mammals consisted of the colors pink and grey.
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We walked back to the restaurant, which also had a gift shop. This time I did not buy anything! Our journey on the boat was not yet over, in an hours time we arrived at the “meetings of the waters.” The term comes from two Rivers located in the Amazon called the Negro River and the Solimões River. These two Rivers meet but do not combine. This is due to the different densities and temperatures of both rivers.
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The Negro River is considered a black-water River, whereas the Solimões River is considered a white-water River. The term black-water River, refers to the ‘coffee’ colored appearance of the water. This appearance is the result of dissolved decayed vegetable matter carried along the River. White-water Rivers also comes from the waters appearance, which is a brown texture. The brown color is a result of heavy settlement associated with sand, rock, mud and silt. We settled at the meetings of the waters for a few hours. In this time we swam in both river, at the same time! Many of us jumped off the boat in excitement, not nearly as much as Tyler and Andy jumped off. These two performed cannon balls from the second level of the boat!
The current in the water was a bit rough, leading to Dave being rescued by one of our tour guides, Marcus. Even though our fun in the water was over, our fun on the boat had just begun!
As we traveled back to the dock in Manaus, we danced to traditional Brazilian music. Our tour guides Rafael and Marcus as well as Colleen showed us the rhythm of the music. We all let loose and danced the night away! It was an exciting and fun way to end our boat experience. As our amazing boat adventure came to an end, we gathered on a bus back to our hotel. Think the night is over? Not just yet, we ended our night with dinner at a restaurant located in the Centro of Manaus. The waiter started us off with a complementary sample of their soup, it was delicious! There was several suco (juice) options, we all needed to try at least one! Flavors from ranged from passionfruit to guava. After dinner we called it a night. |
We then hiked to the Maroaga Cave, which inhibited numerous bats and spiders. The cave’s most common species of bats are the Natalus tumidirostris and Natalus macrourus but species of the Trinidadian funnel-eared bat. For us safety, we were required to wear a face mask, similar to that of a dust mask. The ground floor of the cave hosted a water stream. If one lost their way in the cave, they were able to find there way out by following the flow of the stream. During venture in the cave, the tour guides thought it was a good idea to turn off all of our flashlights, in order for us to get the full experience of ’night vision’ that the bats adopted. This made the cave pitch black! I could not even see my own hand in front of my face! Scary! After our tour of the cave was concluded, we hiked to the Judeia Grotto, where we witnessed an extraordinary water fall. We hiked back a while more, then proceeded towards our bus. We ate a lunch styled buffet at the Santuário (Sanctuary) Falls. After lunch we traveled to Iracema Waterfall, where we swam and jump/dove off of, what looked like a wide wooden homemade diving board. We began rating each persons jumps. Dave by far had the best pose/jump. Effortless! After about an hour, we headed to a GeoPark, where we were able to observe horizontal layers of sandstone quartz. After Geologist Gilmar Honorato explained the formation of the sandstone, we enjoyed the area for bit before heading back to our hotel via bus. All areas mentioned above were located in Presidente Figueiredo. |