Part 5 - Juma Lodge

Day 12 – Thursday, July 2.   Manaus to Juma lodge.  We were picked up at our hotel in Manaus at 7 AM, and based on my middle of the night experience I was happy to get away from there.  The driver took us down to the waterfront where we were met by some of the people from Juma lodge.  The waterfront was very busy for early in the morning.  We were able to get some food to eat from one of the food vendors there, and then boarded the speed boat for the first segment of our journey to Juma lodge.  Juma lodge is approximately 100 km south east of Manuas.  It is located just south of the equator, at a latitude of ~ 4° S.  It takes about 3 hours to get to the lodge, and involves taking a boat, then a van, and then another boat to get to the lodge from Manaus.

Giant water lilies alongside road

House alongside river 

Our first view of Jama lodge

We arrived at the lodge late morning, and after a welcome and meeting our guide Leon were shown to our cabins. The lodge has ~20 cabins, and most are spread out and accessed via a series of elevated walk ways. There were a few centrally located cabins that were close together, but most, including ours were secluded. We were ~75 feet from the nearest cabin, and with the dense foliage you could not see any other cabins and had the sense from your balcony that you were alone on the bank of the river. It was about a 500 foot walk to the dining hall, and another 300 feet to the reception and dock. Our cabins both had a full bath with large 3 foot by 6 foot shower, solar water heater on a platform ousted the cabin, a large ~12x15 foot main with a full size and a twin bed, and a covered deck off the back with a hammock and table and chairs. They also had a ceiling fans, a must for a reasonably good night’s sleep in the hot and humid rain forest. The lodge is on a narrow peninsula and each cabin backed up to the water providing lots of privacy. 

Matthew outside cabin he and I shared

Dining Hall

Parrot that showed up every morning by dining hall

Normal high water which occurs in June is about 17m.  In 2015 the high water level was 20m, almost 10 feet higher than normal.  When we visited there were a few areas at the lodge that were still underwater, although Leon said that the water level had already dropped about 1 foot, having crested in the second week of June. Some of the cabins had been under water and in the reception area which was above water now you could see the high water mark on the counter as they had not had time yet to refinish the wood.   It would be interesting to come back during the dry season as it would be a significantly different experience. They had photos in the dining hall that were really interesting to look at to see the difference between high and low water, with water being up to the floors during high water, and the buildings way up on stilts during low water. However, it was still had to envision how much more bare land there would be in dry season. Leon did say that in dry season they do more activities on land whereas every excursion we did included a boat ride for at least the first and last parts of the excursion.  

Section of walkway.  Note they have temporarily raised a section that was below water

We had daily afternoon excursions departing at ~330.  Our first excursion was a boat ride through the waterways around the lodge.  It was surprising how still the waters were, with amazing reflections.  Due to the very high water level, many of the tops of the trees that we were going by were only slightly above water level.  There were some taller trees, but there was so much water that there were only a few places where we could see dry land - most was just open water or flooded forest as far as you could see. Most of the area was seemingly undisturbed forest, but there were a few houses that we went by. Some were on dry land, but others were on stilts and completely surrounded by water.  The one common denominator was that they all had one or more boats tied up outside the house or on the riverbank next to the house.  We stayed out on the water to watch the beautiful sunset before returning to the lodge for dinner. 

Headed out on excursion

Termite nest in tree

Awesome reflections

Sunset from the water

View from our balcony back at the lodge

Day 13 – Friday, July 3.   Juma lodge.  The second day at Juma we went on a jungle hike in the morning after breakfast. They took us via boat for 15 minutes or so and then we disembarked for a hike through the jungle.  We spent about 2 hours being led by Leon on a series of trails. Every few minutes he stopped to point out various trees and explain what they are used for. In many cases they are trees that are used for commercial purposes and in other cases the Indigenous people use them for medicinal purposes.  For example, he showed us the trees used to make Vicks Vapor Rub and Halls cough drops.  In both cases he shaved off a piece of bark and let us smell it, and they had the familiar smell you would expect for those products.   He also showed us several examples of uses of naturally occurring items by the Indigenous people. Some involved using parts of the plants, but one involved insects. Leon stopped by a large ant nest on a tree. The nest looked like a growth on the tree, with a sort of bark or scale like texture. He said that the ants made the nest with dried leaves and saliva. He hit the nest with the back of his machete and the ants swarmed out.   He placed his hands on the nest and when they were covered with ants he vigorously rubbed them together. He said that indigenous people did this and smeared the extract on their bodies as an insect repellent and also to mask human body scent to make it easier to sneak up on animals when hunting.  Several people.in our group tried it, including Karen, Elizabeth, and Matthew, but they stopped short of smearing it all over their body.  In addition to the ants, Leon caught two types of frogs, one so small that it was amazing he could spot it.

Leon stirring up ants in the ant nest

Elizabeth holding one of the small frogs 

Giant Amazonian people

One of the nasty spiders we saw

Leaf frog

Mike with leaf frog

Leaf frog almost blending in with real leaves

Intertwined tree and vine

Leon administering first aid for fire ants

When we were close to being done with the hike, Elizabeth stepped in a bunch of fire ants and they crawled up and started biting her ankles. While.it hurt a lot, she fortunately did not get a big reaction to the bites like she does with many insects. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Leon immediately gave her some type of medicine to put on the bites. Another person in our group was not as fortunate.  Later in the day he had large welts on the upper part of his arms and apparently across much of his upper back as well that he thinks was caused by any bites. The jungle can be a rough place. 

