Our class standing in the square learning about the history of Manaus and the rubber barons
Monument in the middle of the square with the four boats
The four continents are Europe, America, Asia, and Africa
Nicole and I sitting on the monument
Our class in front of the opera house
Heather, Anna, Catalina, Ana, Nicole, Georgie and I riding in our carriage quietly over the rubber stones
|
January 1st/2nd, 2017
I started the new year with my suitcase packed and my mind open. While in the car on the way to meet up with a classmate to carpool, I was thinking how gray and cold it was in New Jersey. I was excited as we drove to JFK airport, I could already picture the tropical landscape so different from the dry, cold climate of New York. When we arrived at the airport, many of our classmates were arriving as well, and it was very nice to see everyone. At that point I knew maybe half of the group from class and the other half I had only met once or twice. I didn’t know it then, but by the end of the trip we would all be very good friends. Boarding the plane was bittersweet, soon we would be on the educational experience of a lifetime, but the flight was about 10 hours long. With the excitement of the class, the flight went by very quickly and before I knew it I was in Sao Paulo airport. We had a short layover there, and a 4 hour flight brought us to Manaus. We left at about 5pm from JFK so by the time we landed in Manaus it was about 10 in the morning at home (Sao Paulo time is 2 hours ahead of NJ time and Manaus is 1 hour ahead of NJ time). When we got to Manaus, we hit the ground running. It was a beautiful morning in Brazil. I tend to sleep very well on busses and not at all on planes, which is unfortunate. I’m sure the bus ride to the hotel was very nice though, the parts I was awake for where quite different than at home. Everything was so green and warm it made me very happy. Manaus seemed a lot like Florida at first, except the streets and buildings were all labeled in Portuguese. The Taj Mahal hotel was in an area similar to downtown Philadelphia. The hotel was exciting at night. I like that they attempted to be sustainable by keeping the lights off in the hallways when people were not using them. There was quite a delay in the light sensors which resulted in exciting walks to our rooms at night. We ate lunch a few doors down at a buffet style restaurant. It was the first meal of Brazil and a very good representation of what would be on the menu for the rest of the trip. There was a lot of different meats in cheese. Cheese lovers must visit Brazil. I enjoyed the fresh fruit, rice and beans. There were quite a few other roots and things I have still not identified that I ate and enjoyed. After lunch, we met up with our guides that we absolutely loved for the next three days. They made Manaus an amazing experience. Their names were Raphael, Marcus, and Tayke. We went on a walk to tour downtown Manaus. We visited San Sebastian Square where we saw the opera house and the monument in the center of the square. Raphael explained how Eduardo Ribeiro was the governor of the Amazonas state. He was one of the rubber barons (rich landowners who profited from growing rubber trees) who wanted to make the city a rich area and so in 1881 he planned on building an extravagant opera house. A duo of an italian artist and another Brazilian artist decorated the opera house and it stands bright pink in Sebastian square today. The bricks around the opera house were partially made from rubber sap. This allowed the sound of the horse shoes to be muffled as the buggies drove by outside. The monument in the center of the square has four ships, each representing the four continents from which the majority of the people in the city were from. The black and white cobblestone was thought to represent the mixing of the waters, which is still a possible meaning behind the design. These patterns in the streets of Manaus were quite interesting, especially as the tour went on and our class noticed that the patterns continued all throughout Brazil. After touring the square, we got on the bus and headed to the botanical garden of Manaus, also called the Museum of Manaus or MUSA. It started to rain when we got there, but it was so warm that it felt nice. Under a large tent there was a large wooden contraption that the natives used to use to catch fish. There was also a fish tank with native species and many rocks and carvings on display. We took a walk into the Amazon rainforest and stopped at a pond that had large lily pads. I had never seen such large lily pads and they were very cool. They have spikes on the bottom of them to keep animals from eating them. We took a walk by another fish tank which had the famous pirarucu fish inside. I was very excited to see the fish because it is one of the largest freshwater species in the world. It can grow up to ten feet long and weigh almost 485 pounds! The fish eats its prey by crushing it with a large tongue studded with teeth. Besides eating the fish, Amazonians also use the dried tongue as a seed grater. After we saw the fish we went to see an anaconda. The anaconda was so well hidden in its cage it made me wonder how many we had walked by in the wild and not noticed. Finding the snake is very difficult, but they do give off a strong smell that lets you know they are near. We also walked through a little cabin that had numerous other smaller species of snakes in cages. It was fascinating. After viewing the animals, we walked on in the forest toward an observation tower. On the way there we saw many different kinds of mushrooms. I really enjoyed seeing all the different types of fungus growing on the trees. Surprisingly there were no mosquitos around. Whenever I told anyone I was going to Brazil the first topic that followed was always zika and malaria and mosquitos. I found it very interesting that none of these things were really an issue in the Amazon rainforest. When I asked Raphael about it he explained that the mosquitoes cannot breed in the Rio Negro due to the chemical nature of the water. With no mosquitos, and the sweet smell of the forest after rain we followed the trail and climbed the stairs to an outlook. We could see all of the steam coming up and evapotranspiration occurring right in front of our eyes out of the forest, so lush and green. The sun was setting over the treetops and peregrine falcons and blue macaws were flying by. Words cannot explain the beauty and lure of the forest from where we stood. I was so grateful for the people who worked hard to create this museum for our enjoyment. Preserving this area of the Amazon is truly an amazing accomplishment because it allows people to come and see what nature has and how unique it truly is. Maybe if enough people can come see it and learn about all of the ecosystem services it provides they can help to keep others from destroying it for monetary profit. |
The entrance to the cave from the inside out
The entrance to the cave
Rafael making a grass hopper out of the white palm
The Amazon is our outdoor classroom
Waterfall slightly upstream of where we jumped in the water
Can you see it?
