Björn with a jacaré, the brown one that can reach three meters as an adult.
Just being in the Amazonas is an adventure. The humidity of the air, the incredible greenness, the sounds.... the jungle feels like it has a life of its own, a living green....
The hero of our trip is our guide Antonio. He comes from one of the indian tribes, 8th out of 15 children, and learned to hunt and fish with his father who taught him all the secrets of the forest and how to survive there. He showed us so many plants and fruits and animals.... when the boat made an u-turn, we knew he had spotted an animal. The monkey or bird that we had problems seeing even after he pointed out where to look! He made us look closer at all those details that make the Amazonian rain forest so fascinating!
We stayed in
Juma Lodge, an eco lodge situated 100 km south of Manaus in Brazil.
I had almost 1000 photos after our days here.... so choosing a few of them was difficult...
A calm photo taken through the mosquito net wall with a view over the river and the forest.
Buffet style for all meals. Local fish like pirarucu or tambaqui, local fruit juices like capuaçu, açai or tapareba... and ordinary pasta and chicken!!
The rivers Rio Preto and Rio Solimoês meet to form the Amazone river. They have different density, speed and temperature, so they long each other for over six kilometers before uniting...
The ropes are set at the first branch of a brazilian nut tree - 30 meters up. Incredible view over the jungle from high up there!!!
The fire fly lays its eggs in a small kind of coconut. The maggots taste of coconut... and are delicious eaten alive! Björn, Clara and Pascal tried them!!
Lush and green....
Björn puts his hand in an anthill... then you kill them which gives you a lemonlike perfume... used by the native hunters to hide their human smell.
Björn gets a taste of.... what was the name of the fruit?
Our picnic lunch after a long hike in the jungle. The fish is tambaqui (the children loved this fish).
A Juma Lodge hut built on stilts seen from the river. In 2012 the river flooded so high it reached the bottom of the hut... a new record.
Clara made friends with the two orphan monkeys that the lodge took care of. Preto, the 8 month male and Preta, the one-year-old female will stay around until they are 2-3 years old, then they will roam off in the jungle.
Smart little ones, they of course knew how to open doors... and you better keep alert when they were around!
Björn shows his piranha caught! The lodge chef then fried them for us for dinner... taste was very good, but a bit too small so not much meat on.
A 350-year-old tree called sumauma. Impressive.
Pascal trying to nap with two monkeys playing around.
A night in the jungle... amazing to hear all the sounds in the dark night.... the howler monkeys were really close...
The river was beautiful.
Clara and Björn with a sleeping baby monkey called Preto.
Preto found a good place to look out from!
Antonio, our fantastic guide!
Canoeing.
Feeding a pirarucu... they sure were hungry! Adults they reach 3 m long and 300 kg... this one is only about 100 kg... (A fish appreciated by the children to eat so they were happy to see what it looks like).
