Adventures in Brazil - Part 2 - The Law of the (Amazon) Jungle

The dolphins were having lunch with us, dancing in the rain with us, but we couldn't swim with them... because the Piranhas and Alligators were waiting for us. Welcome to the jungle.

The Amazon forest was good to us. There is bliss in 360 degrees of nature, no cell-phone connection and no hot-water-needed temperatures.

Welcome to Part 2 of this 3-part series; the Law of the Jungle. We’ll dive into the Life at the Inn, Alligators & Piranha in the river, hiking in the jungle, a night spent in the wild, and touch upon the trouble the Amazon rainforest is in.

You can also read Part 1 about traveling to the Amazon from the US and part 3 about the vibes in different Brazilian cities.

Let’s go.

Life at the Inn

It took 3 flights, 3 vans, and 2 boats to get to the Juma Lake Inn, as part of a tour with Iguana Adventures, in the middle of the jungle. You can read about the travel adventure in Part 1 of this Brazilian Adventure series. You enter the Inn via a floating dock where guests check-in, eat and relax. Everything happens along the river here, the roadway is the waterway, there are no roads through the forest. The Lunch buffet was spread at noon, and it was delicious (frankly, we were so hungry that any food would seem delicious).

It began to rain while we ate. I was staring at the water drops hitting the river and suddenly saw ripples and 2 fins bob up from the river. I didn't expect that… river Dolphins - right there - swimming next to us, getting drenched with us, playing in the rain with us. They were pink and grey. Some guy started taking off his shirt - wanting to jump in to swim with the dolphins and the guides yelled in Portuguese "no! don't go into the water, they’re here for the Piranhas!" We were the only English speakers in the tour, and someone helpfully translated the warning.

Amazon river dolphin; PC: blog

It was our first taste of the jungle… Not everything is benign here. It’s about survival here. Eat or be eaten.

The rooms are built on stilts to be above the monsoon water levels, which meant climbing about 100 steps to get to a wood cabin, with a bathroom, a fan, a comfy bed with mosquito netting, and a balcony with a hammock. We took a shower and didn’t even feel the need for hot water (it was 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit), and there wasn’t any hot water to be had anyway!)

Alligators and Piranha - the river

Activity number 1 after lunch was a fishing trip. We sailed for an hour admiring the views. We saw ducks and herons in the water. Different birds were perched atop trees looking down. Some were flying about 6 inches above the water, waiting to swoop into the water to grab their meal.

Suddenly I heard someone hiss a Portuguese incantation. “Jacaré!”

Along the shore, camouflaged away was an alligator with simple intentions. It was hungry, and we were curious. But our boat was too big, it saw us, evaluated the situation and slinked away into the water. Watching for alligators became the new theme for me, and pretty soon I was hissing ‘Jacaré’ before anyone else spotted them ashore.

As the sun began to get tired and dusk approached. Our captain Kennedy pulled ashore. We saw some monkeys atop the trees, watching us curiously. Then they spotted an Iguana and went to mess with it, the iguana was dropped from the tree top to the forest floor, and quickly scampered away, the poor thing!

Captain Kennedy had some of the simplest fishing gear possible - sticks with a string & a hook. He attached some chicken skin to the hook, splashed the water a bit to attract attention, then hoisted the hook in, just 30 seconds later, he yanks out a piranha greedily chomping away at the bait. He made it look way too easy.

Then he held it and showed us its sharp teeth. The Piranha was not too happy. After we finished Ooohing and Aaahing, he threw it back in the river and the little guy swam away presto.

I lay back to watch the birds and the monkeys as the people around me tested their reflexes and caught multiple Piranha, admired them and returned them to the water. Richi snagged two of them and quickly established her Bengali credentials.

As we sailed back for dinner, the guide told us to eat and get ready quickly, we’d be sailing back for an alligator watching tour at night. I was skeptical. It is pitch black at night, how would we spot any Jacaré in the dark?

