The Brazilian Amazon

April, 2008

 

I am sitting down to write this in July, a few months after returning. Things are definitely not as clear or fresh as when I returned, but it took me about this long to make it through the 2000+ pictures. I actually kept a detailed daily journal, and that journal will be the basis for this story. I apologize in advance for the length, but I hope everyone can find something to enjoy.

 

This trip is a culmination of a few of my lifelong goals. When I was a young boy I looked forward to watching Nature every week with my father and I particularly loved the episodes involving the tropical forests. When the Cleveland Zoo announced they would construct a rainforest exhibit, I could not wait the few years it took to complete. Since then I have visited at least 20 times and it never gets less enjoyable. It was always a dream to someday visit one of these meccas of biodiversity. In high school, I did realize this dream with a two week trip to Belize to study tropical ecology. My passion for herpetology was just being realized at this time, and some of my best memories are of the snakes we were able to see on the trail. I returned, convinced I would visit Central America again, but deep down knowing that I really wanted to see the Brazilian Amazon. I just had to visit, but never knew how I could make it happen...

 

My interest in biology eventually led me into medicine. Even when I was first applying to medical schools, one of my questions was always what type of international opportunities were offered? Having had a taste of other cultures in Belize, I wanted more travel experience, and I had the naive medical student vision of traveling the world and making a difference. Cincinnati attracted me for many reasons, but promises of international clinics in Honduras, Belize and Tasmania were appealing. I was frustrated to learn there was no room or time to actually go on these trips until your fourth year, but I looked forward to that time almost more than I did graduation.

 

Lastly, in college I realized my attraction to reptiles and amphibians actually had a name. As much as I truly loved exploring all the different areas of Ohio, anyone who enjoys field herping dreams of the unknown frontier of the rainforest. Finally, something came along that let me fulfill this goals. The trip was everything I thought it would be. I had an awesome time, met wonderful people, and saw many, many things...

 

4/9/08 Max and I woke up at 5:30am to be at the airport by 6:30. My dad was in town the night before, so we had caught a late dinner and then we both packed until 3:30am. I don't remember much other than taking a few pictures at the airport in Cincinnati in anticipation and then sleeping the whole way to Miami. Max and I, Cincinnati - We had started our Brazil Beards a few days earlier

 

We had an unfortunate 7 hour layover in Miami. No one was working the terminal for Tam Airlines that early so everyone had to kill some time. A few people hit up South Beach and some just chilled at the airport bar. Molly still had a few days of work left in Miami, so she picked Max and I up at the airport to go out to lunch. It was great to see her before we left, I just wish I had taken some pictures. Waiting... in Miami

 

It was great to fly an international flight! We actually got fed on the plane and the meal was pretty tasty. Somehow I lucked into having an empty seat next to me which made the long flight much more enjoyable. We arrived around 1:00 am and everyone looked a little worse for the wear. Max, Nick and I ended up stuck at the very end of the customs line. We waited over an hour to get through, but we were able to occupy ourselves watching a few people struggle with everyone's luggage on the other side of the fence, while a couple of the guys in our group just talked and were completely worthless. I won't name names... The airport in Manaus

 

We stayed at the Hotel Dez De Juhlo in Manaus. I admit, the place was sketchy at best, but it was downtown and there was an air-conditioner. We quickly fell in love with Shivaki, our beloved bringer of cool air.

 

Our rooms were basic, but honestly I couldn't have asked for more. The biggest problem was that somehow as soon as I climbed into the bed, the sheets basically folded in around me and I ended up on the bare mattress every night... ughhh...

 

That first night, we hung out for a few minutes on the patio enjoying some refreshing waters. I even found my first herp of the trip on the walls of the hotel.

 

Tropical House Gecko Hemidactylus mabouia

 

We had a bit of an interesting wake up call, but the room of four stumbled down to help with the sorting of medications. We took thousands of pills and split them up into little bags of certain quantities. It was a little mind-numbing, but it made working in the "pharmacy" easier later.

 

When it was over, the guys had plans to head out to lunch at a Brazilian Steakhouse. I was ready so I decided to explore the hotel a bit more. Up on the room, I realized I had a decent look at the Teatro Amazonas, or the Amazon Theatre. The teatro was built in 1896 during the rubber boom, although it soon fell into disrepair. It has been renovated numerous times over the years, and recently, much money has gone into restoring its former glory. An opera once again graces its halls, and it is supposed to be superb (not that you could convince me to go).

 

We wandered the beautiful streets of Manaus for a couple hours. Beautiful as in a total cesspool. The city is disgusting, and although I fell in love with it a bit, I never got over the smell. I ended up seeing quite a few of the seedier parts of town and I may have enjoyed them more. I feel the city mirrors the wilderness of the jungle perfectly. I will say that I felt much safer miles in the middle of the jungle than I ever did in the city. We wandered around for a few hours, stopping to ask for directions here and there. Eventually we found our steakhouse, Bufalo. Basically, it is all you can eat meat, and there are usually 15-20 different meat dishes to choose from. The establishments based on this style in the US are wonderful, the authentic Brasil experience was good, but we ended up having much better meals for far cheaper the rest of the trip.

 

After our meal, it was easy to get down to our next stop. We just followed the hill down and eventually it led us to the water. We had seen glimpes of the Amazon while we were lost, but we wanted to get our first good look at it. It really was the Rio Negro, we would see the true Rio Amazonas later. Manaus is on the Rio Negro, just upriver of the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes. The Solimoes is the name of the Amazon in Brasil from the border of Peru to the where the Rio Negro joins.  Some observant folks might be wondering what that square block of green in the middle of the expanding Manaus is... more on that to come.

