From Bonito we travelled 40 hours in 3 buses to get to Porto Velho where we took a 4 day boat trip to Manaus, where we were starting te trip to the Amazon rain forest. We stayed in a cabin on the boat. It had bunkbeds, a toilet with no seat or door and it was pretty small. You could also stay in hammocks, but as the boat filled up with locals the hammock area was completely packed. There were literally 30 side by side in a really small area. There were also hammocks in the aisles where you walk around, it was like a maze weaving and ducking under hammocks to get past. We stayed on the boat 2 days before departure. During this time there were dock workers filling the boats lower deck completely full with water melons, garlic, potatoes, bananas etc. Some of the workers were hauling 4 massive water melons at a time in a bag for the whole day. Once the boat left it took 4 days to get to Manaus. During the voyage we saw lots of pink dolphins in the Rio Madeira river (which was at least a few miles wide). We were the only forigners on the boat and one day two young portugese girls came up to us because they were facinated with blonde hair and our blue eyes. We also met a guy in the cabin next door to us who was teaching us Portugese and we were teaching him English. When we finally got to Manaus we saw a point in which a 'white water' (which was actually brown) and a 'black water' (darker brown) river mixed. At this point there was a sudden line where the water changed into the different river. It was quite strange.
We then booked a 4 day tour into the Amazon rain forest. When we first arrived we bought some local spirt made from sugarcane to make the Brazilian national drink Caipirinha. Firstly our guide James made some and on the second go Sam made some. Both were very nice. The litre bottle of spirt and 13 limes cost the equivilant of 2 quid. The heat in the Amazon really hits you, being 35 degrees each day. On the 1st day we went in a canoe into the floating forest because at this time of year the river rises around 8 meters and floods most of the forest. During the ride in the floating forest we did some more piranah fishing. Samantha caught 2 this time and Sam got none. The guide also got 1, but there was not enough to eat them. Some others did the same activity a few days later and caught 18! Later on in the evening, we went alligator spotting in the canoe. It was pitch black and millions of stars were out, it was really nice. Our guide managed to spot two alligators, the second of which he managed to catch, by jumping out of the canoe into the river and grabbing it with his hands. On the way back, Samantha saw 3 shooting stars, due to the sheer number of stars visible and luck. On the second day we went on a 4 hour jungle walk in the morning. We saw squirrel monkeys, stick insects, tiny frog, humming bird. We made braclets from the wood shaving of a tree, we drank fresh water from a Liana, which wraps itself around trees. James showed us various medicines that can be made from trees. That night we canoed to separate part of the forest, completed a 2 hour walk to a jungle camp and slept in the jungle, in hammocks. We ate our tea out of leaves and used cutlery made freshly from tree branches and washed in the stream. Our guide James, was washing before bed and smell't a tarantula which he caught and brought to us. During the night, Samantha saw a huge jungle frog. The next morning we collected wood to make some blowpipes and made our way back to the main camp. On our final day we made our blowpipes ad went dolphin spotting, but didnt manage to see any.
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