The answer - We’d spot their eyes.

Captain Kennedy had a powerful flashlight strapped to his head for the night tour. As he sailed the boat, he would scan the riverbanks and we would follow his light beam. It was like Cyclops navigating the darkness with his red beam on the whole time. Whenever he wiggled his beam to draw our attention, we would spot a yellow reflection out in the distance… A Jacaré out on the hunt. The bigger that gleam, the bigger that gator.

Then something caught the captain's attention. He turned off the engine and sailed towards shore till our boat slowly came to a stop on a river bank. He jumped off and ran into the bushes. The headbeam went wild, like a lightshow, with the flashlight madly beaming everywhere. And as ridiculous as it sounds - out of the darkness, our captain Kennedy emerged emerged from a bush, holding a baby ALLIGATOR by its jaw and its hind legs- in his bare arms. He then jumped on to the boat and gave it to us to hold it. My eyes might tell you my feelings here…

No trails in sight, Hiking in the jungle

The next day, I balmed myself with mosquito repellent everywhere that I had exposed skin. We had woken up eagerly to go hiking in the Jungle. It was an easy trip, we simply sailed across the river and trudged into the forest.

The guide started the tour with these words - "this is not a National park. This is a real Jungle."

For the next 3 hours, the plant-life explained to me the meaning of the "Law of the Jungle".

On any patch of land deep in the forest, you'll find ten layers of life battling it out. A tangle of mish-mashed roots underground, insects roaming on damp mud covered by grass and dead leaves in different sizes, and colors, in various states of life and decay.

Mushrooms growing atop a branch surrounded by layers of foliage in different states of life and decay!

Then some short cute plants, fallen branches over grown with mushrooms, bushes and shrubs, and trees growing atop it all to get more sunlight and survive. Clearly size matters. As we hiked deeper, the air was cooler since less sunlight got in through the dense trees.

The winners are the tallest trees, which are greedily trying to blot out the skies and absorb all the sunlight and rain. But once the trees began to win, a more creative force emerged - vines.

This parasitic vine will grow on this tree, and eventually they will die together. Decades later.

We saw this Tall tree surrounded by a strangely thick creeper around it. Turned out it was a parasitic vine that climbed only the tallest trees. The vine would keep climbing and sucking out the nutrients from the tree for years, till it eventually killed that particular tree. The tree would fall to the forest floor and in turn kill the vine. Together, the vine and the tree may survive 60 - 80 years until they returned to the earth.

This sight gave me a strange realization. Humans may be horrible to the planet, we may be ruthlessly destroying everything in our world as we expand our species. But other species do the same thing… everyone fights to survive. We’ve just found ourselves with too much power. More about this at the end.

Someone asked the guide if he’s sure he knows the way back. We all laughed and realized that we wouldn’t have any idea how to find our way back to the river without this fellow.

Then the guide started talking about survival tips. He said you can’t drink the river water, look for water vines instead, these are plant that you can cut in a special way and out pours drinkable water.

There were some funny looking fruits on the forest floor. He took out his machete and cracked open a Brazilian nut found on the forest floor - I had it, it was coconutty and delicious. The guide also said there was an edible maggot feeding inside the other nut, and some brave adventurous souls tried it and commented that it too was coconutty. Ugh.

The locals call this the instagram tree because people love taking photos of it.

The Amazon has everything, palm trees, nuts, leaves of every shape and size. In the rainy season it is easier to navigate the jungle on a canoe rather than on foot. The river rises in the rainy season and the plants and insects must adapt to being drowned in water for weeks. I felt a sense of childlike wonder, touching things to feel its texture, trying to bend the branches and break them. I scratched at a tree trunk once and a white liquid came seeping out. It tasted minty and felt sticky. Turned out it was one of the 12 different types of rubber trees in that forest.

My chance encounter with a rubber tree in the jungle.

