(Jungle Day 2) Up Close and Personal

So this happened:

What did we do on our first morning in the Amazon Rainforest? Let's go to the chart:

Community visit it is!

Morning Activity: Community Visit

At the end of day one we learned about how the local community supports the reserve's management plan. For the Mamirauá reserve to succeed, the local population needed to limit and control fishing and timbering of the reserve's land, each a major source of revenue for the locals. For a time the area was so overfished that the locals were surviving on rare, giant pirarucu fish so small they could barely feed one person. The threat of running out of food and the loss of the forest made conservation an easy sale for the residents. Not only did the pirarucu come back in strength, the locals have helped out with research. For example, researchers were struggling to get accurate capture-recapture counts of the pirarucu until locals offered to simply watch and count by hand. The locals were significantly more accurate than the researchers.

Anyway, the community was a boat ride away (boats!) so we took pictures of animals along the river.

An amazon kingfisher surveying its domain.

Three aracari (a kind of toucan).

This is either a kite or a hawk. It winked at me.

Herons were everywhere, watching from the trees.

A vulture of some variety.

A yellow-rumped cacique.

A legit toucan! Not one of those aracari toucan impersonators.

My attempts to "follow my nose" failed to unearth any Fruit Loops.

A bird! That's all I know.

This pigeon seems to have just remembered it forgot something.

This vulture is being indecent.

Three more amazon parrots trying out their synchronized flying

This wading bird resumed wading after a brief flight.

A blue-and-white swallow, I think.

River terns would swarm in the mornings evenings. You could hear them dive straight down into the water to catch fish.

At the community

Our need for animal photos satiated, we arrived at the village.

We were greeted by a lovely woman who lives in this village. She had lived in this community for decades. She had several children, with some now living in the city and others still around the village. As a courtesy to the residents I tried not to take photos the people we met.

After human introductions, we were introduced to a new family pet. This baby sloth had be taken from it's mother by a harpy eagle, possibly for nefarious purposes. Fortunately the villagers managed to rescue her and provide things to hug (sloths are one of the few animals that hug to survive).

We explored the village with our local guide. Aleeni translated our questions into Portuguese and we learned about life in the village.

The town soccer field. Cows love it.

Both the water level and the temperature was quite high. The cows took advantage by swimming liberally.

As the day progressed, each cow found it's heron buddy.

There were many dogs running around. They all seemed friendly but warm.

The community was laid out in a straight line along the river. These power lines are connected to a diesel generator that they run each evening from 6pm to 10pm.

This guinea pig was running around out in the open. The dogs seemed to pay no mind.

This vulture was looking bored. All the animals seemed healthy and alive.

I believe this was a kiln used to make handicrafts. It wasn't currently in use at this point.

This water tank pulls water from the river using solar power. This was a project paid for by the reserve. I believe it isn't safe for drinking, but is good for washing dishes and bathing.

These next few pictures are for the community center. Local meetings and parties are thrown here.

The only stove sits in a shed out back.

The electrical wiring is significantly more modern than what's in parts of our house.

The local chapel.

Inside the chapel.

Each house has its own rainwater collection system for providing safe drinking water. It rains often enough that the tanks don't need to be that big. Rainwater runs off the tin roof and into the tank.

This tree produces a giant fruit (see below) that is kind of like a gourd. It's toxic to humans, but the cows love them.

Camera shown for scale.

After being processed by cows, the gourd can be used as a bowl or hat.

The water was very close to the village at this point the year, but as it drops the residents will need to walk all the way to the treeline to get water.

This is a cashew tree. It's not native to this area, but the fruit (yes fruit) and nuts attached to the fruit are a good source of food. The shell around the nut is toxic, which is why you can only buy the raw nut in the states.

Oi is a Brazilian telecom. The tower that connected it fell down several years ago. This would be sad except that everyone now has cell phones and doesn't care about getting it fixed.

The land-line tower, deceased.

Television dishes still point up (and I still find that cool). Also, they have television.

The school is located in a very nice looking building that I avoided photographing due to children hanging around outside.

The school had been built in June 2012. The building was in excellent shape.

We exited through the village gift shop. To supplement their income the locals make handicrafts to sell to tourists. Be sure to bring exact change as they typically use pirarucu scales as local currency instead of the Brazilian Real.

While we were shopping, a young boy brought by his pet spider monkey. The little guy seemed scared at first, but seemed much happier once it was given some guava.

Also, there were chickens.

Outside the shop the local children gathered their pets. The baby sloth made another appearance.

The sloth's greatest fear: flight.

Locals don't tend to hunt sloth for food. They hug things so hard that if you were to shoot one in a tree, it would remain attached.

The dog days of winter.

A pet amazon parrot hung out in a tree with the sloth.

The cows were picking teams as we left.

Visiting the community was surprisingly interesting. Some residents choose to move to Tefé or Manaus, but many more choose to live in the flooded forest instead. Everyone we met seemed happy and healthy, and despite being off the grid they still have television and cell phones. I have to admit when I first heard we would visit a local village, I expected something much more primitive.

We took a nap after we returned to the lodge. It was too hot. ~95F and 100% humidity hot. I have never loved a tiny, solar-powered fan so much. Also, naps in the middle of the day are awesome.

Afternoon Activity: Paddle Boat Tour

After lunch and a recharging nap we prostrated ourselves before the activity board. It decreed:

And thus we paddled.

Up until this point all our boat-based wildlife observation included a very loud motor. The motorboat was also too large to maneuver between the trees of the flooded forest, so we could only observe animals in trees along the river. For more shy animals, we needed something more nimble and quiet.

Paddle boats employ a buddy+guide system. Each guest picks a buddy (I chose Claire), and a guide makes sure both you and your buddy make it back alive. Our guide spoke only a little English, but he still managed to crack jokes about howler monkeys and generally be awesome.

We hopped in the paddle boat and our guide paddled us into the trees. At one point we asked him how he knew the path, and he just laughed.

Photos don't really do the flooded forest justice. I took some video on my phone. The audio isn't great but you get a sense of how calm the forest can be.

We also saw several birds and a few howler monkeys in the distance, but the tree cover was too dense to get good pictures.

I also learned an important lesson about mosquitoes. I was warned that we should apply extra bug spray due to the stagnant water. I did this, but neglected to put any of our 100% DEET on my legs since I was wearing long pants. Turns out that was a mistake.

I now know why malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases are such a problem. First, all the water is stagnant. Second, they're small... very small. Third, they can still bite through clothes. As evidenced by this photo:

The black dot in the middle is a mosquito.

At least they don't carry malaria in this part of the jungle.