Last Night on the Amazon

Well, we have had a wonderful last day on the river. The afternoon tour was to the "tree top hotel" -- Areiu Hotel. We spent the morning packing. Duffy was a tad under the weather this morning so in an abundance of caution, she did not go on the tour with us. However, she seemed fine at dinner this evening.

We took a boat ride to the entrance of the Rio Negro -- one of the major tributaries for the Amazon. Actually, the Rio Negro is geologically a lot older than the Amazon River. It is in an area that is the least populous of the Amazon region-- and this includes the large city of Manaus with 2 million people. Even with Manaus in the count, the region along the Rio Negro has less than one person per two square miles!! It is a river of black water. During the rainy season it rises , on average, by about 46 feet. They have seen indigenous Indian tribes in the area by plane, but these Indians have never met anyone from the outside world. They are not even sure what kind of Indians they are. There is a photograph, taken from the airplane, of one of these villages and the men are attempting to shoot down the airplane with bows and arrows! Another interesting fact is that there are no mosquitoes in this region. The black water is too acidic for the mosquitoes to survive. There are a very few variety of fish that survive in the acidic flood waters. They eat the fruits off the submerged trees when the floods begin.. These fish develop a large layer of fat. They live off their fat in the dry season when the flood waters recede from June until November.

We visited a hotel that is literally built in the trees! There are several large round towers that hold guests. The hotel was first conceived back in the 1980's when Cousteau came to the area to explore the region. He thought the area was so beautiful, he suggested they build something to allow others to see the area. The reality TV show, Survivor, Amazon was filmed here using this hotel as a base. Also,the movie, Anaconda, was filmed here by George Lucas. While the Hotel is very interesting and a great place to visit and walk around on the suspended walkways, I don't think it's a place I would want to spend the night.

We were so late getting back to our ship, that we actually missed the ship!! Our guide was very talkative! We were supposed to be back by 5:00 pm because our ship was up anchoring and repositioning. We saw Sojourn go sailing past us and we had to chase her for about 45 minutes before she stopped to anchor. She was repositioning for a Beach Party dinner on the shore. While it looked like it might be nice, we ended up getting back so late we decided to eat on board instead of doing the beach barbecue. The skies looked threatening and the bugs looked huge ! One of the photos below is of a Rhineocerous Beetle, found only during the wet season! We opted for the quiet of the main dining room and AC, and bug free!
We fly home tomorrow but we have all enjoyed this journey immensely!