Amazon Eco Lodge





After missing my connecting flight from Brasilia to Manaus and staying in the airport for 12 hours rather than in the five star hotel room Aggie got me for free, I boarded a boat in Manaus for the 30 minute trip up the Negro River to the Amazon Ecopark Lodge.  The lodge offers cabanas with air-conditioning, hot showers daily maid service, and a open air restaurant that serves excellent food. I met people from all over the world and quickly made friends with a couple from the Ukraine, a family from Denmark, and a couple from Sweden. 

 

Ukraine Friends

My new friends invited me to join them for meals and I enjoyed talking about farming in Demark and the politics between Russia and the Ukraine.  I am reading a new book on my Nook by Tom Clancy entitled Command Authority that is about a war between Russia and Ukraine and it was interesting to learn from my new friends that the book accurately describes in the current political problems.

One thing I have noticed during my travels during the past six months is that the attitude of people around the world is not negative towards the U.S., like it was when George W. Bush was in office.   It is nice not to have to disassociate myself from the policies of our government.

The eco lodge offered several tours and the first afternoon I went to Monkey Island that is a animal refuge and rehabilitation center managed, in part, by the lodge.  There is a family of 16 wooly monkeys and one red-faced monkey of another species I could not identify.  The monkeys live in the wild, but come to a feeding area twice a day to receive supplements to their diet and provide entertainment to the guests at the lodge. 

After the tour, I swam with the piranhas in the Negro River.  I know there are piranhas there because some of the guests and employees were catching them from the dock, about 50 yards from where I was swimming.  But I had learned from several sources that there are 30 types of piranhas and those in the Rio Negro do not attack people. I went swimming several times without being bitten. There was also a small caiman crocodile near the dock, but he also ignored me.  

 

The next morning I took a short trek in the jungle with a guide who explained about the flora, and the many uses of the trees and plants.  We did not see any animals, other than a frog.  That afternoon a young Swedish couple and I paddled a canoe through the mangroves.

I also went on a tour of a Caboclo’s home where they harvested latex from a rubber tree, made rubber, and processed cassava.  

 

Although I did not see as many animals as I anticipated, there were a few unusual, like this beautiful green boa constrictor that was hanging from a tree just outside the restaurant.