On May 30, 2012, Scott and Lisa Zengel were taken aboard the MS Bandeirante II as Prisoners of the Amazon. The sentence was for four days with 197 other Brazilians and Columbians, moving from Tabatinga, Brazil to Manaus, Brazil in the heart of the Amazon.
Our four day jail
The jail kitchen
Our jail cell...
The mess hall
Rice and beans...every single day for lunch and dinner...for four days. YUM. ha.
Luckily, Scott and Lisa were released on June 2, 2012 in Manaus, Brazil with no major injuries, only bloated bellies and sore backs from spending four days in hammocks!
So I
somehow convinced Lisa that we wanted a bit more of a cultural experience (just
being in the Amazon wasn`t enough!), and our guide said he could arrange an
overnight stay with a local indigenous family. He told us that the family lived
in a small community of only a few houses on a beautiful lake, and that the
accommodations were pretty good. They even had an over-the-water bungalow that
we could stay in. Done.
Pedro (our
guide) whisked us away mid-afternoon, and the adventure was on. After a 45 minute
boat ride up the Amazon we were dropped off at a small dock with noone around.
Of course, Pedro isn’t much of an over-communicator, so we were left to wonder
what the heck was going to happen next. He explained to us that this indigenous
community identifies themselves by “clan”. Check out the side of the house…they
are the “ant” (“hormigas” in espanol) clan…hilarious.
"Over-the-water bungalow"...just like Tahiti!!
So we make
it over from dock to the local house and Pedro doesn`t say a word about what is
going to happen next. This family`s house is more than basic. They are very
poor, with literally the bare necessities in the house, ie: “kitchen” – indoor
area to cook, made of a barbecue (with no ventilation) and the
kitchen/multi-purpose table. This room also doubled as the only other room in
the house other than the bedroom (where both parents and all three kids sleep).
Oh, and there is NO BATHROOM. So Lisa and I are wondering…where the heck are we
going to sleep?? In the kitchen/main room, because there are no beds…? While we
are waiting for something to happen we just played with the kids, they wanted
us to go swimming in the Amazon with them, but we thought better of it
(piranhas!?!)
All of a
sudden Pedro shows up again and asks us if we want to sleep in here or another
house that actually has a bathroom. Of course, we chose the one with a
bathroom. We get rowed over to this second house (our "over-the-water
bungalow"), which is completely soaked everywhere. I gathered that while they
weren’t communicating anything to us (and we were playing with the kids) they cleaned out this spare “bungalow” because it had been flooded by the river
water. Perfect, we have our own little room, life is good, right?
Our deluxe accomodations...notice the mosquito net...
Great view from the side of the river
Sunset from our cabana...pretty beautiful
By now it`s
dinner time. Pedro had told us before we left that they do a ton of fishing here, so
we`re excited for a great fish dinner. He then mentions that the family just
got back today from visiting another community, and there is no food for
dinner! Obviously it`s not like you can just go to the store here…we are in a
community of a few houses, on stilts, in the middle of the Amazon, with no
running water or electricity. The nearest big town is a 45 minute boat ride
away. What the heck?? Luckily, they scrounge up some eggs and we have eggs,
plantains, and rice for dinner. So, we`re wondering what`s going to happen for
breakfast now…
One of the other
reasons we went on this adventure is to go on a night adventure to spot Caymans
(like crocodiles). After we eat we go back over to our bungalow to pack a few things for the night adventure. Lisa walks into the room and there is a GIANT BLACK TARANTULA sitting on the wall above our pillows on the bed. This thing is HUGE. She asks me if it is a joke, as if someone planted it there to scare her. This thing is huge, black, and very furry. I kind of thought it looked like a teddy bear. Anyway, remember, Lisa is deathly afraid of spiders (anyone remember Costa Rica??). Luckily, the owner hurries in and kills the thing. But this is NOT a good way to start off the night for us.
So, now that the adrenaline is pumping we get in another canoe (this one at least has
a motor) and go on our night adventure. We motor for about 30 minutes, then they cut the motor. Picture this: we are on a canoe in the middle of the Amazon at night, with not one other person around, and a full moon. It was cool and creepy at the same time.
