Santa Elena Venezuela

No, I didn't rob a bank! Santa Elena is just over the border from Brazil on the only road that links the two countries. I had a lot of Reals and had to change them into Bolivars, the currency of Venezuela, and I was an instant millionaire.

The problem was that they only had 100 Bolivar notes so I 4,000 notes as seen on the table which at home is worth a reasonable meal for two and a bottle of wine. A lot of weight and volume to carry about if you want to go shopping.

I had arrived at a wonderful hostel, more of a retreat and spa than a hostel, the outside of the building don its own track off a quiet road.

A view of part of the garden.

The communal dining and relaxing area.

The swimming pool and water slide.

Another view of one of the buildings in the grounds of the hostel.

There are an incredible number of old American cars on the streets, many very rusty and throwing out huge amounts smoke from the exhaust. They would not pass an MOT or any emissions tests but if there aren't any tests, no one cares. And when petrol and diesel is cheaper than water (it is heavily subsidised at only a single Bolivar per litre and on the black market there are 3,800 Bolivars to a US Dollar), no one cares about the fuel consumption!

The internet is intermittent as is the electricity and my access to both so this may be the one of the few times that I can post anything and I haven't been able to upload any more photos so this is really only half a post...so my apologises. But on my way north from Santa Elena, I went through Canada National Park and stopped at several waterfalls and this is the view behind just one of them.

Manaus

We returned from our jungle experience to Manaus. We should have had extra time here but the schedule wasn't to plan and we would be moving on in the morning, But there was one thing that I really wanted to see in Manaaus above all the other Trip Advisor suggested sights.

I wanted to see the Opera House. The local big wigs had made a lot of money from the rubber trade and other enterprises and wanted to show off their success / wealth and so built an opera house. They also spent a lot of money on both ecclesiastical and secular buildings. This is the front of the local hospital.

But it was the Opera House that they had splashed out for in spectacular style, even after the architects and builders warned them of the folly of building a European style building in the harsh wet humid climate of the mason jungle...but they went ahead anyway.

The building is spectacular  but soon started to succumb to the weather and another fortune was spent to refurbish and update it so that you can see the building in all its glory today. A full frontal.

A side view.

Even the government building nearby was in a 19th century Classical style.

Many local secular buildings, usually owned by merchants and the well to do were in a traditional European grand style.

But the next morning we were off early up the only road that connect Brazil to Venezuela...that leaves Manaus. And for the that have have been reading the blog, that is not much good when Manaus is not connected to the rest of Brazil by road for the whole year. The scenery was mile after mile of jungle.

And occasionally crossing a flooded river valley.

Then we came to a unique monument on the equator line around the world, and of course you just have to stop to get that photo.

 And then it as back into the jungle heading north. It is tiny season in the southern hemisphere but dry season in the north. It wasn't noticeable at first but what was noticeable was that there were hills and the jungle had thinned to savannah. This picture is similar to the one above but it does have a hill in the distance.

And then it was over the border into Venezuela.

A night in the Amazon Jungle.

We had an in depth explanation of how manioc flour is made from the tubers. They are peeled and then shredded into little pieces. Then the pulp is left to soak in water for a short while. The pulp is then squashed to extract all the water. The dry pulp is sieved to remove the larger pieces and then is it lightly roasted until dry. This produces a rough flour from which patties and a host of other products can be made. The process also extracts all the toxins which in its raw form is poisonous.

Roasting the flour in a large cauldron above a fire.

Tossing the manioc.

A mid morning snack back in the farmhouse, tea, coffee, patties, pittas, bread.

Then it is a walk into the jungle and after a days walk, we spread some tarps over some poles.

The two tarps with our hummocks underneath with a fire in the foreground.

Some people preferred to set their hummocks up between some trees.

Setting a hummock between two trees was great in the afternoon when the sky was clear but it would all change over night. A front came over and it started to rain. There are many noises in the jungle at night but the rain falling on the leaves and then falling onto lower leaves and finally on to the leaves on the jungle floor creates quite a bit of noise and is fairly distinctive. as the rain front advances.

I heard it coming but it was of little concern as I was under the tarp. The rain finally arrived in camp and it poured down. Anne was already up and moving her hummock under the tarp. Others stuck it out, hoping that it would blow over but no such luck. I got up and sped the last strugglers to untie their hummocks and carry them to the relatively drier area under the tarps and retie them there to sleep in for the rest of the night.

Next we had to collect one wood for the fire and we all had a chance to carry wood back to the camp. Here is Kieran and Simone with just one of many logs destined for the fire.

Jungle James and Jungle Boy (real name Amilton) started cutting sticks with a point at each end. We had to go into the jungle and find particular palm and cut of a leaf.

We then had to fold the leaf and hold it together with the double pointed stick, something like a cocktail stick and that would be our bowl for the evening meal as demonstrated by Rosie.

Then we needed some shavings to get a fire going, yet another use for the machete.

