MANAUS - DAY 2

MANAUS - DAY 2

After an early breakfast in our room, we disembarked for our shore excursion to the Meeting of the Waters. At this point, the demarcation between the two rivers was very pronounced. This is not only due to the differences in PH levels and temperatures between the two rivers but also because the two run side by side for quite a way at this point. From there, we sailed to January Lake where we boarded motorized canoes to see the giant water lilies. The lake is very marshy and so we saw lots of bird life. Amazonian Egrets were plentiful as were jacanas, and a blackbird species. We also managed to spot an extremely large heron, an osprey, and an eagle. Will have to check a bird book to see exactly which species we saw. It was altogether a perfect excursion only marred by the guides' habits of shouting into the microphone producing distorted sounds. My ears were ringing so badly that I moved to an area where the sound of the diesel motor drowned out the guides' voices. Only the smell of diesel fuel drove me back to the cacophony. It was too bad as they had a lot of interesting information to impart. Also, once again, while on the lake, people approached in their canoes showing caimans with their mouths tied shut and holding up baby sloths. This time, the guides directed us away from them and apologized. They are trying to discourage this practice. Now, if only some of we tourists would not encourage it by paying to take pictures of these poor animals.
We have found out that those who preferred to explore the city found it dirty with poor infrastructure so that sidewalks were hard to navigate and raw sewage ran in the street in spots. Our times on the river were much preferable. We also heard that our boat was one of only two who were successful in the caiman hunt.