Amazonas Part 1: Crocodile Dundee 🐊

Hello dear ones,

we're back in civilization and want to share our first impressions of our jungle tour with you. Since the last 4 days were sensory overload, we will write a total of 3 posts about our trip to Juma Lake. Of course, we want to show you as much as possible and let you be part of our experiences 😙.

Let's start. We were picked up from our hotel on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 7:45 am and driven to the agency's office, which was actually just around the corner - but before we carry our suitcases, that was fine with us 😶. Speaking of suitcases. They stayed in this office during the tour and we fervently hoped that they would still be there after 4 days 😥 We can say one thing in advance: Our suitcases are intact and still complete 😉. In the office, we met our travel group consisting of the two of us, Torsten from Germany, and Lisa from the USA. Our tour guide was named Paulo. More about our group later 🤗. From the office, we took a car to the port of Manaus and then continued on the speedboat through the Amazon.

We sailed across the Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes, which do not mix at a certain point, and therefore you can see the enormous difference in color between the two rivers. About half an hour later, we reached land for the first time, where a small bus was already waiting for us. An hour and several potholes later (Marie, of course, slept during that time 😪), we arrived at the next boat.

And now there was rainforest everywhere on the left and right. One thing must be said about this tour: we were able to see beautiful nature. Green as far as the eye can see. Here's a little insight:

When we arrived, we were able to move into our small hut, which was swarming with ants. Yay 🙈. So we should realize that this room is still a luxury hotel compared to what awaited us 😉.

But at least we had our room to ourselves. The other option would have been to sleep in a common room. No, maybe we're a bit too vain for that 🙃. As soon as we arrived in the room, we realized that we had to enjoy the incredible temperatures of 35 degrees and take a bath in the Amazon. Said and done. The current was already very strong, so swimming against the current meant swimming in place. Attention! If anyone doesn't want to see elephant bodies that have been fattened for two weeks, they should look away now:

After a lunch which, like the following ones, mainly consisted of rice and fish, we went piranha fishing with the motorboat 🐠. Aaaand we were successful. Of course, we threw them back into the Amazon. But the little ones are cute 🤗. By the way, in the background is Paulo, our guide. He had a lot of fun with us 😅😅😅

As the crowning finale of the day, we come to a little highlight. The sunset in the Amazon looks about the same as all the perfect pictures on the IKEA canvases. Now we know where they were taken. 😅 We snuggled up a bit and simply enjoyed being secluded from the outside world.

In the middle of the night (around 9 pm - in the deepest darkness), we set off to catch a small alligator. Paulo somehow recognized it by its little red eyes in the thicket and then caught it with his bare hands. We were allowed to massage its belly, stroke it, and of course, take a personal photo with our little friend.

But then we fell dead into bed. It was lovely with a mosquito net over us without getting any air. It was a beautiful first night and it could only get better from here. So we say goodbye to Day 1 and see you again in Part 2 🤗🤗🤗

BINE & MARIE 👭