Rain Forest Walk

 Unfortunately, I have had a cold for several days causing me to miss Monday’s tour of Parintins on a type of 2 person tuc tuc which like a rickshaw throughout the city. 

Yesterday I felt a little bit better for the walk in the rain forest. It was pretty warm for the 11/2 hour bus ride there and I had to wear my mask the whole time as well as in the forest. I’m glad I did it though. We saw no animals which was a big disappointment for me but we heard the loudest bird ever calling out over and over. He is called Captain of the forest. We never did see him though. 

Our machete carrying guide showed us the rubber trees and how they were harvested during the rubber boom which is similar to maple syrup harvesting. Certain trees are called the cell phones of the forest because when you tap on the very large roots very hard the sound carries up to 3 miles which was helpful for hunters.  Tarzan vines and medicinal trees were everywhere.  The sounds were the most amazing. 

We actually had three guides: our Road Scholar guide, our rain forest guide, and our day tour guide Pierrino. Pierrino’s mother had driven ahead our our bus and set up a lovely mini lunch for us to eat at the end of the tour. We had ham and cheese finger sandwiches, mango, bananas, Brazilian pineapple (like no other you’ve tasted-so sweet) Brazil nuts and a special rum drink made with 40 proof sugar cane rum, and limes. Our “bar tender” made each drink individually. Needless to say a good time was had by all. Before the lunch, unfortunately one of our fellow travelers became so weak he couldn’t walk and had to be held up by his wife and another fellow until we got to our lunch area. We thought it was water dehydration but the result today is that he has Covid. 

On the drive back to the ship, we saw large areas razed for cattle grazing. Believe it or not cows are the biggest industry here and the main reason for deforestation. The Amazon river has a lot of burnt lumber floating in it. The only tree protected by law is the Brazilian nut tree. No one can cut them down so they dot the razed acres of land.

Today we crossed back over the equator and we will be cruising for 3 days before we hit another port. Should be adequate time to recover from this darn cold!