 

Our first glimpses of the Rio Negro.

 

 

We had rushed through the market along the river and now we definitely wanted to go back and check it out further. I guess if you get here real early in the morning the real magic happens, but I never felt like making the trip back. It isn't much from the outside...

 

Kinda dark and dingy on the inside.

 

Max thought it was pretty cool though. And the produce section wasn't too bad. Tons of fruit I have never seen or heard of before, and we just had to buy a watermelon and some coconuts for the water.

 

Photo Mai Vu

 

 

The butcher section was cool...

 

Fish as far as the eye can see in any direction.

 

Surubim, Shovelnose Catfish Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum

 

The heads of Pirarucu Arapaima gigas. These fish get gigantic, and they actually loose their gills as adults and need to take gulps of air. They have an air bladder that functions as a lung.

 

A nice gentleman showing off one of his Piranha, Pygocentrus nattereri

 

I am not sure what is fileted open in front of me, but the large slabs on the left are Pirarucu.

 

We got our first taste of rain on the way back. A true downpour hit and started to flood the streets. Needless to say the sewers didn't seem to be able to handle it very well. It started to subside so we headed back late in the afternoon. That night for dinner, we fell for another tourist trap and had dinner at the Taj Mahal Hotel. I have no idea why there is a hotel named that in Manaus, but oh well. The restaurant is at the top of the hotel, and it spins around giving you various views of the city. The food was decent, but pricey. Max, Manya and Marquia enjoyed the evening.

 

Nick waxing our good buddy Tah's dome head.

 

We left the Taj for a fine establishment we began to term "The corner Bar". Basically it was the restaurant bar on the corner near our hotel. This first night we got our first taste of caipirinhas, the official cocktail of Brasil. It is made from a very shitty sugarcane alcohol called cachaca, with sugar and fresh limes. Although we were sternly warned to avoid the fruit and the ice, we quickly through caution in the wind. They were a bit pricey at this establishment so we began sampling the local flavors of beer. My favorite was Skol, but it was terrible if you let it get warm. Brahma Chopp and Antartica were the other commonly seen beers, but they couldn't come close to Skol. Somehow, the corner bar ran out of Skol on this night, and over the course of the next four days they never did stock more??? We of course took our business elsewhere quickly, but more on that later.

 

Sometime during Nick's childhood he decided he wanted to learn how to balance things on his chin. He was kind enough to demonstrate for us.

 

We turned in early that night because we had an early morning at our first clinic on the outskirts of Manaus. I guess some of us didn't feel as well as others that morning, because an unnamed fellow vomited on the busride over to the site. In his defense, the roads were terribly and the driving worse. I was in a different bus and was totally ignorant of what had happened. When we arrived, the first thing I saw was the same fellow running for a bush and loosing his breakfast. Must have been the ice last night... He became known as "The gurge" and I will refer to him as such from now on.

 

So this was our first experience with setting up a medical clinic in the field. The town was Colonia Antonio Alexio, a favela (slum) which rumor has it that it used to be an old leprosy colony. The site was a school house, and it turned out to be one of the nicest places the whole trip. Every room had large windows fans, and of course electricity. There were masses of people and we moved them throughout the day. The final tally was 278 patients, a wonderful first day.

 

We finally got to meet our intrepretors, and man were they great. We really didn't get comfortable with them for a few more days, but their assistance was greatly appreciated. The Brazilians loved to have their pictures taken, look at them on the cameras, and then take pictures of each other. Many of them even had nice digital cameras of their own.

 

 

 

During lunch I spotted a lizard along the top of the fence surrounding the school. It was on the move and I new I didn't have time, or the height to actually get a decent shot of it from outside. Unfortunately, these are the best pictures I have and I am still kinda clueless on an ID.

 

 

I did catch a gecko under a concrete slab along the building. I am thinking another Hemidactylus mabouia?

 

I worked in the pharmacy in the afternoon. Nick was busy already when I walked in.

 

(Flo)Max was the flow man for the day.

 

Grant Hill made an appearance... DETROIT!

 

The Pharmacy was bustling... Those tables of meds would be our supplies for the next 10 days. We would end up seeing 2200 people and we definitely ran out of most everything. You can't bring prescription medications into Brasil, so most of the stuff we sorted the day before and brought were over the counter medications and vitamins. We did travel with two Brazilian physicians though who kindly and generously provided the prescription medications, primarily antibiotics, antifungals and antihelmintics. Almost everyone we saw had worms of various varieties...

 

The gurge working hard stamping out disease.

 

More cute kids, and a welcome sign.

 

 

For no real apparent reason I decided to climb the tree outside of the building. As soon as I got up in it, many of the school kids starting calling me "macaco" or monkey. One of the kids starting laughing and said, "No! Gorilla!" Good times had by all...

 

That night we returned to the corner bar for dinner and a last beer in the city before we depart on the boats the next day. For many reasons, professional, safety and otherwise, there is no alcohol on the boats. Many of the nights would have really ended well with a frosty cold beer, but I would say it was the right call. Anyway, the corner bar pizza was ok but they were still out of Skol. We moved about a block away to the "Skol Bar". Don't know the real name, but it had buttloads of cold skol and it did not run out. That night we returned to hotel sweaty and damp, only to rejoice in the wonderful tool that was Shivaki. Our room cooled off very quickly. We became sad we would be leaving her behind, and in final act of thanks, we decided to show her our true afffection. It took a few tries, and we never really had success, but we hoisted Max up there to try and introduce her to a real man.

 

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© 2006 Last Updated: 2/11/07