Dear family,
Well we survived our trip to the Amazon! I wrote up a summary of our trip to give to the other missionaries as they all want to go up there. We learned a lot on this trip. You can read the summary to find out what we learned. It is a remarkable place to visit. I wouldn't want to live there as it is extremely hot and humid. It was pretty miserable and the last two nights we didn't have air conditioning! Other than the accommodations things were pretty good.
The Amazon River is so huge that it is unbelievable unless you see it! We spent most of our time on the Rio Negro (Black River) which is a tributary of the Amazon. This "tributary" is 1400 miles long and in places is over 2-3 miles wide, and 150 feet deep! I felt like we were out on the ocean at times as it was so big! After it joins the Amazon the river in places is about 27 miles wide! Where it joins it is 300 feet deep. There is an ISLAND at the mouth of the river that is the size of the country of Switzerland! There is more water that flows out of the Amazon in one day than the Mississippi does in one month! The force of the water is so strong that when it enters the Atlantic Ocean it pours out for 200 miles before it mixes into salt water. It is incredible!
The first day we went to the temple and it was really nice. It sits on the bank of the Rio Negro and the steeple can be seen for miles around. We met the temple president and after the session he took us back to our hotel. By the way, there were five of us who went on this trip, the Burkes, Shirley Cox and us. On Wed. we did a tour of the city of Manaus. It was very interesting but we walked a lot and it was very hot. Poor Shirley got a severe blister on her foot and that put a damper on the rest of the trip for her.
We started out at the Opera House. It was built 120 years ago. It is beautiful. You see, Manaus was a booming city a hundred years ago because of the rubber. It was the first city in Brazil to have electricity and telephones. Rubber was as valuable than gold back then here in Brazil. We visited the fish market and wow, there are lots of kinds of fish that I have never seen before! Some of them are pretty strange looking. I think that we ate some of them! We visited the Port and the markets nearby. It was interesting.
On Thursday we headed into the jungle. We went to quite a remote location to board the boats and I was a little wary when I saw the boats. They were very old looking and were pretty much a large row boat with a small motor. They held about 12 people. It was a little unnerving when the driver of the boat that had the supplies was bailing water the whole time until we reached the island!
I thought that we were going to be staying in a jungle 'treehouse' lodge but that wasn't the case. Just picture boy scout camp only maybe a little worse! You can read about it in the summary. It's a good thing that we only spent two nights there. As it was, Dad got eaten alive the second night. His legs were so bad that he went to the Dr. yesterday and he has infection in the bites. I didn't get touched! Go figure?
Each day we got in the little boats and went exploring in the jungle. The different shades of green are something else and sometimes the water was so still that I had a hard time trying to decipher which was the tree and which was the reflection. I took a bunch of pictures of the reflection as it was so neat. The jungle is so dense that it echos. We watched monkeys playing in the trees and we saw fresh water dolphins swimming and jumping in the water. We didn't see any snakes or sloths or jaguars in the trees though. Our guide said that during the high water season the animals never touch the ground. They spend 6 months in the trees. Right now it is the dry season, which means it only rains a little each day. :) The river is dropping everyday. The native Indians who live along the river get their water from the river and during the dry season they have to haul water for over a mile. During the rainy season they only have to step out of their huts to get the water.
Our guide also caught three baby caimans (alligators) with his bare hands! We watched the sunset on the river on Friday evening and it was gorgeous! By the way, the Black River is black because of all of the decaying vegetation in it. It is also very warm. It was nice to be out in the fresh air and to be able to see the stars. I found the Southern Cross constellation which is something I've wanted to see for a very long time.
On Saturday we visited an native Indian village and we were very surprised when the men AND women were half naked! We weren't quite prepared for that. It wasn't anything thrilling to say the least! After we left the village we headed back to Manaus to see the joining of the waters. It is where the Solimoes River and the Black River come together to form the Amazon. Some people also call the Solimoes River the Amazon. It is muddy and brown and much cooler than the Black River. When they join they stay separate for between 7-10 miles before they mix. It is a natural phenomenon. The captain of the boat (this time it was a speed boat with seat backs and cushions) slowed down and had us put our hands in the water to feel the difference. You can't believe it. The temperature was completely different from one to the other. You'll see the difference in the pictures.
One other thing we did on Friday is go fishing for Piranha! Dad and I each caught one! They were little but we wouldn't have kept them even if they were big. The natives don't eat them as they taste bad. There are 12 different kinds of piranha, and yes, they do eat other animals if they get a chance. Our guide has watched a school of piranha eat a cow! Their teeth are like razor blades.
Well I hope you don't feel overloaded with the pictures. I sure love all of you very much. It really is okay if you take the time to write to us. :) We would like that a lot. Hope all is well back home.
Love,
Paula
1. Temple
2. Temple
3. Opera house
4. Opera house
5. Ceiling of opera house-painted to look like the Eiffel Tower
6. More OH
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