Amazing Amazon Rainforest

We had an amazing time on our trip to the Amazon!!! We planned the trip for Grandma Molly to come with us, and her presence made it even more amazing. We love having special visitors, and showing them our beautiful Brazil.

We just hung out at the pool for our first day since we didn't get there until afternoon. We did enjoy the buffet meals at the hotel we stayed at. The food was really good, and it was a good chance for Molly to try Brazillian food. In fact, she got a lot of Brazillian food throughout her whole trip here. Josh and I tried new foods, as well. I even had pirana soup for breakfast one morning.

Sunday was a great day. We went to a humble, all Portuguese speaking ward. We walked in a little late because we went to the wrong address at first, so we didn't really talk to anybody before the meeting, except one lady who sat on our bench for a minute... Well, she talked to me because I was there with two of my kids before the others, who were in the other uber car, arrived. She left the bench before the others walked in. Anyway, as soon as Sacrament meeting was over, we were surrounded by local ward members. They were delighted we were visiting their ward. We had to move the party to the hall because they just kept asking questions and talking. They especially loved our little blondie kids. After church, we went to the Botanical Gardens, called MUSA. In Manaus, these gardens are part of THE AMAZON RAINFOREST. It was amazing. I have always loved rainforests- always! I have always wanted to go to THE Amazon Rainforest. I loved it. It was a peaceful day seeing the beauty of God's creations. Besides the animals we saw in the enclosures, we also saw a green snake, small cayman, monkeys, and some birds. The rainforest is pretty dense, so it is lucky we saw what we saw. We went to the top of the lookout tower, and it took us higher than the trees. At the top, you could see rainforest as far as the eye could see. It was so cool - like an ocean of green trees instead of water. The botanical gardens had skeleton displays of animals that lived there prehistorically, they had skeletons of spiders that live there, and we even saw a ginormous spider, but it was in an enclosure. We saw the water lillies, butterfly garden, and big cool trees. We got popsicles for our treat at the end.

One thing I almost forgot to mention about our time in the botanical gardens, is the blasted balloon sword that I carried around the whole time. When we checked into the hotel the day before, someone made the kids balloon animals and swords. Trexton got a red sword, and he brought it with him in the uber to the gardens. I didn't know we had it because it was not in my car. I really wanted to ditch the thing in a trash can before we walked on the trail, but the kid loved it, so I thought better of it throwing it away. That balloon actually lasted the whole day, but as soon as we got back to the hotel, it started to lose life - go figure!

Monday was our epic day on the river. Our tour took place on the Rio Negro (Black River), but as part of the tour, we went to the meeting of the waters where the Rio Negro and the Amazon River meet, so we did go to the Amazon River. Our first stop on the river was the pink dolphins. This was, simply put, Amazing! We wore life jackets around our wastes. Mine came undone in the back, so I was just holding it down, but I made it work. Josh, Payson, Avenly, Trexton, and me got in the water. Molly and Zaylee were on the side lines, but they saw the same things we did. Payson and I were the only two that got to touch the dolphins. In fact, one gave me a piggy back, unintentionaly, and one kicked Payson with their tail. After that he was done, and got out of the water. Not me, though. I stayed until they kicked the last of our group out.

The next stop was the fishing massive fish dock. We rented three heavy duty stick poles with fish attached. Payson did his own and really had to hold onto the pole with dear life, so the fish who got the bate wouldn't pull the pole into the water. Josh helped the two littles with a pole, and Molly and Avenly fished together for the last pole. I was the videoagrapher. Stop number 3 was lunch and a boardwalk hike over the swamp to see the massive tree and water lillies. We saw monkeys on this walk. We also saw a local with a baby sloth. We were encouarged not to break the law by paying money to take pictures of or hold the baby sloth. We decided it was best to listen, although, the sloth was cute.

Our last dock was the indiginous village. It was not what I thought it would be like. Instead, I felt like the tribe was dressed in costume of what they might have worn many years ago, and they put on a show, which is fine. I loved the Polonesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. The difference was, you could tell these people were not enjoying showing off. They do it for the money. The youmger women (older teenagers), especially, did not like being paraded around for show. They were only covered on top with flowers hanging around their necks, and they were constanly trying to keep the flowers from flying astray. The grandma did not care one bit if she was showing anything, but it showed me that the girls know it is not normal to not be covered these days. They were being flaunted because of ancient traditions. It doesn't sit right with me. They should be allowed to be covered if they choose even with the money the tour companies are paying them. PS- we did see normal clothes on clothes lines, and we even saw a lady on her floating house power spraying her dock. She also had a 65 in. tv inside. At the end of the day, we are all people. We all have our own relationships; we all love,fight, and feel. I was having this realization when one of the girls was helping us shop at the village, and I asked her if she made something. She laughed and said she did, but for whatever reason she thought my question was funny. Everyone laughs, everyone cries, and everyone has lives just like ours. Sometimes we just can't relate, and so different type of people seem surreal. Okay- I really got side-tracked there. Anyway, the village was cool, but not my favorite. Oh, and we did see a macaw. Also, I saw a monkey tied up under a hut.

The last stop before heading back to Manaus was the meeting of the waters where the Rio Preto and the Amazon meet. It was pretty cool because they are different colors. There was no dock here since we were in the middle of two huge rivers, but the boat floated around so everyone could get a good look.

After returning back to the hotel with plenty of souvenirs, we all jumped in the pool and swam until dinner. It was a great day! Before catching our airplane in the afternoon on our last day, we headed into the historic downtown of Manaus. The plan was to see one of the palaces, but it was closed. We saw the historical, and still working, Manaus Theater. It was built in 1896. We took a tour and learned all about the European influence in Manaus. The paintings were marvelous, the practicing symphony was amazing, and my Trexton was horrible. LOL He didn't like the tour, and all he wanted to do was eat, which was not allowed in the building. The only thing that intrigued him was the lego display of the theater. We went to the church across the street, which had an amazing ceiling design. It also had mini splits that stuck out that totally contrasted the old paintings. They were kind of funny, but at least the church had air conditioning because of them. Then we found a couple little shops to finish off our souvenirs for the trip.

I am so glad we went to the Amazon. The trip was amazing!