Manaus & Ariau Towers Lodge

Manaus is the capital of Amazonas State and is a port on the Negro River (near its confluence with the Amazon River). It is large, not too clean, rather poor now that rubber is not being exported as in the boom days from 1890 to 1920. The most recognized building here is the Teatro Amazonas, better known as the opera house, an ornate building which seats 1000 people. We did not visit the town but immediately took a 2-hour boat ride to the Amazon jungle, staying at a resort called Ariau Towers Lodge. Aria is the name of the river it's on, and aria means potato; u (pronounced "oo" as in too) means big, so we were staying at the Big Potato.

Ariau Towers is designed to harmonize with the Amazon Jungle. The most extraordinary feature of this facility is its series of 8 observation towers, each about 3 - 5 stories, interlinked with a rickety catwalk system of approximately 4 miles, at the height of treetops. There is electricity, flushing toilets, and a shower that depends on the rain water temperature in the reservoirs. There is a knob to heat the water at source, but it wasn't working in our room.

No sooner had we settled into our rooms that we left in an open motorized canoe ride to encounter the jungle. We took photos of pink dolphins, birds of various sizes and colour, and even saw things slinking around on shore... We visited a native's house and learned how they make manioc and learned about the minimum agriculture they have to supply themselves with food. The jungle takes over so quickly that it is a full-time job to keep the encroachment of the jungle at bay.

We did some piranha fishing. With my hook loaded with beef cubes, I caught one that was medium in size but looked to have very sharp and very ferocious teeth! Karl caught one too, but not with a fishing rod. His backpack was between his knees and he was busy taking photos when one jumped right into his backpack and was flapping about! Without a moment's hesitation, he reached in and tossed the piranha back in the water. Our guide became very pale and warned us all not to do something like that because Karl's finger could easily have been lunch for the fish!

On our way back to the Lodge, the skies grew overcast very quickly and we were caught in a rainstorm. A torrential rainstorm. The kind that soaks you from head to toe, where your hat droops over your eyes, your clothes clings to your skin, and your toes squish in the pool of water in your shoes. The lightening was extremely bright and the thunder was incredible since it was right above our heads and echoed for a long time. Nobody had ever been in such a rainstorm, except of course our local guide and the canoe driver who didn't seem worried in the least. We all wondered if we could be hit by lightening, but apparently this didn't seem to be a concern. Oh yes, this all happened in one afternoon since we had not even had supper yet!

There were two dining areas in this Lodge, a little trinket store and an "open bar". By that I mean that the lounge was open to the great outdoors, with a thatched roof supported by posts and a plasma TV at one end. Yes, plasma TV. A few macaws sought shelter from the 2nd rainstorm in the lounge so we were able to observe them at very close range. The bar tender was taming a parakeet, and monkeys were jumping all around, eating the nuts and fruit that the Lodge put out to attract them. Other guests while we were there was the crew from "Survivor France". (The same idea as the American Survivor, but filmed by a French crew.) An entire tower was reserved for tourists from Israel who actually left to go alligator spotting during the 2nd rainstorm - brave souls.

At 5:00 a.m. the next day, we were awoken so that we could head out to watch the sunrise on the Amazon. The 24 people in our canoe didn't say a word and we heard the jungle wake up, watched the pink dolphins frolic around our canoe, heard the swoop and coo of various birds, and watched this incredible sun rise behind a few clouds that lingered from the storm the night before. It was magical! On our way back for breakfast, I spotted a cayman (alligator) on shore and the guide jumped out of the canoe to catch it. I held it, perhaps a little too tightly for the cayman's liking, and thought I was Crocodile Dundee for a moment!

After a quick breakfast, we left again in our canoes, this time for another village about 2 hours away, to do a jungle hike. I stayed in the village and learned how to weave hats while Karl went on the jungle hike, seeing all kinds of prickly trees and a close-up look at the luxuriant vegetation. The local guide had no shoes as he navigated the jungle trail.

Karl was very interested in the story of huge flying ants because he had actually been bitten by one a few days earlier. The guide explained that when natives get bitten by this bug, they feel blessed because it is their way of warding off malaria. The flying ants disgorge a sticky substance in the cracks of tree barks, hoping to attract mosquitoes. They eat mosquitoes that carry malaria and have developed immunity to the malaria over the years. By biting someone and inserting some of their liquid, they are providing the recipient with a vaccine booster for malaria!

I also bought a little souvenir canoe in this village, made of the local wood. The sales lady threw in a scale from the piracuru fish which is so abrasive that it acts as a nail file. The sales lady is the one wearing her best blue dress, with an adornment in her hair looking like the 3 birds on the branch in the photo up above. She is so beautiful!

On our ride back to the Lodge, the nurse who had accompanied us from the ship did some first aid to our guide who had a termite lodged in his eye. Here's this canoe going as fast as it can on a 2 hour return trip with the poor guide lying on the seat of the canoe, a passenger holding a hat over him to provide him with shade, and the nurse washing out his eye. He said he had better help than had he been alone in the forest, which made us realize how truly fortunate we are.

After lunch we said bye-bye to the Lodge and returned to Manaus and our ship. The trip was hot, humid, and exhausting. But what an experience!