Manaus Day 4: Field Trip!

Today was set aside as a pre-workshop field trip, and for the attendees with less time they really got some of the highlights while giving us a slightly different experience than the weekend. The day started with a quick trip to the fish market to help us appreciate the variety available locally before taking a boat to the Meeting of the Waters. Just downstream of Manaus, the root beer waters of the Rio Negro meet the muddy waters of Rio Solimões to form the Amazon River. Different pH levels, oxygen levels, and possibly different temperatures, the crazy thing is that they don’t mix for several miles, flowing side by side in the same channel (presumably at the same velocity).

The Meeting of the Waters

Motoring back up the Rio Negro, we stopped at a hut where a man had captured local wildlife for tourists to see up close. It’s not really something I support, especially as one of the critters was a large snake, but I had to admit it was pretty cool to see a sloth up close.

Sloth!

Our next stop upstream was an indigenous village. The tribe had chosen to move closer to Manaus to allow tourists to visit as a source of income while attempting to preserve their culture—a tough balance. We climbed up a few flights of stairs from the river bank to their village and were greeted by some of their men before entering a dimly lit large wooden building. The villagers were all in traditional dress and performed several dances for us, including us in one by the end that was basically holding hands and walking in a circle in time to the music. Afterward we had a chance to buy some of their handicrafts and try a traditional delicacy of roasted insects—both of which I declined. Instead, I wandered out back to see some of their structures and their pet macaws.

Indigenous person

From there we went to another facility for more ”swimming” with pink dolphins (i.e. standing on a submerged platform), but unlike the other facility this was just for our group. It was still impressive to see these creatures up close, and once again I tried not to think about what else was swimming in the dark waters that I couldn’t see. After watching them be fed raw fish, we had fish for lunch ourselves but cooked with delicious sauces and accompanied by rice and beans. Just as our lunch wrapped up, the heavens opened to a terrific downpour that was amplified as it hit the tin roof over our heads. It gave us a chance to linger a little longer at this place to enjoy their hammocks and wait for the rain to die down a bit before taking the boat back to Manaus.

More pink dolphins!

Lunch + hammock + downpour = great excuse to relax

Eventually we left, keeping the clear rain tarps down on the boat. The combination of the heat, the boat’s loud motor, and the endless green scenery made it easy to nod off a bit on the ride back, so I’m not sure how long it was before we docked at a classy hotel upstream of the city. The elegant lampposts were an interesting juxtaposition with the jungle as we climbed the stairs to the hotel’s entrance, and I felt a little underdressed as we entered the lobby. This was the kind of place with its own helipad, but I assume they’re used to tourists returning from jungle excursions in violation of any potential dress code.

The drive back to our hotel was uneventful with one happy exception: shortly into our drive, we passed the Manaus LDS temple. This temple had a sort of mythical status to me before this trip, as I remember hearing about a temple in the middle of the rainforest with its own dock, where patrons arrived by boat. It looked fairly typical for a temple from the road but after scanning the riverbanks the whole trip it was nice to finally see it, even if we didn’t have time to actually stop there. Our day concluded at an Asian restaurant near the hotel, a reminder of how connected our world really is sometimes.

Manaus temple!