Hartley's Birthday in the Jungle!

Please forgive my grammar and spelling errors. We have limited Internet this AM..

Day 2 in the Amazon: H's birthday. 

We spent the morning on a little boat being taken along the Amazon River. It is actually called "Negro" river here, but all channels lead to the Amazon River, the longest, deepest river in the world. The boat ride took us along many islands, which are just a part of the hundreds of small islands in this part of Brazil. I can't even find words to describe the experience but I will try. We sped down the river and eventually stopped at one of the islands. We stopped and walked into an area of the jungle that held 4 gigantic trees. This kind of tree has a name in the native language that escapes me at the moment. The roots of this tree can grow 25 meters in circumference and 50 meters high. This massive artwork of nature brought tears to my eyes! Especially when the guide said the tree is believed to give you "energy". Lots of folklore stories are attached to the jungle.  We spent about 20 minutes quietly drifting down a narrow stream off the main river. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The only sound was shutters of cameras or different birds calling out. Our guide is from a tribe in the area. We have met 2 native guides here so far and they have really calm, gentle natures. They have loads of info on the history of the jungle and its inhabitants. I find it fascinating how slowly the tribes around here have been "modernized" by Western America. One village just got TV 3 years ago. Is this a good thing? Our guides say yes, the people here love TV! We have also been shown dozens of plants and herbs in the dense jungle that have medicinal purposes. In this way, they are modernizing us too perhaps! 

Back at our little abode, H went for a swim in the river. Apparently it is OK to swim in the river by the Lodge. Supposedly no jungle creatures to be worried about. That is all and good but when they said the water has "bacteria" in it, and to just not swallow it whilst swimming, I drew the line!


The lodge itself is a beautiful group of cabins, cottages and suites. The dining area and game room area are separate thatched huts. We are in a cottage shared with someone else-like a duplex. Our room is clean, comfortabe and if we look outside we see nothing but jungle..The hammock on the porch, the ambience of a thatched roof hut/cabin only nicer, good shower; all make for a beautiful little place to call home for the next 5 days (4 now). 

The food is good but sometimes strange. Alot of pork eaten here and today I saw a cooked goldfish...hmm..there are, however lots and lots of veges and fruit. I have eaten more brightly colored food here in the last 24 hours than I did the whole month we were in Argentina! My body doesn't know how to react to the foreign substances..the desserts are OK. I think I am dessert-ed out but we will see! We eat in a dining room where we sit at the table we are "assigned" with an jungle animal carving. Cute touch..Ir is open air and has the flavor of the jungle.

The Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, founded in 2007 has activities planned several times a day. We received a "schedule" of our activities for the next few days. This includes bow and arrow practice (like we have ever done before!), pink dolphin watching and island hikes. The number of guests here seem to be maybe 45 people? Different activities for each person depending on length of stay and what language you speak. So far I have noticed about perhaps 4 languages if not more. I am so lost with Portugese already, I can't imagine how these guides manage all the different languages in which to communicate to the guests. We were in the boat with 3 other couples this AM. All English speaking. The other guests are not so friendly but then again neither are we for this portion of the trip. It is once to be secluded in our own little jungle palace and relax for s few days. No running here I am afraid. The idea of encountering a Jaguar while on a run just doesn't jive well with me! We can, however swim in the river. The temp must be 80 degrees..also apparently it is really safe to swim- no creatures of the Amazon in the swimming area.I am still somewhat cautious since we can't "drink the water" here and have to get bottled water for consumption. I always manage a gulp or 2 of whatever I am swimming in!

We have internet access but with some suckitude...it is sattelite so pretty slow. And currently it is out I guess because of the storm. So oh we'll, we will just have to suffer in our state of the art jungle cottage listening to the  litter latter of rain gently falling all around us. :)
H and I slept 9 hours last night, the best sleep in days. We figured out we have been in 4 cities and two time zones.

Bow and Arrow practice: it was raining hard, but we took the 15 minute walk to the bow and arrow..Two guides were present to show us the ropes. After a demonstration, H and I stepped up to give it a go..first H, then me. I..uh-hem...got the only Bullseye in the group! But when we had an actual game, I choked...the story of my sporting life! I in honesty, had really sore arms when the "competition" began. H's "team" beat mine by 2 points!  That was way more fun than expected!

We had dinner in the Lodge. Another weird smorgasbord food for H's birthday...after dinner, they brought a 

BD cake for H, and sang happy birthday..I had this planned, H was surprised! After the crew sang to us, and enjoying the cake we brought it to the crew, who tools us it was our afternoon guide's birthday too! In Brazil, they crack an egg over the person having a birthday-H starngley, did not want this..:) We left the cake with the crew to finish..

After dinner, we loaded into the little boat in the dark to go explore the islands at night. The other birthday guide was leading us-it was the Birthday boat! The guide, Rob found some night creatures for us to see. Little Boa snakes, an owl, some frogs and almost an encounter with a Cayman (little crocodile sort of reptile). We had a small child in the boat who kept talking so it basically scared them away. I had to remind myself that we had grandchildren who are this age and not to be cranky old people! We did manage to hear the sounds of the night in the jungle at times. What a beautiful night and way to end my hubby's birthday!