In the afternoon we went piranha fishing. The first spot we tried we struck out. Apparently it is much harder to catch them when the water is high as there are so many more places to go, but Leon said they travel in schools, so if we caught one we would likely catch a lot. The second place Leon selected turned out to be a great location. Everyone on the boat caught at least one, and Elizabeth caught the most, six. However, she was the most terrified of the fish that she caught. After posing for pictures with them we released them back into the water.   They did turn out to be hard to catch.  I caught two, but must have lost 30 pieces of bait (beef) to the piranhas.

Piranha fishing

Mike with piranha

Teeth on one of the piranha that I caught

Matthew and Karen displaying their catch

After fishing, we stopped at a floating bar to use the bathroom and get something to drink while we waited for it to get dark so we could go caiman spotting. These relatives of the crocodile and alligator can get huge, up to 7m (23 feet) long.  Leon used a powerful flashlight shining across the water and looked for reflections from their eyes. I didn’t see anything, but Leon directed the boat driver to navigate over to a spot along the shore, and he laid down on the front of the boat and moments later stood up holding a 2 foot long caiman.  We all got a chance to hold most with assistance from Leon, and he told.us all about the caiman.  We then returned to the lodge for a late dinner.

Matthew with caiman

Mike holding caiman

Day 14 – Saturday, July 4.   Juma lodge.  Our morning excursion today was canoeing.  The canoes were shallower and tippier than what we are used to in the US, but everyone survived the 2+ hour excursion without falling into the water.  We navigated through some wide waterways, but also many narrow passages.  We only crashed into a few trees, and I think we gradually improved on our ability to cleanly make it through the narrow passages. It was amazing how out guide knew where to go. With no tall landmarks and a multitude of interconnecting waterways and passages through the trees it we had no clue where we were. 

Karen and Mike paddling

Matthew paddling 

Leon and Elizabeth

Returning to the Juma dock

Triumphant paddlers!

We were very lucky with the weather during our stay. On Friday we had very heavy thunderstorms from ~ 1 to 2 PM during our siesta time. It woke me up from my nap, but we were nice and dry in our cabins. The heavy rain also cooled down the temperature significantly, making our afternoon excursion and sleeping that night more comfortable.  On Saturday we had a brief shower at about the same time, but it was brief and just raised the humidity (if that is possible) and did not lower the temperature. We also had a little bit of rain overnight but were dry for all of our excursions. Leon said there was no real pattern to the rain and that they often had to cancel or change start times for excursions. 

In the afternoon we visited the house of an indigenous family. Leon gave a lecture on how the indigenous people live, explained how they used many of the plants they grew, and gave us some demonstrations. This included sampling some of the herbs they grow, one of which made our tongues numb after chewing on the leaves.  Matthew tried the flowers which Leon said were much more potent and it made his whole mouth numb.  We also got a demonstration of how they prepare Brazil nuts. Brazil nuts are inside a softball sized shell that resembles a small coconut. Each one had 12-20 nuts inside. After they prepared them we each got a couple to eat.   It was interesting to hear about the Indigenous people, especially how they are treated by the government. They are exempt from many of the laws that other Brazilians are subject to. For example, the house that we visited was that of a 26 year old man.  His wife was 15 and they already had one child. For non-indigenous people this would be illegal and the man would be arrested, but it is very common among indigenous people for women (girls) as young as 12 years old to marry and have kids.  The indigenous families do not own their land, but when they marry the tribal leaders assign them land that they can live on. Many of these people have never been to the city or rarely go. Mobile stores on boats come through periodically for them to purchase or trade for goods that they need. 

Raised bed herb garden

Leon giving his "lecture"

Native house

Karen eating Brazil nut

Work structure

The owner returning from top of a tree

Preparing Brazil nut

After leaving this home we went to a good place to view the sunset before returning to the lodge for dinner

Another amazing reflection

On boat ride back

End of another hard day

Day 15 – Sunday, July 5.   Juma lodge to Salvador.   For our final morning we went out for a sunrise boat ride, leaving at 530 in the morning and returning for breakfast at 7.  It was very peaceful to sit in the boat and watch the sky gradually get lighter, with the clouds transitioning through various shades of pink and white. We packed up and left the lodge at about 830 for the trip back to Manaus. From Manaus we would be flying to Brasilia and then Salvador where we planned to spend the last four nights on our trip. 

Dawn in the Amazon

Sunrise in the Amazon

Juma Lodge was wonderful. Leon was a great guide, all the other staff were wonderful, and the food was very good. Guest stayed for various amounts of time, so every day there were new people coming or going, but I would say on average there were ~25 guests there when we were there, broken up into groups of 10 or less. There were probably 2 staff members for each guest - we kept seeing new faces all the time. I HIGHLY recommend Juma Lodge. You can find additional information at www.jumalodge.com.

End of first boat ride back from Juma Lodge

People sometimes ask how I have time to write all this stuff while traveling - up to about 13,000 words so far. It helps to not sleep as much as the rest of my family, so I get a lot done late at night.  I also use time in airports and  on planes when there is not much else to do and I am not missing out on seeing anything.  I figure if I don't write it on the trip I won't find time when we return to our normal hectic life, plus it is easier to write when things are fresh on your mind.  Sometimes I have to write from really awful settings like the one below.  

Hard at work on the deck at our cabin