Holy Moly, I'm in the Amazon Rainforest

Last night we got picked up at the airport by a gentleman that spoke maybe 3 words of English, and he took us to our hotel near the Manaus airport where we were greeted by the friendliest woman, Lily, and a pitcher of passion fruit juice. 

I got maybe 4 hours of sleep before receiving a cheerful wake-up call in Portuguese at 6:40a.  Lauren and I got ready for the day and went downstairs to a lovely outdoor breakfast by the pool.  There was jack fruit, passion fruit, pineapple, crepes, plantains, sliced meat and cheese (which is quite common many places outside of the US), Lily offered to make us scrambled eggs.  

The Ariau Towers folks picked us up around 8, and we drove to the Rio Negro River, where we got onboard a boat.  The boat ride was maybe an hour and 15 mins, and we were drifting in and out of sleep the whole way.  The combination of the warm sunlight, cool breeze, tranquil atmosphere, and movement of the boat on the waves were incredibly conducive for sleep.

We arrived to the Ariau Towers, a hotel on stilts in the Amazon. 

After we checked in and dropped our bags in our room, a guide took us on a walking tour traveling some of the hotel’s 8km of catwalks.  On that tour we saw lizards, a woodpecker, a bright blue and black giant butterfly, a few yellow fluttering butterflies, an absurdly slow sloth (my favorite), tons of social monkeys (and when I say social, you’ll see what I mean when you watch the entire video I'll soon post below when I get enough battery life and bandwidth), a fuzzy bright green worm, too many trees and birds to count, and lots of termite nests.

Sloths are cool to see awake and moving at the zoo, but when it's in the wild right in front of you, that's a whole new ball game.  I was simply amazed.

The Ariau Towers were built in 1986 beginning with just a single tower.  Lauren and I are in tower 4, and we’re just below treetop level.There are suites where the wealthy and celebrities stay when they’re here, and those are at the treetop level with TVs and private pools.  Now there are plenty of towers not only for accommodations.There’s a tower used as a final stage, 6 month habitat for captive birds before being completely released back into the wild.There’s also a helipad, an amphitheater, a chapel, and a pyramid for meditation and relaxation.

After our walking tour, we had lunch.  It was fruits, tomatoes, fish, rice, other meat, pasta, and flan.  It was there where we met our guide for the rest of the trip - Leon.  Leon is awesome.  He speaks 7 languages and has worked at the hotel for many years.  Leon told us that he’s guided Julia Roberts, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Mike Tyson, Tom Cruise (he’ll be here for the 5^th time next Tuesday), Oprah, Angelina Jolie, J Lo, Sylvester Stallone, Susan Serandon, Sharon Stone, and Arnold Swarzenegger just to name a few.

After lunch, I went piranha fishing.  It was so creepy, but really fun.  For those of you that know Lauren, she did not attend, due to her fish phobia.  The bait we use is bull hearts and the rod is a single bamboo shoot.  There's a line with a single leader and hook, but no reel. 

We were fishing among trees that are submerged in 27 ft. of water.  The trees here endure 6 months of flooding and 6 months without water.  We're in the flooding months now, but it gets worse in April and May during the rainy season.  Leon told us that all of the water around the hotel (9 meters worth)and where we were fishing completely dries up for half of the year.  How crazy is that?! 

No one on the boat caught a fish except for Leon.  He caught 6.  There are 3 different species that he caught and showed us. 

These fish are small, but boy are they mighty!  Leon said that piranhas feed by the thousands, and an entire cow would be eaten in a matter of minutes. Needless to say, I was hesitant to rinse my hands in the water when done baiting my hook.  I had some nibbles, but I couldn't bring any fish in.  We're going out again tomorrow though, and I have faith I'll get one. 

I was told that we kept the fish that we caught.  When we got into the boat though, there was no cooler or container in which to put the fish once we caught them.  Little did we know that the fish flopped around freely in the bottom of the boat until they died.  Thank goodness I was in the front away from all of the slippery chaos.  There were also wooden slats below our feet and between us and the true bottom of the boat.

The highlight might have been when one of the small boys in the boat flinged his baited line out of the water and it got hooked in my hair.  Yep, bull hearts in my hair really made me feel good today.

They told us that piranhas go toward movement in the water since they're such fierce predators.  Many fish flee movement in water.  The other guide was splashing around with his pole in the water most of the time.  It was an experience unlike any other I've had.

We left a bit early from fishing because an Australian couple on their honeymoon needed to get back in order to make their sea plane flight.  Lauren and I had talked with them (Claire and Andrew) and wanted to see them off, so we went out on the boat again to meet their incoming plane on the Ariau River.  They were the cutest couple honeymooning for 4 weeks in South America. 

The best part was, once they got into the plane and took off, we watched them fly away right under a rainbow.  I mean, really?!  Of course a rainbow appears during the most romantic thing I've ever seen in my life.  Why wouldn't it?  I was nearly moved to tears. 

After that, Lauren and I chilled out and then cleaned up for dinner.  The selection was many of the same items we'd seen at lunch...plus wine.  We sat with a couple maybe 10 years older than my parents that have traveled the world since they've retired.  They've been to Russia, Tibet, Scandanavia, China, Paris, the Amazon, and they're headed to Africa this fall!  Another couple we sat with is maybe 7-10 years younger than my parents, and they too have been all over the place. It's so cool to see couples from newly married to retirement traveling and making so many memories together.  At the Sao Paulo airport we also met a woman about my mom's age from Australia traveling alone to the Amazon.  She said she wanted to do it, so she's doing it even though she's going alone.  Not only that, but she's had both hips replaced and she's going to climb Machu Pichu in Peru after the Amazon!

It's incredible the things you see and learn while traveling.  I'm so blessed to have this experience, and everytime I'm awed by what God has put on this Earth, I give special thanks.