Encontro_das

Our first destination of the day was the meeting of the waters, "Encontra das Aguas". It is were the two rivers, Rio Negro and the Amazona River, join. As you can see in the picture each river has its distinct color. When the rivers meet the colors/rivers do not blend right away. It was a very impressive sight.

At the tropical Hotel we made arrangements to take a day boat trip. The boat left early morning from the Tropical Hotel dock. We traveled down river, through much rain. the day began cloudy, cold and with rain.

After spending some time at the meeting of the waters we moved on to our second destination. We stopped along the river aty what is known as a "floating restaurant". Many people live on the river. The people construct their houses to float. As the river raises and lowers with the seasons, the houses accomodate to the changes also. near the restaurant we walked along a wooden pathway to a place filled with lilypads, large enough to hold a child. The day we visited an alligator had decided to sun itself on one of the lilypads.

From the restaurant we boarded a small motor boat. The boats weaved us through trees and tall grass. We tried to pullover at one point to observe the markings on a tree made by the changes in the water level, but the mosquitoes decided to attack. Luckily we had mosquito repellant. The small boat made another stop. There we met some families that live in the floating houses. They showed us some of the native animals. We were able tohold some of them. A few of the animals were; sloths, boa constrictor, alligator, tropical birds and monkeys. I chose to hold the sloth. It is a very slow moving animal with rough fur.

After our visit with the families and animals we headed back to the restaurant where we boarded the larger boat. It was now time to head back to the hotel. Although the day started wout with gloomy weather, it ended with the sun shining and we had a spectacular day.