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First Day In Amazon

This morning we said cheers to Pix. I wish him the best of luck as he was going on the boat for another 11 days. Thats a lot!

We then met up with the rest of the group going on the Jungle Trip: Anthony and Chloe (who were also on the Clivia with us from Belem), and J-Mike and Liam (who have both just finished Uni at Notre Dame - of Ruddie fame). Elso was to be our guide for the five days in the Amazon.

A taxi ride to a port and we were on the Amazon again to get to the south bank. We stopped off at the point where the Rio Solomains and the Rio Negro meet to form the Amazon River. Its a bit like where the flows into the .

From the south bank port we took another taxi to get to a tributary of the Amazon where most of our time would be spent. Once there we got onto another boat and travelled at a leasurely pace enjoying the forest and sights on either bank before we got to our first camp - a permanently floating house. We relaxed for a while there and then went for a magical boat ride through what I call the sunken forest (actually the flooded forest).

The feeling of being in this ancient environment was truely wonderful. Especially with the silence we maintained. You could hear every insect, every bird call and the splash of an iguana as it drops into the waters so as not to be spotted by us.

Later that afternoon after lunch we went piranha fishing! Yeah baby! I cant remember the exact scores but mine was around 4 catches. Its very good fun and in a way thereputic.

From the pirahna fishing we went and watched the sunset from behind an egret (heron according to Elso) nesting area. After that we went caiman hunting and found a little beauty (about 40cm long) which we all got to handle. It was black caiman.