The weather was surprisingly mild, although we did work up a sweat even at the slow pace we had to take in the rain forest, because some of the trails were not that easy. Machetes were out making a way for us. So we were noisy, which was not good for any kind of wildlife watching, but it did give us a chance to be inside the forest, be quiet and just hear the howler monkeys.



The only way to really see anything for us was to go on the boat excursions, which we we did most days 3 times a day, 5:50 am, 4pm and 8pm. The forest walks were at 10 am, but not every day. They should have been though, because it made us hungry for the great food the cook served up for each meal.

Before posting anything else I should link to one of the sites that are brokers for the Tucano cruise, which has photos and detailed descriptions of the boat. It was a pretty comfortable way to visit the rain forest, since we had little cabins with AC where we could relax. There were a lot of siestas taken.

Having never fished in my life, catching a piranha as my first fish ever seems to have been the most memorable touristy moment of our trip to Amazonas. I've mentioned it often enough to people around me, including the fish fry that followed, because I thought it was fun. Some people made the D: face at the idea of eating piranha, but my mental rule that 99.9999% of food, if fried, is pretty palatable, holds.

Got shots Friday and now we're taking typhoid pills this week, getting ready for the trip to Brazil. We'll only be there for a week, but it's on the Amazon and Rio Negro, so this means we're spending a scary amount of money on making sure we don't get sick. This also means getting long lists of all possible side effects of taking so much stuff, as well as other possible health hazards. Rabies? It could happen!

We still need to get malaria and cipro pills for the actual trip, along with great quantities of mosquito repellent. This is one more reason my personal preference for vacations tends towards cities, in cool climates.