We are spending the next 4 nights and five days at a lodge about 3.5 hours south of Manuas – down the Amazon and then up several other rivers to a remote location very close to “nowhere”.

In order to get to the lodge, we had to take a car to the docks.  We then took a boat down the river.  We then loaded into an old VW Kombi for a drive until the road ended.  Then we got into another boat for the final journey.  One can only get anywhere around here by boat.

Getting ready to take off.. clean clothes and showered!

Our first stop of the day – the docks to get us a boat down the river.

This is the meeting of two rivers, both part of the Amazon.  One river is more acidic, higher temperature and faster than the other.  The result is that there is a clearly delineated barrier between the two.. that continues for many miles downstream.

In an old VW for the road trip.  This was a no frills but lots of thrills ride.

End of the road, yet to another boat loading.  We have all our suitcases and backpacks with us, so we needed some help to get all things loaded and secured.

Our final destination – the Amazon Turtle Lodge.  The room does have AC (thank God!), running (but not hot) water and mosquito nets.  The plumbing comes straight from the river, so they told us to be careful not to get it in our mouths.  It’s for bathing and flushing toilet only.  Bottled water is available for everything else, including brushing of teeth.

After lunch, Brenda and I went exploring on one of the nearby trails.

The above photo is to show the massive scale of the palms.  This type (I forget the name but they are a popular potted houseplant in the States) can get enormous when it’s in the correct environment.

Internet is available, but it is slow and very limited range.  We have to assemble at a public location to pick up a signal from the satellite station.

Heading to the lodge restaurant.. 3 meals a day served here.  It’s buffet style (all inclusive) and serves about 40 guests, the capacity of the Lodge.

View from the top of a hill down to the dock where we embark/disembark.

An afternoon boat trip around the area.

Fishing for piranhas.  We have a guide and he brought along chunks of chicken guts to use as bait.

I caught two!  They weren’t very big, but VERY sharp teeth.  I couldn’t get the hook out of it’s mouth and had to hand it over to the guide.  He treated these fish like unexploded bombs he needed to defuse, but he did get all the hooks out.  The fish were returned to the river.

Adam caught one, too.

Then a frog caught Adam.

Returning to the Lodge for dinner.  There is another excursion at 8:00 p.m. to hunt caimans, is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. The Amazon does not have alligators like the ones in the southern United States.  The caimans can get up to 5 meters long, but are generally smaller than alligators.

Sunset on the Amazon River.  We’re only about 250 miles from the equator, so the day is split almost exactly into 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of dark.  (Sunset is 6:00 p.m., sunrise is 6:00 a.m.)

The stars were spectacular.  There is zero light pollution out here, and a new moon.  We were hoping to see a night sky like this in the Sahara Desert a few months ago, but the mood was full and so bright you could practically read a book by it.  We got our magnificent night sky here in the Amazon instead.  It’s also the first time we’ve seen the stars from the southern hemisphere.  We’ve been to the southern hemisphere before, but always in cities and we never went out at night and looked up.  This night, we got to see the constellation Southern Cross.

Hunting caimans.  They shine a flashlight into the vegetation on the sides of the river and look for eye-shine.  The caimans’ eyes are reflective and stand out as a red or yellow flash.  They hunt alligators in Louisiana the same way.

[Adam] Our guide has spotted something.  He jumped out and trudged around in the dark until he found a target worth grabbing.  When the flashlight was off, it was DARK DARK. All sorts of critters were out.. we even had a couple of fish jump out of the water and into our boat, which freaked out some of the other couples who traveled with us.  During the trip, I put my hand on a railing in the dark and got stung/bitten by some bug who then flew off.  I have no idea what it was, but my finger hurt for a couple of hours afterwards.

He caught one with his bare hands.  These guys know everything about every animal and every plant in the jungle. He showed us that this one was female, probably about 3 years old, and demonstrated how her eyes have a second lens that closes underwater to protect her eyes.  It retracts automatically when air hits her eyes.  She was terrified and making squeaking noises that sounded a lot like a puppy.  She was relieved and (I think, somewhat confused) when he put her back in the river and let her go completely unharmed.

We returned to the Lodge at 9:30 and went to bed, exhausted from the excitement of the day.  We need a good night’s sleep because tomorrow begins at 5:30 a.m. for a sunrise boat ride (sun rises at 6:00a.m.) and bird watching.