The Amazonas region is one of Brazil’s largest undamaged jungles. I had a tour booked that first took me from Manaus across the Rio Negro and the Amazon. The former has dark water and the latter is yellow, and they don’t mix where they meet, just swirl a little. Very peculiar.
The tour continued to a small harbor, then with an old VW bus (the hippie kind, only white) to another little harbor. The battery died halfway, which is a problem because of the heat close to 40 degrees C. I, who never drives, had to explain to the driver how to start a car with a dead battery. Segundo, clutch, push… Worked.
The ride continued to our lodge, where I will be staying for a few days. There are no roads here, just narrow wooden boats and numerous small lakes connected with rivers, some large and some just a few meters wide and so shallow that the boat was touching the ground.
This is a true jungle, not just a forest. Vegetation is dense at all levels, can’t go far without a machete. Between the current dry season and the wet season, the water level can differ by over ten meters, so although the lodge is on a high ridge, it rests on stilts. Everything here is built from wood.