|
January 4th
I was especially excited for this day ever since I had first decided to go to Brazil just a few months before. The first thing I thought about Brazil was how amazing it would be to hike in the Amazon rainforest. I never thought I would have the opportunity to actually traverse such a unique biosystem with my own feet. I made sure I got plenty of sleep on the two hour bus ride to Presidente Figueroa park. The park was a preserved area of the Amazon. It had been raining off and on, so the trail was very slippery but that just made the hike more fun. As we walked through the forest, Raffael stopped and talked about some of the vegetation we were passing by. He explained that the Paxiuba walking palm tree had roots above ground and the trunk far up above ground. He also mentioned the turtle leather tree bark boiled in water is a good way to help migraines. The acai tree roots are very short so people have to climb the tree to collect the fruit. He told us that the eye of the white palm is what people use to make houses and baskets. We saw a blue morpho butterfly and the yellow fruit of the pikuia tree. We saw water vines which Rafael said can be cut and you can drink the water out of them. There were bulldog ants that we saw that apparently one bite causes 24 hours of pain because they bite and sting. We also saw quinine leaves which can give the same sensation as a cigarette. Rafael told us to think of the forest more as the air conditioning of the earth rather than the lungs. Soon enough we had reached the mouth of a dark cave. The cave was made from sandstone that had been washed out by water over many years. The cave was insanely fascinating. We had to wear masks over our mouths and noses so we did not breathe in the air because the bat feces inside may spread diseases. There was little stream running through the cave and I went in barefoot. The water was perfectly clear and there was just sand at the bottom, no vegetation. The cave was pitch black inside. There were bats everywhere and the guides pointed out iron deposits in the walls. The weird thing about the cave was that if you didn’t walk in the water you were walking on bat feces and there were little cricket scorpion looking insects everywhere you stepped. For some people I guess the best description of the cave would be their worst nightmare, but I thought it was super neat. We saw dwarf caiman tracks and were told that there were small catfish and shrimp living in the water. Apparently the cave is the safest place to stay if you were trapped in the jungle at night. We came across the most venomous spider in the Amazon, the wandering spider. On our way out of the cave we saw a cock of the rock nest which was awesome because they are considered the protector of the forest. We walked up to a waterfall and then turned around and walked back to end the hike. We drove a little further on the bus and stopped at a little restaurant surrounded by bright colored houses for rent. We had a great lunch once again, and this time we had an odd little desert. It was some kind of lemon tasting pudding. It was refreshing, but not as refreshing as what was to come next. We changed into our bathing suits and walked back into the forest. We came up to some more waterfalls and a wooden ramp. The ramp went right up over the water, and then ended. Soon enough we were all running off the ramp, cannon balling into the water. Oddly enough, this area reminded me so much of a swimming area near my home. The water was dark just like a stream through the pine forest back in New Jersey. We had so much fun jumping off, having a contest amongst the class of who could do the best and most creative jump. Tyler offered a special surprise in his last jump, but Tait wasn’t impressed. Our next stop was a geopark. It was very fun to jump from rock to rock. The sandstone had been pushed up into little flat plates almost perpendicular to the earth. Over different geological time periods sediment was transported and packed down. The unanswered question was about how the one tectonic plate went and tipped down, and the other went upward. Or the other alternative was that possibly the two plates smashed into each other and both went partially up and down. We walked around there for some time and I climbed some trees. I love climbing trees in all different places because you can get a better vantage point and really learn a lot about the vegetation and insects in an area. I quickly learned not to climb random trees in Brazil. I was about ten feet up in one tree when I went to put my hand down and almost pet an insect larger than my hand. The insect was so well camouflaged that you could barely see it in the picture I took to show the others. I tried pointing to the insect, but no one saw it. Tyler climbed up and gave it a look. To me it looked like a spider because it had so many legs. The Guide said that it was a type of grasshopper. I was very relieved. We got back on the bus and drove back to the hotel. We ate dinner and I had guava ice cream after. The juice at the restaurant was amazing. I tried the papaya and passion fruit juice. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and drove back to the airport. We flew four more hours back to Sao Paulo and then waited an hour before flying another hour to Rio. From the minute I stepped foot on the plane I already missed Manaus and our amazing guides. The ramp we jumped off of into the water
Me up in a tree at the geopark
|