Bombed by Bats - Heart of Amazon

I was picked up at my hotel by a ten passenger air-conditioned van with leather seats and flat screen video system.  The other passengers were the guide and two Brazilian families.  All of them except a 10-year old boy spoke good English.  They conversed amongst themselves in Portuguese, but warmly responded when I introduced myself and soon English was the language for the day. 

My new friends included a professor at the university in Brasilia who teaches computer programming, his son, who is finishing a master’s degree in economics, and a man who is in pharmacology.  We got to know each other during the two hour drive north from Manaus through the jungle to the Urubui River that flows into the Rio Negro.  Our destination was the Maruaga caves.  We hiked about an hour into the jungle along a narrow, slippery trail, up and down small valleys.

  I have been in lots of caves but this was the first one that is carved out of sandstone.  We waded up the underground stream flowing from the cave, ducking from the hundreds of bats flying over our heads. 

I felt something wet hit my head and I realized the bats were pooping on me.  I quickly got out my hat.  I brought my backpacking head lamp and stayed in the rear most of the time so the other trekkers could see where they were stepping.  Our guide had the only other light.   We walked about 200 yards into the cave, to a point just short of a large cave in.  Ahead of us we could hear thousands of bats fluttering their wings.  We turned off our lights for about a minute and just listened to the bats. 

It was a loud, eerie sound that raised the hair on the back of my neck.    We walked out of the cave and then followed the stream through the jungle to another smaller cave that opened into a beautiful waterfall and pool. 

After a short swim, we hiked back to the van and drove about 15 miles to an excellent restaurant on the Urubui River.  After a lunch of tambaqui fish, we drove another 15 minutes to a large waterfall and pool.  The water, like that of most of the Rio Negro, is the color of tea from the tannin.  We swam and enjoyed the falls for about an hour.

Find David in the falls

 

I had arranged with our guide to drop me off at a small town near the river where I could stay the night and see the culture of rural Brazil in the heart of the Amazon.  We stopped at a modern hotel that wanted about $75 a night for a room that was small, dingy, smelled bad, and had a dirty shower.  I went across the street and checked into an old 1 1/2 star hotel for $35 per night.   It was a one star hotel with a cold water only shower, but it had WIFI, so I gave it another 1/2 star.  I wondered around the town, in and out of shops, and then stopped for pizza and a beer.  The restaurant had a video projector and sound system that was showing concerts of famous Brazilian entertainers.  

I was the only gringo on the street and no one spoke English.  But most understood my bad Spanish.  After dinner I watched a soccer game played bare foot on a concrete surface, about the size of a basketball court.  There were five players on each team and they were all good.  I watched for about 30 minutes and they played hard, non-stop, with neither team scoring.  It was Friday night and almost a full moon.  Lots of families, young couples, and kids were wandering around, looking for something to do in rural Brazil.  The town had a very old, small movie theater and I put my head inside.  An animated movie for kids was showing.  I saw some kids walk in and sit down.  I don't think there was any admission fee.  I sat at an outside bar and watched people for a while before returning to my hotel for a cold shower and bed. 

The next morning I walked to the Saturday morning farmer's market and browsed.  It was typical of any local market in a tropical country with lots of fresh veggies, fruits, fish, chicken and beef.  It started pouring rain during breakfast, so I decided it was time to take the bus back to Manaus and get to the airport for my flight to Salvador, in the north east corner of Brazil.