This guest post by Paul Joseph takes us on an Amazon adventure from Manaus in Brazil to meet indigenous communities, wrestle with alligators and fish piranha for supper.
To us western, city-dwelling types, the Amazon Jungle holds something of a mythical, other-worldly, untouchable fascination. It conjures images of an exotic wilderness, an immovable living organism whose evolution remains invisible to the human eye.
Of course, the reality is that this vast, 1.7 billion acre stretch of broadleaf forestry is far from untouchable, or indeed untouched.
Amazon sunset
For decades environmentalists warned of the effects of Amazon deforestation on the global biosphere. In recent years there has been a shift in focus from human destruction towards human output, reducing the Amazon to a faint glimmer on the public consciousness.
The simple fact is that the Amazon doesn’t make headlines anymore. The Big Jungle has lost its cache amid the moral panic surrounding carbon footprints and wind turbines.
But to me, it is still a fascinating place. Every since I saw a documentary about South America as a child, everything about the Amazon – from its incomprehensible scale to its myriad of wildlife – has captivated me. I vowed to visit one day, but it was not until last year that I finally made good on my internal pledge.
Swimming in the Amazon river
From Rio de Janeiro, my travelling buddy and I flew to the city of Manaus, located towards the north west corner of Brazil. Itself boasting an intriguing history of lucrative rubber trading, Manaus is now the most popular jumping-off point for trips into the Amazon.
Across the city there are hundreds of tour companies vying for your custom, each promising the most authentic, value-for-money trip of them all. We opted for Iguana tours, who offered a 3 night stay in a Jungle lodge. The attraction of this tour was that it would take us deep enough into the forest to meet indigenous communities.
There is, of course, an ethical sensitivity when it comes to treading onto the territory of native folk. In a sense it is little different to walking into someone’s front garden uninvited. After all, the jungle is home to these people. It is where they live, work and breath. They feed off their environment – quite literally – and we outsiders have a moral responsibility to treat their life-blood with respect and care.
Our concerns were assuaged by the tour company who took us through the benefits to the local communities derived from tourism. An impressive 80% of tour guides were born in the jungle, and a portion of their wages inevitably trickles down to relatives who remain there.
Sitting alongside an Amazonian family
Another factor we learnt about was the effects of government legislation. Tourism is hugely important to the Amazonian region of Brazil, and to encourage visitors there has been a clamp down on the ‘wild west’ style rules of law that once saw crime proliferate across the jungle.
And so it was time to begin our trip. Typically, the negative but unavoidable consequence of mass-tourism is that it creates an artificial environment – almost like a film-set where the main protagonists subconsciously begin to fulfil the role that is expected of them.
A land anaconda snake
Happily, I can report that the Amazon has largely avoided this fate. The journey into the jungle from Manaus, by coach and then boat, is refreshingly free of commercial enterprise. Tourists are treated with the deference of customers, but never as walking bank notes.
Once settled in our lodge (there were eight of us on the excursion), we were given a detailed itinerary by our tour guide, a British Guyana-born gentleman who could climb trees with the same ease with which we walk down the street. First up would be alligator hunting by night – the best time for such an activity as the creatures’ green eyes can be spotted far easier in the dark.
This was an incredible experience. We were all invited to attempt to grab a baby alligator from the waters and bring it into the boat. This involved laying on your belly at the front of the craft with your hand ready to pounce as soon as you saw those green eyes. Unsurprisingly, only two of us took him up on his offer. I’d love to say I was one of them, but it would be a bare-faced lie, though I did hold one for a photo opportunity.
Then came the pièce de résistance. From the bowels of the boat, the tour guide brought out a large contraption that looked like it was designed to capture a large animal. And that’s precisely what it was. Our man then set his sights on finding a big’un, and it didn’t take him long. He thrust his device into the murky waters and after 60 seconds of grappling, he eased a six-foot alligator into our boat with its neck safely (we hoped) in his grasp.
Piranha fish gets lucky thanks to my bad aim
The ‘gater kindly posed for photos before being unleashed back into its habitat. Magical stuff. And with that we returned to our lodge for a dinner cooked by on-site staff. We were warned, however, that the following day we’d be providing the food.
At first we weren’t quite sure what this would entail – all we knew is that the next day we were going fishing. Piranha fishing, to be precise. Can you eat piranha fish? Apparently so.
We boarded our aquatic transport once more and headed into piranha territory. I’d never gone fishing before, but enjoyed it immensely. I caught three fish, and as a group we totalled something like 20, and we returned home safe in the knowledge that no-one would be going hungry that night.
But before dinner it was time for a mini jungle trek, probably about 4km in total. Despite the sun having done down, the heat was almost unbearable, but the magic of the jungle meant we simply couldn’t turn back. During our walk we were shown how to extract and produce rubber from trees, and were also shown braches that contained water – a useful survival tip!
The following day, it was time to meet the locals. We were taken to a large village containing mud-huts and a church. The most striking thing was the size of every family – each one was at least six-strong. We were shown how they prepare their meals, using giant-sized wok-type apparatus and a food-stuff that resembled cous-cous. They were open to being photographed, and indeed seemed to revel in it. We asked questions via our multi-lingual tour guide and discovered that the families have little interest in leaving the jungle to experience a city life. For them, the jungle is life, and to depart would be an act of disloyalty.
And with that it was back to the lodge to pack up our stuff for our return to civilisation (as we know it). The Amazon had met all my expectations, and I would heartily recommend a visit to anyone.
Author Bio
Paul Joseph is a London-based writer and author. He has travelled extensively across North and South America, Israel and Europe. He is currently penning a nostalgic book on his home city called “Vanishing London”. He also works for diyflights.com, where users can compare flights to get the best deal.
More Amazon adventures to enjoy
03 Ecuador and the Amazon Rainforest – Podcast Episode 3
Friday Photo – Loading the dug-out canoe – in Ecuador
Friday Photo – Catfish and Anaconda on the Rio Bobonaza in Ecuador
This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home
