August 7
9 am the tour company picks us up at the AirBnB to head into the jungle. Claudia, a woman from Germany is on our tour also. The city of Manaus reminds me a lot of Okinawa, with buildings made of masonry, in similar shape and so squeezed together. There were many street food vendors and roadside restaurants I would love to try! We cross an enormous bridge over the Rio Negro and enter the rural edges between city and jungle. A glimpse of agriculture, but I couldn't tell you any of the crops.
After an hour drive we arrived at the end of the road, and get into very long boats. The Rio Negro is wide and very dark. The water gets its tea brown color from leaves and fruit at the base of a waterfall at the beginning of the river in Colombia. Along the boat ride we see other boats, restaurants, and even people swimming. Our guide explained this river is much safer than the Amazon river, which has a lot of piranhas.
We arrived at camp shortly before lunch and settle in. At first I wonder if all my preparations against sun and mosquitos was overkill. But as the day wore on, the sun protection was definitely necessary. We didn't experience many mosquitos yet, but we are on an island that gets a good breeze most of the time. We saw one or two after the sun went down.
The excursion of the day was a "canoe" ride, an aluminum boat with a small motor, to explore some inlets to the Rio Negro in hopes of seeing wildlife. We saw some monkeys from the Macquack? The locals call them "smelly monkeys."
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