And a clean surface for preparation, washing etc so time to split a palm frond along the stem and then  weave the little leaves together.

And what you saw above wasn't all my own work as the credit ought to go to the person that had started and done most of the hard work, Amy.

The next day we had another trek through the jungle learning about how it can provide food, shelter, medicines, goods to trade etc. And other ways or using plants to light fires from the flammable oils contained within them, such as shredding this palm which was ever some much easier than using the machete to create shavings from wood. However this was after I had shaved some wood to start the fire the night before whilst there was a fire lighting palm right next to the camp site.

So it was with a great feeling of relief that we got back to the lodge the next day and back to hummocks under cover and toilets and showers (although we had by now got used to cold water from the river to use in the toilets and showers and finding a bit of privacy behind a palm wasn't so unusual after the first few days).

Then is was an hour trip down river and a 200kms drive to get back to Manaus.

Amazon Jungle Experience

We had just a couple of hours in Belem between getting off the ferry and setting off for our jungle experience. We had time to drop our bags in a hostel, have breakfast and then pile into a minivan. It was  200kms journey into the jungle, heading north east out of Manaus to nearly the end of the road and then an hours boat trip up Rio Urubu to get to the jungle lodge.

Some of the scenery that we passed in the boat.

The view from the tower at the lodge across the river.

One of the several buildings  at the lodge, all palm frond roofed, wood built and none with any glass in the windows.

We went out onto the river to look for dolphins and to go fishing.

We paddled through some o the flooded jungle. The water was up to five metres deep and below us would be forest floor in the dry season.

We baited out=r hooks and started fishing and several of us caught fish.

And just to prove that we caught some fish. It was a type of piranha and we took all the larger fish that we caught back to the lodge for the chef to cook that evening.

We didn't even need to go into the jungle to see the wildlife...it came to see us. A tree dwelling tarantula.

We were up again before dawn to see dolphins which we missed the night before.

It was ideal conditions being very calm water. Eventually we di see both grey and pink river dolphins although they were all glimpses and so no photos of them breaching the surface of the water.

And time for a selfie perhaps not looking my best as it was before breakfast and we had ben awake for more than two hours since dawn.

We also saw weaver birds who build their nests from grass hanging from the branches. They prefer tall trees surrounded by water as protection against predators.

On another trip along the river we visited a local farmer and his family to see how they lived on the land.

They had recently cleared some of the forest and had planted some crops. They had claimed a section of river bank 500m long and 1,000m deep int the jungle. This is a sweet potato field.

There are plenty more photos but the internet is weak and intermittent and not to mention the power cuts, all part of the Venezuelan experience since crossing the border from Brazil. This post has taken three days to load the photos! Therefore please be patient and I will post when I can.

Amazon cruise

I took a taxi from the hotel down to the docks in Belem to catch a boat for a six day trip up the Amazon. I wasn't sure when I booked it whether it was an up market cruise, or a functional trip on a barge. As it happened it was something in between.

It was off season so all deck passengers got a free up grade from a hummock on the lower deck to an air conditioned room but you had to bring your own hummock.

There were plenty of small boats on the river and it seemed that for most of the time there was at least one tied up to our boat.

Local entrepreneurs made money by selling their wares on the boat, tying up alongside and selling fruit, prawns, hot ready made meals in aluminium trays, ice cream and anything else the hungry thirsty passenger may want...irrespective of the fact that there was a bar and a restaurant on the boat.

Our first stop of several on the river, this one is Breves with a large statue of the Virgin Mary.

There was plenty of other traffic on the river. There is no road that connects Manaus with the rest of southern Brazil so everything goes by river for 2,000kms up stream. (There is a road according to the maps but BR319 is not tarmac and guide books describe it as 'derelict'. There is insufficient traffic on it for it to be maintained or upgraded and it is impassable in the rainy season as it is largely underwater. Besides it is twice as far as the river route which is well supplied with ferries).

All along the rive bank are houses and farms built on stilts.

The ferry also took cars but I doubt whether I would trust the loading of my car to the stevedores.

And another view of the communal hummock room partly due to the colours of the different hummocks. Personally I upgrade and had an en suite cabin on the top deck.

It rained several times a day and in between it could get very hot and sweaty....but there were showers to cool off in on the sun deck.

A flooded farm.

Another house on stilts, and some colour.

Even ocean going ships can reach Manaus.

A barge transporting vehicles.

Most of the time the locals build on higher ground and on stilts so they are above the water level but can get it wrong sometimes when the water levels are exceptionally high.

The welder who fixed the boats engine getting a lift to land with his bicycle so he can get home.

More river traffic.

A detail of how the tug pushes the nine barges in front of itself.

A view of the cargo area on the boat.

And finally the boat docks in Manaus...only twelve hours late and at 5.30am...so not much to do and I ws booked onto a four day jungle experience starting in just two hours time!