It’s a 90-minute flight with TRIP airlines from Manaus to the port town of Tefé in the heart of the Amazon. Christi and I are met at the airport and whisked away in an air-conditioned SUV to the dockside to continue our journey by private boat. Ironically, outside of town there are no roads, so everything including the SUVs are brought in by plane or boat! We are accompanied to Mamiraua by Eduardo who is beginning a two-year position to study the economic sustainability of the reserve. It’s fascinating to watch the lives of the locals along the banks of the mighty Amazon River. It’s all so deliciously decadent.
An hour after leaving Tefé (and having negotiated a maze of waterways, sometimes at quite alarming speeds) we arrive at the Uakari Floating lodge, which, as the name implies, is built on the water – one of the many tributaries of the Amazon in fact. We are in the depths of the rainforest, a long, long way from civilization. If anything goes wrong out here, it will be a shaman not westernized medicine that saves us. Our rooms at the lodge are clean and rustic and surrounded by wildlife, including a 10-foot long black caiman sunbathing in the shallows right outside our door. His presence makes Christi and I think twice before taking a night-time stroll or taking a dip in the refreshing, yet lethal waters, of the Amazon River.
Our first excursion is a canoe ride around the area. The wildlife if prolific: kingfishers, ani, anhinga, hawks, herons, and the massive flying fish known as the pirarucu (or arapaima, the largest freshwater fish in South America). And as we are the only guests at the lodge currently, our visit is about as exclusive as it’s possible to get. We have dinner (rice, beans, chicken, fish, manioc, fresh juice) with Eduardo and the resident naturalist, Pedro, who explains that the reserve covers 22,000 square miles of flooded forest and wetlands. Christi and I enjoy the sounds of the jungle as we ease to sleep in our very comfortable beds. We are in a special place and it is a privilege to be here.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching tale.
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