Mamiraua Amazon Lodge
The transfer from Tefe to Mamiraua took 1.5 hours in a fast speedboat. We were joined by 2 other travellers, Marcos and Ara, a Spanish couple living in Switzerland. We were the only visitors as the airport at Tefe was closed due to the large flocks of vultures attracted by the nearby garbage dump! Few tourists would be willing to spend a day (at least) on a hot sweaty boat to Tefe in order to visit the reserve. This interesting chain of events made it possible for us to come on very short notice in their high season.
The Uakari Foating Lodge consists of 5 floating bungalows connected by board walks to the main building where there is a library and the dining room. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the deafening sounds of the red howler monkeys. It echoes over and engulfs the atmosphere at the reserve - in a way it sounds ominous, not unlike an approaching storm!
The Mamiraua reserve is a flooded forest reserve where the water covers almost the entire forest for 8 months of the year. Water levels rise and fall by as much as 12 meters over the year. Our visit coincided with the beginning of the dry season with a rapidly declining water level - it dropped some 4 metres since June!
Our days were spent on activities in the mornings and afternoons with some very good food in between. We went on nature walks, animal watching walks, canoe tours, sunset cruises, night walks, fishing trips, etc. It was fantastic!
The reserve's claim to fame is that the bizarre looking crimson red faced uakari monkey with its shaggy white coat is only found in this reserve and nowhere else. We saw 3 groups of them and also the super slow moving sloths, hanging from trees. On our night walk, we saw a huge beautifully coloured coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. This was on the same trail where we observed fresh jaguar prints.
We have also visited the boto research project. This is the local name for the pink Amazon river dolphins, which we saw on numerous occasions.
We were amazed at the abundance of wildlife in this reserve. We also visited Sao Jose, one of the local communities. These communities profit from involvement in the reserve. During our stay we were joined by 2 sets of television journalists. One was doing a story for SBT, the 2nd largest TV network in Brazil. The other is Brazil's own Discovery Channel, called Expediciones who hitched a lift with the Brazilian navy who also came by for a short visit. We enjoyed the interaction with the film crews.
We absolutely loved our time in the reserve and our host and naturalist guide, Otavio, was excellent. We were sad to leave.
Culture shock: in Peru you have mototaxis, in Tabatinga motorbikes for taxis and in Manaus only taxis! Local people love a dish called farinha, a crunchy (may I add tasteless) flour made from some Amazonian root that they sprinkle over their food. Manaus has an opera theatre, dating from the rubber boom period, some 100 years ago. Some of the rubber barons were so rich that their clothes were sent to Britain to be ironed.
The Uakari Foating Lodge consists of 5 floating bungalows connected by board walks to the main building where there is a library and the dining room. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the deafening sounds of the red howler monkeys. It echoes over and engulfs the atmosphere at the reserve - in a way it sounds ominous, not unlike an approaching storm!
The Mamiraua reserve is a flooded forest reserve where the water covers almost the entire forest for 8 months of the year. Water levels rise and fall by as much as 12 meters over the year. Our visit coincided with the beginning of the dry season with a rapidly declining water level - it dropped some 4 metres since June!
Our days were spent on activities in the mornings and afternoons with some very good food in between. We went on nature walks, animal watching walks, canoe tours, sunset cruises, night walks, fishing trips, etc. It was fantastic!
The reserve's claim to fame is that the bizarre looking crimson red faced uakari monkey with its shaggy white coat is only found in this reserve and nowhere else. We saw 3 groups of them and also the super slow moving sloths, hanging from trees. On our night walk, we saw a huge beautifully coloured coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. This was on the same trail where we observed fresh jaguar prints.
We have also visited the boto research project. This is the local name for the pink Amazon river dolphins, which we saw on numerous occasions.
We were amazed at the abundance of wildlife in this reserve. We also visited Sao Jose, one of the local communities. These communities profit from involvement in the reserve. During our stay we were joined by 2 sets of television journalists. One was doing a story for SBT, the 2nd largest TV network in Brazil. The other is Brazil's own Discovery Channel, called Expediciones who hitched a lift with the Brazilian navy who also came by for a short visit. We enjoyed the interaction with the film crews.
We absolutely loved our time in the reserve and our host and naturalist guide, Otavio, was excellent. We were sad to leave.
Culture shock: in Peru you have mototaxis, in Tabatinga motorbikes for taxis and in Manaus only taxis! Local people love a dish called farinha, a crunchy (may I add tasteless) flour made from some Amazonian root that they sprinkle over their food. Manaus has an opera theatre, dating from the rubber boom period, some 100 years ago. Some of the rubber barons were so rich that their clothes were sent to Britain to be ironed.
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