What an Amazon Experience
For the final part of our Brazilian adventure, we explored more of the country’s beautiful coastline by heading up to the city of Recife and its pretty neighbouring town of Olinda. We didn’t find Recife itself to be particularly notable as I think we’re tiring of big cities but one thing that struck us was that it has some huge beautiful beaches, but with hardly anyone using them apart from a few dog walkers. A huge contrast to the popular beaches of Copacabana and Floripa, but we soon found out why. Recife is home to one of the top ten most dangerous beaches in the world, thanks to the huge population of bull sharks lurking in the murky shallows. There have been so many casualties in fact that even surfing (one of the most popular Brazilian pastimes) has been banned by the government in one of Recife’s most notorious spots). We walked cautiously along the shoreline (but not too close, as the sharks have been known to attack only a few metres into the water’s edge), trying to spot any ominous fins peeking above the surface, but gave up soon after as we didn’t think it was worth the risk of losing a limb!
A much prettier and more interesting part of this area was the town of Olinda, a gorgeous place filled with rows of coloured buildings, cobbled streets, impressive churches and phenomenal views. We stayed in a small guesthouse right in the centre of it all, and spent a couple of days admiring the architecture, browsing the artisanal markets and sipping cold beers whilst gazing at the sweeping views of the coastline. We happened to be there on a Saturday night, where the main area was buzzing with capoeira performances and live music (as if we need to reiterate that Brazilians love to party on the streets), and countless street food stalls selling tapiocas and fresh juices. It was a perfect place to relax and soak up a bit more of that Brazilian culture that we had come to love.
Our next stop was to the city of Manaus, located in the heart of the Amazon jungle! This city is one of the gateways for exploring the jungle, but we spent a day in the city itself. Again, there isn’t much to see other than the iconic opera house, which is a stunning masterpiece that has been carefully restored and maintained, painted a vivid pink colour that looked striking against the otherwise ordinary city. One of the highlights here was trying the local dish tambaqui, a type of fish found in the Amazon that is cooked to perfection and served with the customary beans and rice. It was a welcome change from all that cheese anyway (see two blog posts ago where we explain more about the Brazil’s penchant for cheese!).
I think the real highlight of this week though was our adventure in the jungle. We took a three hour bus ride from Manaus, followed by another hour downstream by boat to reach Antonio’s Jungle Lodge, perched perfectly along the Urubu river (which ultimately leads to the main Amazon river). Here we were able to swim in the river itself (I was initially apprehensive about this as who knows what is lurking in the muddy brown water below), but it was actually fine and a novelty to be swimming in the middle of a river in such a remote part of the Amazon. We also took a canoe trip out to spot the various birds, monkeys and wildlife and, once the sun had gone down, we took the boat out to spot caimans (like alligators), and managed to get up close to a baby caiman which our guide helpfully plucked out of the water so we could get a better look! They can be spotted by just their eyes at night time, which is a little unnerving, but floating along the river in pitch black was an exciting experience in itself!
As was the next night, where we trekked around two hours into the depths of the jungle to spend a night sleeping on hammocks out in the open. The facilities at our camp were “basic” to say the least – the shower was a nearby little waterfall, the toilet was, well whatever bush you could squat behind, the cooker was a campfire built by the wood we went out to collect and the plates and cutlery were made by our bare hands with leaves and carved wood. Once dinner was over, we all gathered around our guide who told us stories of previous guests’ experiences, including the drunk girl who woke to find a tarantula on her face, and the guy who slept on the ground and woke the next morning to find a snake curled up in his trousers (yes, an ACTUAL snake, for those of you with dirty minds!). Fuelled up on all these horror stories, I nervously climbed into my hammock and wrapped myself up as tightly as possible in a bed sheet, to try and prevent any unwanted visitors in the middle of the night. We lay on our hammocks under the stars in pitch black, but it was far from peaceful. It was incredible just how many sounds of the jungle we could hear, and I spent the night drifting in and out of a fitful sleep, wandering whether that rustling sound behind me was a jaguar prowling our camp, or whether that crawling feeling up my leg was a deadly snake or spider. It was an amazing experience to have spent a night out in the middle of the Amazon but I am very grateful that we made it out alive!
We then moved downstream to another smaller and more remote lodge. Here we spent a couple of days on canoes, looking for monkeys, sloths, interesting birds, and piranha fishing! Unfortunately, mother nature this time was not on our side, because after hours upon hours of searching through endless floating forests, not a single sloth was to be seen (much to Mr RS’s disappointment in particular). We did however spot several different species of monkey swinging through the treetops, and as a bit of a consolation prize, Mr RS managed to catch a piranha (which was later fried up for dinner and was delicious). Perhaps one of the most magical moments was cruising down the river at sunset, admiring the beautiful sky and watching the grey river dolphins jumping in and out of the water (I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a pink dolphin but again, we weren’t so lucky this time). Overall, our time in the jungle was unforgettable and we’d recommend it to anyone who is considering travelling to this part of the world. It was a total disconnect from the modern world and it was amazing to be a guest in amongst all of that wildlife.
That’s all for Brazil, we hope we did it proud and can’t wait to tell you more of our adventures next time, where we head to Bolivia.
Much Love,
The Resignated Survivors
Lowlight of the week: Literally being eaten alive by mosquitos on our last night in the jungle.
Other notable things: We were drifting off to sleep in our jungle lodge on the third night when we were startled awake by a very loud and horrific screeching noise that sounded like a thousand cats being strangled. This lasted for around twenty minutes, and I forbade Mr RS from going outside to check where the noise was coming from, for fear that he wouldn’t come back. We instead recorded the sound and later discovered from our guide that it was just the local howler monkeys playing around. They certainly live up to their name! Scroll down for an audio recording and if possible, use headphones!
Lessons learned: When in the jungle, thou shalt wear DEET and cover up every inch of skin possible because those mosquitos do not mess around.
Your sense of adventure knows no limit!! Good for you – and thank you for so many wonderful blogs and most amazing photos!!
Oh wow guys, the adventure continues huh… Amazing stuff! That recording of the monkeys is incredible! ?
Your time in the jungle sounds amazing. Canoeing along the river and seeing the sunset and in the pitch black sounds fabulous. I look forward to the next blog from Bolivia.
Mozys???
Amazing read! The Amazon jungle is magnificent. We too heard the howler monkeys (in Costa Rica though). They’re so loud its amazing! Clever of you to record it and not go and see what the noise was. Also trouser snake hehehe! Looking forward to the next installment. Be safe be happy… x