Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Amazon Rain Forest was SICK!


We had five SAS groups going on the Amazon River tour. Groups A thru E and we were split up on 4 riverboats, I was with Group D. We were the last of the groups to leave, most groups left at 4am, ours did not leave until 2pm. On the airplane I sat with Scottie and Danny and the three of us were 3 of 4 guys in our group of 22 SAS'ers. I didn’t really know them too well before this tour. That’s what I like about SAS trips, by the end of that plane ride we were a like brothers (LOL). We had a brief layover in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Then we made our way to Manaus by about 11pm where we met our Guide Ede. Our group leaders were George and Maggie Thomas from Hamilton, Ontario…which is really close to my home.  I was always messing with him about emigrating to Canada (haha). 

The Tropical Manaus Hotel is where we caught our riverboats. It is situated on the shores of the Rio Negro in the heart of the Amazon. Only 10km from the Manaus International Airport, and 12km from downtown Manaus.

The Tropical Manaus Hotel is the perfect starting point for visiting the rainforest. The hotel itself gives you a taste of what you will experience if you choose to go deeper into the Amazon. The hotel grounds are filled with trees full of singing birds and wild monkeys. The  marina we left from was at the hotel with the beautiful, open aired, wooden riverboats  that were to be our home for the next 3 days patiently waiting for us. It was pretty sweet and the hotel had a nice little performance featuring some native dancers and of course local Brazilian snacks to see us off.

From Manaus we pushed off and motored our way to meet up with Groups C and E. They would be our entourage for the remainder of the trip. By the time we caught up with them they were all passed out. The good news was Beau, Greg, Rob, Parisi and my boy Gram (my tug o war partner) were all now part of my group. Now our boat finally had a chance to relax. So we hung out on deck smoking some good Cubans, while talking and looking at the beautiful night sky that was absolutely full of stars.


That first night when we retired to our “comfortable” hammocks, I wasn't quite sure how to position myself correctly. So... it wasn’t the most "comfortable" thing in the world. We awoke at sunrise to watch the sun as it rose over the immense Amazon water-shed. What an incredibly beautiful sight. We off-loaded onto these little boats and rowed to shore to go on a jungle hike through the rain forest. They showed us some really cool plants many of which were poisonous ones. 

 

Along with the most dangerous ant in the world, its called the 24hr ant because for the next 24 hours it will have you crying like a baby before it kills you. Our guide Ede then showed us how to make a tree-climbing device for getting away from some of the dangerous animals and whatnot. 



After the hike we were all drenched in sweat because the humidity was so intense in the rain forest. They brought us back to the boat and we went for a nice dip in the river before lunch. It was real fun, we were jumping off trees into the river and screwing around. I bet my friend Rob that he couldn't swim across the river. Too bad the guide wouldn’t let him, he said he didn’t want to lose his job because a kid got eaten by a Gator! After that we had a delicious lunch made from all natural locally harvested ingredients (so they said), and it tasted great! Go figure... We then relaxed and napped in our hammocks (the right way this time) for about an hour or so before we headed to a local village for the afternoon. There we learned a bit about how their people lived while we interacted with them at their school and homes. We playing them in a soccer match! It was pretty fun, and of course they are really good, but it was all good and we really enjoyed it! 

After that, we went back to the boat, which was pulled up on a beach. They had a great BBQ dinner set up for us! It was a lot of fun, and the food was great!  Then at about 10pm we got back in the little boats and we hunting for some Alligators… we didn’t actually see any…. but my bud Scottie almost caused me to throw this poor girl named Kate right off the boat when he scared the Hades out of me and I freaked out (hahaha). 

After that we all got back to the ship and passed out in our wonderful hammocks. We had some people get sick today, including Beau who was the worst, when we went to bed he was curled up in the fetal position puking. During the night I heard that it got so bad that they put him on a little boat and drove an hour and a half to a hospital were they put him IV…. Then he spent the next day just chilling in a nice hotel room, which he just destroyed as well. 

The next day we woke up and immediately went Piranha fishing….  Our fearless leader George caught a massive piranha…. the biggest one they have seen in a while… after lunch we started on our three hour ride to the"Meeting of the Waters". It was a pleasurable ride because it was so muggy  on the Amazon, the breeze was refreshing…. We sat out on the deck playing cards while watching the beautiful scenery go by. I don’t know how it happened... because we weren’t even in the sun for that long and I had sunscreen on…but I got really fried. I'm totally destroyed, sometimes I'm not real bright!

We passed by the "Meeting of the Waters". The Rio Negro is a darker, slower, and much heavier body of water than the Rio Solimoes. Temperature, density and velocity differences keep these two bodies of water separate for more than 6 miles before they join to form the great Amazon. Sloths, piranhas, anacondas and colorful parrots are just a few of the animals we saw on our riverboat tour. 
 



After this very active day we all headed back to the hotel. That would be the one where we first got on the riverboats. This side trip was contrived solely to have another whack at a marvelous dinner of fresh fish, pasta, and rice. and they hit the mark!

That night all four boats met up in the river and went to a park type place to have a "tour closing" party. This place reminded me of Artpark in Lewiston, NY. It had an outdoor stage, a pool, a bar… lots of fun… we stayed there until midnight. After which we had to catch a plane for a five hour red eye flight to Sao Paulo (near Eduardos hometown). After a one hour layover we continued on to Salvador where the MV Explorer was docked. During the flight almost everyone ended up getting sick, mostly from what they call the "Amazon Bug". A few SAS'ers had a little to much to drink. 


We were back on the ship by 11am where most of us napped again. I'm so happy I got all my stuff done the first day we were in Salvador, because I didn’t get a chance to go back the last day. It turned out the other boats had some people get sick as well. Group B had 21 out of 30  people sick (throwing up and pooping). 

We capped off this port of call with a shipboard BBQ. Afterward, seeing as how my back was still destroyed, I lathered up with Aloe and slept like a baby. 

A racing driver has to be a good driver.
  ~ Emerson Fittipaldi


 
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010

Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at: Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
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Posted by Nicholas Alan Tomkins at 12:07 PM

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