All of a sudden our guide starts "calling" the caymans. Yeah, it was hilarious. They actually answered him too. After about three hours of cruising around looking for these things we finally catch one (I got to hold it, it was awesome!).
Cayman numero uno
After we catch the first Cayman the local guys tells us that his kids love to eat Cayman, and do we want to keep it? Of course, what are we going to say? This family is poor and there is no food in the house.
Cayman breakfast numero uno!
To be honest, it was pretty tasty though...even if it was for breakfast.
So we tucked in for the night underneath the mosquito net (thankfully we had this, there were all sorts of creepy crawlies that night!). We wake up first thing in the morning and are greeted to this on the wall:
This should keep the tarantulas away!
At least it was a beautiful day the next day. I think we were both pretty happy to be leaving this "local" indigenous experience. I guess there are just some things that sound better than they actually are. There is no question that we did learn a bit...we got to experience the local family`s everyday life, and the other saving grace was that the money we paid for the experience went directly to the family, and hopefully that will make a small difference for them.
View from the window of our over-the-water bungalow
The ride back to "civilization"...away from the crazy bungalow!
Lisa
and I met up with our guide, Pedro, who walked us to a small house behind the
giant communications antenna. Of course, we were wondering what the heck was
going to happen next…and we were treated to an AMAZING local breakfast. Imagine
chickens running around = fresh eggs, hot chocolate ground from fresh cacao
trees in the yard, plantains (delicious!), and fresh tropical fruit.
This is freshly ground chocolate. YUM!
After
the hospitality of our new friends and breakfast, we headed off for our first
Amazon adventure…PINK DOLPHINS. We hopped in a very very small canoe made out of a cut down jungle
tree, and off we went. The first part of the adventure was navigating our small
canoe across the Amazon and into the submerged jungle (this time of year the
waters are literally 30 feet
higher than normal because of the rainy season). Just imagine slowly paddling through the jungle with branches overhanging, fallen trees, and spiders jumping on the boat
because we`re inside the swampy jungle. Supposedly this is where the anacondas live, but we didn't see any, thank god because they are up to 45 feet long...and they really like to cuddle!
The submerged jungle
The normal jungle
We finally made it out of the jungle and into a huge open lagoon. After
picking off the branches and spiders from our clothes, Pedro starting making
some odd dolphin call and literally 3 minutes later we had both pink and
gray dolphins swimming around us. They are a little prehistoric
looking, but are incredibly smart and so interested in people! After I
almost tipped the boat over because I was too giddy with excitement,
Pedro told us that we could SWIM with the dolphins. We thought about it
for about 2 seconds (there are piranhas in the water...) and then
convinced Pedro to jump in first... and off we went!!! We could see the
bubbles of them all around us and there were hundreds of dolphins
everywhere. I just wish the water was clear so I could have seen them
swimming. So amazing!!
(Okay, we don`t have the good camera anymore so you may have to zoom in to see them...)
After our dolphin high we tried to do a little piranha fishing, with no
luck and then started our journey back to Puerto Narino. We were
greeted at the dock with a fresh fish lunch & of course, rice and
beans :)
Here are a few random things from the Amazon...enjoy!
When we got to the Amazon
we discovered that this time of year is not necessarily ideal to visit because
of the extreme flooding... Check out this poor flooded house!! Here is just an assortment of random pictures
of our time in the Amazon… enjoy!
Even the soccer field was
flooded, so the kids instead would climb up the side and jump off into the
water!
Even residents of the
Amazon need DirecTV!
Beautiful sunset... not a
bad commute home for a local fisherman.
Oh yea, this is amazing. This guy in the yellow is selling some meat on
the street…but he gets tired so he stopped on the corner to get his shoes
shined and have a beer. Why not?!
Every night at 5pm hundreds
of parrots come to this park to tuck in for the night... kinda creepy and cool at
the same time. It’s a good thing we
haven’t seen the movie "The Birds" in quite a while!
This is our little monkey
friend who liked to sleep on the mosquito net above our room. He liked to drink milk out of a spoon, he
would nap in a hammock, and he hated bananas.
What kind of monkey is this!?
Our “boat taxi” along the
amazon. I am not quite sure why they
decided to have us wear life vests…
