Rainy season in the amazon.  There is the good and the bad about this. The good, it’s sooo hot that rain is a complete blessing, the bad, it’s hard to spot animals in the rain, your soaking wet and its heavy weight.

Manaus as a city is poor, it’s dead and there it isn’t much to do (purely in my opinion) The opera house is really beautiful the floating village, docks and the point at which the black and white rivers meet.

It is 7:00am in the morning and I am ready to take a bus for 3 hours to the mouth of the river basin, where from there I take a boat into the amazon for an hour. It is long but I’m excited. Yeah I have camped and hiked in Kenya loads but this is definitely different. I reach the eco lodge at around lunch time and the first thing I do is crack open a can of brahma with some guys from Belgium and a Spanish girl. It’s hot. We desperately need to cool down and one by one we jumped off the pier into rio negro and swim. I’m not going to lie I was a bit scared as to what was in the river. You can’t see through it, it’s too dark. Besides if something is going to happen its going to happen, end off.

Jose one of the locals and our guide said we had to go fishing for dinner. Super excited about it. We canoed into the forest and you can tell that water levels had risen, tall trees were submerged almost 5 meters into the water.  Jose passes along a couple of fishing rods and starts banging the water with the rod, in and out so the fish thinks that an animal has fallen and vooooop he catches a piranha. We do the same. In total 21 were caught, grilled and eaten.

That night we took another boat to go cayman spotting. The reflection of the sky on the river was pretty surreal. You feel like your sailing in the sky and that weirdly enough was my fondest memory.

In all horror movies, when you mess with the baby animals mama is going to get you. Jose casually catches baby caymans and I’m looking out for mama. This can’t be good, but I guess Jose knows his forest. caymans are pretty cute atleast the babies were.

We sail back, I still kept an eye out for mama!!!  Lights are out by 10pm I have to be up at 5 to go dolphin spotting. 5 am one of the Belgium guys ( funny story will tell you in a bit) wakes me up. ‘Tiiiinnnaaaa?! Lol wake upppp we go in boat’ barely awake we start canoeing and spot a couple of dolphins. It wasn’t anything like them jumping in the sunset and playing around. Way more subtle. The day followed by a 4 hour hike into the forest and another 2 in rain. Soaking wet, we reach our campsite, base out our hammocks and jump into the river. I need to wash I’m sweating and smelling. Oi Mpenzi, it’s difficult to look good in the jungle.

Jose pulls out a chicken from his bag, puts it through a stick makes the fire and starts to roast it with a pot of rice potatoes and onions next to it. 3 candles, 2 flashlights and a leaf to eat on. It was pretty cool. One of the guys turned into a complete soul searcher. Earlier that trip before we departed, he was offered ayahuasca. He hadn’t smoked a joint nor had he tried any hallucinogens before. Went straight for big daddy and let’s just say he made my trip entertaining. I couldn’t help but smile and embrace his journey with him. Early next day we watched the sunrise and continued hiking. After numerous spiders, frogs, bugs, blue butterflies and monkeys we stopped at base. Rested, washed and ready again. The rains started and started heavy. We had to continue and walk fast! I had an end goal of getting back to the lodge and contemplated whether to take a beer or shower first. It was a unanimous decision to take the beer. Hiking took a toll on us. We shared stories with each other and it’s interesting how people take different approaches on life and what they each want out of it. The days continued in a similar manor, hike, base, eat wash hike base eat wash. Our last day we slept in the lodge and i wanted to spend some time with jose. he was in his mid 50’s and was so interesting. I sat with him for an hour or so understanding his way of living and how happy he is with so little. He made me a bracelet and a spoon from brazil wood. ‘You are the first girl from Africa I have met’ I was so happy.

Mid day back for Manaus and I crash. lights out by 7pm. Next stop? Florriiiiippppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaa