Manaus and the journey to Juma Lodge

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When: December 2023      Weather: Hot 30C

Leica Q3, Nikon P900, P950

From Belo Horizonte we had to take an hour long flight to Sao Paulo, then change for another LATAM flight to Manaus arriving late at night and staying at the Hotel Opera right opposite the famed opera house of Manaus.

The Manaus Opera House is well known and we spent our first night in the Hotel Opera facing this beautiful building

Before our transfer to the amazon jungle in the afternoon, we had a packed morning involving a trip on the river to look for the pink dolphins and to visit a local indian tribe…

this was the jetty from which boats set off in the rio negro…one of the rivers that form the amazon
we headed towards this beautiful bridge spanning the river
passing under the bridge supports to the pink dolphin area
on a floating pontoon, feeding time brought the wild pink river dolphins in…
some were less pink
others more so

After we’d been in the water for a while interacting with them…about 5-6 were in and out among us, we found out that these were actually piranha infested waters!…Just as well we didn’t know it then…this was a truly magical experience…up close with the pink river dolphins of the amazon.

next port of call was the local indian tribe where the head man dressed up for us
and they welcomed us with a musical performance

We then headed off after lunch for a 4 hour journey by bus, boat, bus and boat for the Juma Jungle Lodge in the Amazon….on the way we stopped to look at the meeting of the rivers where the black Rio Negro meets the coffee coloured Solimoes…

meeting of the rivers….where the two different sources of water mean they do not mix for several km…best seen by drone from the air though
at the bus/boat interchange a greater kiskadee watched us
we encountered rain nearing the resort but the sunlight breaking through the clouds welcomed us
a cocoi heron flew next to us
and grey dolphins folicked
first view of Juma Jungle Lodge, our home for 3 nights….they are on stilts and in the wet season, the water is almost up to the level of the rooms
we docked on this pontoon with swimming pool, before climbing up a steep staircase to the reception
where we were welcomed by a Silver beaked tanager in the fading light

So the first day in Manaus involved sight seeing and the journey to Juma which must be said was long and tedious….the challenging part was because we had come a long way from Singapore, we had 20kg suitcases with us and the 4 boat bus transfers over uneven ground were difficult. However, the staff were helpful. 

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