At some point, we stopped to listen to the forest. I heard so many sounds. River water in the distance, insects buzzing nearby, frogs, crickets, and birds. The animals were calling to each other, establishing their terrains, warning of humans nearby,  warning off enemies, and seducing their mates… all at the same time.

Eventually, the hike ended. We sailed back to the Inn, reflective, and inspired. We would return soon enough.

A night in the woods in a hammock

Later that day, we packed some warm clothes, and mosquito repellent in to a bag and sailed to a secluded clearing in the forest to camp. It turned out to be a superbly organized situation. We were taught to put up our own hammocks, and cover them with mosquito nets. Then as we explored the area and chatted. The guide started a large fire and began cooking rice, meats, and veggies in large pots. We played some music downloaded on our phones (no network), and as it got darker, flashlights came on, beverages flowed and the dancing began. Our Portuguese friends taught us the local dance moves, which came naturally to Richi and still haven’t come to me.

We ate till our bellies were full, told each other funny stories in English and Portuguese and made our way to bed.

I thought sleeping in a hammock would be so comfortable and relaxing. I was totally wrong. My legs were stretched up at some strange angle all night. Someone was snoring loudly nearby. The temperature changed from muggy and warm to chilly and cold at night till I was shivering. I decided to get out of my hammock again and put on long pants and a sweatshirt.

And damn, I needed to go pee so many times! Each time, I had to put on my shoes, silently walk away in the dark forest and pee while imagining insects climb up my legs. It was a weirdly, uncomfortably, fun night.

Richi wanted to watch the birds around sunrise and woke up bright and early. The peaceful morning glow was worth it and our friends joined us. We walked to the riverbank, and birdwatched. We spotted night jars, swallows, kingfishes, Herons, and hawks. We soaked in the peaceful morning.

A photo of birdwatchers since the birds are hard to photograph

Then we packed up our hammocks and sailed back to the inn for breakfast.

The Amazon is in trouble

Richi has always said she wants to go visit the Amazon rainforest before it disappears. I always thought that we had a lot of time before that was a real risk, but now I’m actually worried about that reality.

In the last few hours I got to talk to the inn-keeper about his life and heard some fascinating tales. He’s a Guyanese immigrant who married a descendent from one of the Amazonian tribal families. He moved to the forest and opened this floating inn.

He pointed to cabins above the steps and a marker from 2021. 2 years ago, the waters were at least 50 meters (150 feet) higher than they are right now. That’s a huge change. All the structures are built on stilts or built to float, because the vagaries of the river are the vagaries of their life. The Amazon is experiencing a historic drought. The water levels are perilously low. He talked about 5-star hotels in other parts of the forest not being able to host their guests because the river has totally dried up near their properties and the skies are smoky.

Then we talked about the elephant in the room this whole trip … the smoke in the air. The skies are grey, and clogged with smoke.

The Amazon rainforests are called the Lungs of the Earth. This region is the largest net producer of oxygen on our planet. I expected a detox from the city life but my lungs and eyes were itchy because of the blanket of smoke in the air.

The locals are absolutely freaking out. They're blaming the government, for being corrupt and looking away while criminals set fire to the forest and convert parts of it into farmland.

There was a boat ride one morning to watch the sun-rise. It is usually a stunning sight. But now, the sunrise looks like a lame blot of orange in the sky with the sun battling the smoke for a chance to shine.

Nature is funny

Still, nature is nature, and she’s gorgeous. To remind us of what incredible diversity is at stake if we don’t stop burning it all down a couple of parrots visited the Inn to enjoy our last meal with us. One tricked Richi into thinking they’re friends, and then bit her arm and pooped on my hat! The Law of the Jungle, never rests :)

If you’ve got friends who love adventurous travels, share this post with them.

We returned to civilization via 2 boat rides, 2 vans and a car. Next Stops: two unique cities - Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. I’ll share their vibes in Part 3 if enough people comment / share or like this because these pieces take a lot of work!