We are sitting in the plane to Leticia. The town is located at the meeting point of three countries, Colombia, Brazil and Peru in the middle of the Amazon with no road leading to it. When the clouds get thinner and the descent starts, we can finally recognize something. And what we get to see is simply indescribable. It takes a moment to grasp. It is like being on a spaceship that tries to land on an alien planet for the first time and breaks through the thick clouds. The rain forest spreads in all directions below us, as far as the eye can see only limited by the horizon. That’s how planet earth must have looked like in many places, untouched and wild. In the distance we see a large river that cuts through the flat plains – the Amazon. I try to imagine what an enormous number of plant and animal species can be found down there. For example there are certainly worms.
At least they appear on our plates in restaurant a bit later. They are as big as a thumb, grilled and skewed, served with veggies and mashed potatoes. It certainly takes some guts to eat them. Taste is almost non-existent and the consistency is peculiar. For sure the worms will not become my favorite dish, but if there weren’t anything else available I’d eat them again. In contrast the juice from Amazon fruits is really delicious, only their names I just can’t remember.
After this introduction we’re looking forward to our jungle tour. We decide for three days and two nights which is comfortable but a bit short to really experience the variety. With a lot of hope we enter our boat and we don’t have to go very far for the first dolphin to appear. Later we’ll see a lot more. They come in two colors, grey and pink. Both of them have in common that it’s damn hard to take pictures of them. They come to the surface to breath for just one second then they’re gone again. Way too short to point the camera at them. A moment later they reappear but of course at a totally different location. That there are so many dolphins indicates that there must be a lot of fish as well. Every day we get a selection on our plates, one evening it’s our self-caught Piranhas. The little beasts are not that easy to catch. Most of the time they take bites from the bait without really clinging onto it. At the end of the day Conny and I each catch one specimen and we are very happy about it. It’s similarly exciting to go swimming here, given that we have seen the glowing eyes of Caimans at the night and besides that there are a lot of stories what kind of crazy creatures swim around in the Amazon and its neighboring waterways.
With some disappointment we visit a sanctuary for monkeys as part of our tour. The owner initially explains us that he acquires monkeys that are kept by humans as pets, helps them to improve their health and takes care of them in freedom. But when other tourists arrive and are allowed to feed the monkeys with chips, soft-drinks and even beer our good mood is over. One monkey has to throw up immediately. As funny as the monkeys are, seeing this makes us want to leave right away. We have seen in Indonesia that there are better ways. Luckily we see different species of monkeys later in their natural habitat, up in the tree tops, quick and timid. Other than that the fauna is scarce as expected. Except for the mosquitos, which are present in their millions. 😊 With the latter I am happy that it’s only been three days, else I would have loved to see more.
A few days later we’re still in the Amazon, or to be precise on the Amazon. Our ferry to Manaus, Brazil, moves slowly. The journey takes more than three days. Together with the locals we occupy two decks of the boat where you can hang hammocks for sleeping. We decide to go for the less crowded upper deck. Every day rice with beans and alternating fish and chicken is served. Three days the landscape passes in the same way: a long and wide river, at the shore green jungle and once in a while little fishing village where we stop. Only once I see another pink dolphin. The only other exciting things to see are beautiful sunsets and thorough drug searches by the Brazilian military. It’s the total slowness or rather the total experience of the unbelievable vastness of the Amazon. It remains to hope that the region can be preserved for a long time …
