We Made It Through the Jungle

As I wake up by the natural sunlight beaming through the balcony windows, I look up and I am just amazed by the breathtaking view outside. I was in awe and was so excited to explore the Amazon rain forest.

We were told the night before that we were going to hike through the rainforest so we had to wear long pants, closed shoes and a lot of bug spray. Everyone was sweating profusely due to the hot weather and the fact we were not used to wearing long pants. We all applied generous amounts of bug spray before heading down to breakfast.

Breakfast was so different compared to what we have been eating in the past few days here in Brazil. There was a variety of foods, such as made to order fresh eggs, oatmeal, fruits, juices, “real” fried bananas and plantains along with many other options.

After breakfast, we met with Guide Mike. He is the one who has been accompanying our group with all our adventures here at Ariau. Our group was accompanied by 3 tourists from China and we all got on the boat to go to our rainforest hike adventure. We traveled on the Ariau River, which means potato in Portuguese. This area a long time ago was known for the varieties of different potatoes.  Finally, we arrived to the dry part of the river so that we were able to hike.

We walked around and saw some amazing and interesting things. We saw the Caypai (spelling?) tree, which is the largest in the rainforest. The trunks of this tree are used for canoes and the other parts for plywood. Other types of plants and things we saw in the rainforest were “Bengay” plants, abortion plants, incense trees, trees that can lessen prostate cancer and many other things. The most interesting plant we saw that stuck with us was the malaria plant. Our chant always continues with Kevin and his “obsession” with malaria. “Malaria pills, Malaria socks, Malaria leaves in Kevin’s socks.”  The majority of the plants we saw in the rainforest had medical quality alkaline, which attracts pharmaceutical companies to the rainforest. However, we learned that for companies to do business in Brazil in the Amazon it is not ideal since the Brazilian government has many laws and regulations pertaining to its share of the rainforest. Companies will be taxed and charged large amounts of money along with having Brazilian lawyers work with them. Evidently, this does not look promising to many (foreign) companies, which is why they do not come into the Amazon. Once we finished our hike, we were greeted by Noel, our boat driver, with crowns for the males and tiaras for the ladies which were made out of palm tree leaves.  

We arrived back to the hotel, got changed, and hung out before lunch. After a hearty lunch, we explored the hotel shops and boat. Along with our explorations, we saw pelicans, fish, dolphins and monkeys. Right before we were gathering up to go on our next adventure, we had a very brief encounter with the owner of Ariau, Dr. Francisco Ritta Bernardino.

As 4:00 p.m. rolled around, we gathered together to go on a tour of a native’s house. On the way to the native’s house, we saw a “haunted” house… but is it really haunted? No one is sure but apparently there’s a long story behind it. Upon arriving at the native’s house, you were able to see how simple, but beautiful it was. The natives live off their own property for sustainable living. That family had just got electricity only 8 months ago. They do not pay taxes due to their sustainable living. This family grows Kasara, in Spanish, it means Yuka, which is part of the potato family. Mike showed the group how to detox this Kasara because it contains cyanide. One of the other guests accompanying us touched this and kept putting it closer to her face, which startled the group and Mike. If she were to have put it in her eye she would’ve gone blind and wanting to taste it could’ve have caused death! It was scary. Then the family was generous enough to make us Tapioca and a type of pancake and washed it down with the Acai energy juice. As we finished eating and drinking, we entered the gift shop in which almost everyone made purchases to support the natives and thank them.

While on the way back to the hotel, it got dark extremely quickly and we saw the beautiful stars. Mike informed us that because Brazil is in the southern hemisphere, they do not have a north star, but they have a south star which is the last star of the Southern Cross.

When we got back to the hotel, we ate dinner and decided to go to the flooded shops at the hotel. In which Joe bought me a BEAUTIFUL necklace. Furthermore we went to the convenient store in which we purchased soda and water for everyone. As we were standing there about to pay, the power went out. Everyone was afraid to move/walk since we were on planks and scared of falling into the water. With the power still out, we made our purchases and decided to walk in the dark with light from just our cell phones. As walking on these planks holding heavy bags trying not to fall, we had a little accident. A bottle of water fell in the waters of the Amazon. Luckily we saved it, but it was scary because we thought that one of our fellow students fell in… almost thought they were part of the 5% Mike was talking about losing.

Finally we got back to our rooms to shower. I walked into the bathroom so that I could shower, and I encountered a frog. I was so scared that I called Joe over to check it out. However, by the time people came, there was no frog, which made me look crazy. So I shower and as I am showering I scream, not because the frog came back, but because my shower head was starting to go on fire. I was a little nervous but got out of there quickly and no harm was done. It was scary but extremely funny. Aside from those two incidents, everyone keeps hitting their legs against the bed post when entering/leaving the rooms. I believe we all have battle bruises on our legs from it. Later that night we hung out and had some bonding moments while playing cards. To top the night off, we received good news that we would be able to go on one outside excursion which entailed going swimming with the dolphins the next day. We are all so fascinated by the Amazon that we were excited to see what the next day adventures would bring us.