We had a quiet day, spent most of it in a air conditioned internet cafe, found some buffet lunch place for our lunch and had a quiet evening by doing our little bag for the Amazons. Manaus is the capital of that state, has a population of 2,5 million people but it was a gloomy, ugly and boring city. We were recommended to bring a good insect repellent with deet, a raincoat, s swimsuit in case we wanted to swim in the river,a headlamp or a torch, a water container 
to get the water from the large water bottles and good walking shoes with good grip as well as some flip flops for the tours around the rivers when it rained. Gero, who is the owner of the company and Joshua who was our guide came to pick us up in the morning and took us to the first harbor where we were going to see the two different colored rivers which did not mix together.(rio solomoes and rio negro). There are several high speed boats as well as ferries to cross to the other side to continue the road from Manaus to the west.
We took one of the high speed boats with Joshua and crossed to the other side. Two rivers never mix because of the current and the density of the waters. After that, a minivan met us to take us to the deep heart of the jungle. We drove about 1 hour to get to the little port. A primitive boat appeared after half an hour and took us to the Araianiha Jungle Lodge. The lodge was beautiful, it was all green, there were pink lovely flowers and of course lovely mosquitos!!! We had a nice lunch with our guide Joshua and got to know him a little. 
He is 23, originally is from Bomfim, British Guineia (Brazilian border), guiding for some 5 years, speaks very good English, was born in the jungle and apparently he knows the jungle like the palm of his hand...He fell in love with a Norwegian girl who studies in Denmark and is dreaming of moving to Denmark to live with her...We liked him, he was very nice and friendly to us...Then I took a little swim in the river and it started to rain! The plan was to take a ride on the boat around the area and we did it. However, the time period we were visiting there was the rainy season, so Joshua said it would rain the whole afternoon and it would be hard to see the animals like pink dolphins and sloths (lazy animals). We did the ride anyway, could not see much but at least got some idea about the area. 
When it started to rain cats and dogs, we went to the house of the guy who operated the boat. They were so welcoming and nice to us. I chatted with the little 10 year old boy who was just at 1st grade at the school! When it got better, we went back to the boat.. It was all green and reflections of the green on the water, so I was very happy... We came back to the hotel all wet, changed our clothes, had our dinner chatting with Joshua and went to bed. Our room had mosquito nets, it was all wooden and soo humid-smelly. We went to bed early as we were a little wet and tired. 
The next day, we woke up, had our breakfast and saw the rainy day again...Joshua brought the idea to do the family visits that day. We visited the family of the guy who was working for Gero, they were living in small tiny wooden houses where there was no real furniture or anything like our houses. I gave them evil eyes, we chatted a little and went to see how some sort of flour from a plant is produced.
It is a yellow and poisonous plant, but during the process, they take the poison out of the plant, put it onto the fire, let the vapor go and use it to make pancakes and to cook. The men doing that were all suntanned and they were doing it in huge containers, just for their own family! It was pretty interesting...In the afternoon, two girls from Sao Paulo came to the jungle lodge. They were nice, we met them during lunch. In the afternoon, we went to catch Piranhas. We had wooden primitive baits, 
it was raining like crazy and we were trying to catch priranhas!!! It was sooo funny. I tried so hard, soo hard that I was able to catch one piranha as to save our pride! After the dinner, we went to see the caymans, like alligators. Joshua caught a baby cayman, we all had pictures with it. It looked so innocent, but he told us that when they grow older, they can eat a cow!!! Therefore, I understood that even a baby cayman was dangerous!!!
The next day, we woke up very early on the morning to see the sunset and the pink dolphins. Then we went to the jungle walk which lasted about 3,5 hours. We saw frogs, spiders, bugs, interesting plants and trees in the deep jungle, lots of mosquitos and insects, some birds and fish which were hatching their eggs by making some funny sounds. The walk was interesting but we were all bitten by insects and mosquitos...After all, we had conquered the Amazons!!!In the afternoon, when it was raining cats and dogs again, we took the boat back and came back to Manaus.
It was time to move onto a different adventure, so we said goodbye to Gero who very kindly took us to the airport, boarded our midnight flight to Salvador via Rio. It was such a big big change...Next chapter: Salvador...The city of a marvelous blend of people!!!
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