April 1, 2025
RIO NEGRO, AMAZON RAINFOREST, BRAZIL - Fun times
Some of my favorite parts of the trip was just chilly on the boat, with my friends. We rarely get chunks of time to just talk and learn about each other. I was highly disappointed to find out Brazil does not celebrate St. Patrick's, but it didn't stop me from wearing my green. We played cards and I introduced the group to one of my favorite games - Marry, Shag, Kill - the Odyssey version. They thought it was corny at first, but totally got into as we played and discussed our shipmates. Turns out I am a shoe in for Miss Congeniality - they know about 1/2 the amount of people I do, and know hardly any depth on any of them. I was shocked, but I'm sure my family would not be!
One of my favorite excursions was to play and feed the pink dolphins. These fresh water river dolphins were not shy at all. We had 3 young males who played with us for a good hour. We went down onto a floating swim platform along one edge of the River and the handler brought in a bucket of fish and we got to rub their super soft bellies, while they flapped their fins into our sides and fluttered their tales at our feet. The ones not getting feed saw around our legs and used their noses to get between our legs and swim through! I was skeptical and typically avoid this at other venues thinking it cruel to the animals but here they are living in the river and it is their choice if they want to come and play and get fish. Handler said experience varies daily on which dolphins come over and how hungry they might be.
The second part of the dolphin excursion was feeding the giant amazon fish, Arapaima. These are the largest freshwater fish with scales in the World and are only found here. These massive dinosaur fish is essentially unchanged since the Jurassic age. We all took turns wrestling with the poll and bait, as the 12 Arapaima fish in this enclosure feasted.
On our final day of the excursion it was Sarah's 60th Birthday 3/20/25 and through a sign language conversation I had with the cook, she made her a watermelon, apple and pineapple cake complete with a candle, so we could all sing her Happy Birthday!
Our final excursion before heading back to port of Manaus was to visit a single mom with 4 sons, who was a medicine woman and healer for the rainforest people. She was fascinating. She gave us lessons on how they extract the cyanide out of Cassava root and grind the pulp down to a flour form. She was also able to heal Callie's migraine headache, quickly. Also her oldest son quickly climbed a palm tree to retrieve Acai berries for us. Ken also showed us plant they used to cure Covid symptoms since they had such a hard time getting the Vaccines in Brazil.
