Well, we signed up on this holiday for Adventure, and my goodness, tonight we definitely got it !
This was our third Zodiac river safari of the day, the first was at 6.30 am, 2nd at 4.30 and the final one of the day was at 8.30 in the pitch black. Now, when I say pitch black, I really do mean pitch black! To the extent that there are no lights anywhere on the horizon, apart from the lights of our base Sea Dream Yacht. In fact, this has been one of the most amazing highlights of our Amazon voyage for me, walking on the deck at night and seeing NO light pollution anywhere on the horizon, no villages, no boats, just total darkness as far as the eye can see. Not even a plane in the sky for days on end.
The first 2 safaris were spectacular in their own right and I'll write about them in other posts but I have to write about this night safari while its still fresh in my mind.
We were about 8 passengers in the Zodiac inflatable dinghy and our expedition leader for tonight was Guillermo Knell. We've been on several of Guillermo's expeditions and he never fails to find interesting and exciting things along the way, tonight was no exception.
Sea Dream was anchored in the middle of a very wide section of the Amazon, just off Guajara, Brazil. The current here was incredibly strong and together with the fact that the wind was quite strong, we knew we were in for an 'interesting' couple of hours. The night sky was being dramatically lit up by distant lightning flashes which added to the exciting atmosphere of our adventure. The area we were heading for was about 10 minutes away and what a 10 minutes that was, fighting the current in total darkness with just the light of a torch in front of the Zodiac.
Once we reached the channel we were going to explore, the current slowed down and we were drifting along at a good pace. So, here we were, in a dinghy, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, 9 o clock at night and out of the darkness we heard the beat of disco music slowly moving towards us, I have no idea where it came from but slowly out of the darkness floated a battered old fishing boat, something along the lines of Humphrey Bogart's African Queen with disco music blaring out from its loudspeakers. It seems that there were a few houses on stilts quite nearby and the local fishermen were out for a few beers ! Totally surreal!
OOPS......just realised its 12.30 am and we're out on the LAST of our water safaris at 6.30 in the morning, will write the rest of this story tomorrow when I get a spare moment......WATCH THIS SPACE!
Ok, I'm back! I KNOW it's been a few days but it ain't always easy to get internet when you're half way up the Amazon !
So, where was I ? Oh yes, THE night zodiac safari!
Well, before I get to the really good bit there WAS one very funny incident where 2 of the 8 passengers on our zodiac saw a HUGE anaconda swimming past the boat so they shouted 'SNAKE! SNAKE! HUGE SNAKE! So Guillermo excitedley turned the boat round to try to catch a glimpse of the rare jungle monster and we were all craning our necks to see ...and sure enough.....THERE IT WAS......a large, threatening, very scary looking LOG floating gently by in the dark!
We all burst into hysterical laughter and the two 'spotters' tried to disappear into the bottom of the boat.For those who know me, yes, you guessed it, ONE of the Anaconda/tree spotters WAS indeed Gordon !
Further on down the channel we saw all kinds of nocturnal creatures, it was very funny to see how Iguanas sleep, they are SO nervous during the day and either run away or drop off a tree into the water at the slightest noise but at night, there there are, in full view of anyone who has 'cat's eyes' or even a torch, lying fast asleep on their branches, wedged in between the twigs so they don't fall off, we saw SO MANY really good sized iguanas.
The next bit of excitement was when Guillermo spotted a snake hanging from a branch ( oh yes, a REAL snake this time ) and decided he was going to catch it and bring it into the boat to show us. I must say that is was wonderful to have someone as passionate about nature as Guillermo Knell as our night-time safari expedition leader his enthusiasm was SO infectious!
OOPS! Got to go again, time for a presentation by Sue Flood on 'Behind the scenes at the BBC Blue Planet series'
Hope to get some photos up soon , just need a faster internet connection, although it's quite surprising that we have one at all as we're so far up the Amazon!
Lovely setting to have a Birthday! This was taken in the breakfast area of the Miraflores hotel in Lima, the day before we fly to Iquitos to start our trip.
This morning we had anchored in the river of Lago Carauacu and we sent our gusts in zodiac trips from 0615 and 0730 in four boats on itch excursions. The guests and crew enjoyed it very much as the four experts we have was very informative about what to be seen and they observed a lot before coming back to SeaDream II for breakfast. Lunch they when we where sailing the river until Itacoatiara where we anchored at 1700 hrs. The two very nice and very good pilots left us for going back to Santana and their family. We have recived the two pilots sailing us to Manaus arriving tomorrow morning. To day we have seen a lot along the river and just before sunset we had many Pink Dolphins around the yacht. We had the Club Member Party taking place in our Main Salon as there was so many onboard we can not accommodate them in the Library as we normally do. I have to say it again another great day on our Amazon journey, the sunset was again spectacular and beautiful with a lot of activities going on around and aboard.
Today we arrived at Parintins to see the Boi Bumba show. Today it was the RED team so we all had to have some red colors on. The guests and crew who went there, came back with a happy smile because 50 minute show was fantastic color and full of intensive and rhythm.
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