Amazon: Tuesday

3/8

This morning Andrea and I got up at 5:30 for the sunrise lovers breakfast top deck. It was too cloudy to actually see a good sunrise, but it was still beautiful and very relaxing.

Andrea and I were the only people there.
Then, we went piranha fishing! First of all, just boating around was so enormously beautiful. The water of the Rio Negro is so interesting - its waters are very dark because of all the sediment it collects and the slow speed of the water. This creates an amazing mirror effect - everything (trees, plants, the sky) is reflected very clearly with color intact when the water is still.

The fishing was really fun - we used bamboo sticks with string and raw beef as bait.

My family has a lot of luck - they caught seven piranhas total (the red and yellow bellied breeds). I was the only one who didn't catch anything :( It was still very cool to see piranhas and their teeth up close.

It was so hot in the sun. The sweat was pouring off my back. While we were out, we saw a panema (a huge bird with an orange back), kingfishers, white herons, piranhas (obviously), a sloth, and Mom saw a river dolphin! We saw the sloth eating way high in a tree - I know they're supposed to be slow, but actually watching one move - they're like in slow motion, it's funny.
I learned some interesting things: the acidity of the Rio Negro is very high - it has a pH level of 4.6, apparently around the same as lemons. The acidity is so high that mosquitoes can't breed on it (which is fantastic since I forgot my yellow fever vaccine). Also, the Amazonia area of Brazil alone is larger than Europe.
There was a big thunderstorm on the river today. Since we rarely hear thunder in Salvador, it was doubly exciting. Despite the heavy rains, our excursion to a beach wasn't canceled. We took a tender to land in a hit spot for cruise stops. Andrea, Amanda, and I actually went swimming in the river (though Manda barely stayed - just got in and out). It was frightening considering a guide told us about tiny fish that swim into your body through your ears or nose and kill you (presumably by eating your brain?). Andrea and I swam across the channel and back.

We were anchored back near the port of Manaus (so much for heart of darkness). We are having a little Carnaval party tonight and they are using performers from the city who have to get back tonight....
and we just had a Carnaval party on the top deck. The party was much more fun than I expected. They had a live band and a bunch of fully costumed samba dancers. They were incredibly impressive. They were wearing barely any clothing with huge headdresses and very high heels. Yet they still danced crazy good and didn't jiggle at all. Andrea and I danced a ton and Dad danced with us a lot. They played mostly Brazilian samba, but at the end they also played some swing and old school rock and roll. When the party was over, an old man came up to Andrea and I and said we had style and our dancing was refreshing.