THE DEVIL'S THROAT — A GATEWAY TO BRAZIL
An endless series of falls pumps the white water adrenalin straddling two countries
It's early February 2020, our first stop is Iguacu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina. All the excitement building. Then seeing it — stunning!
Never tell a local Brazilian that the Argentine side is best! Actually, seeing both sides is best.
There are approximately 275 waterfalls with an average of 61,000 cubic feet of water/second going over the falls. Yes, much bigger than Niagara or Victoria Falls.
Walking in, on the Brazil side, the waterfalls went on forever, so many it's hard to count. The Devil's Throat is the largest and most spectacular.
Looking upstream, the Iguacu River flows placidly and smoothly towards the falls, totally deceiving about the roaring maelstrom about to happen.
Standing in the billowing spray on the Argentine walkway just metres from the Devil's Throat, I can't believe they let people this close! The powerful roar as water flows over the edge and plunges hundreds of feet below. Mesmerizing, white water adrenalin.
There was nervous excitement as we took a riverboat from the Argentine side to see the falls up close. Many people just wearing bathing suits and the mandatory life jackets.
Down the white-water river towards Devil's Throat — “holy crap they're not really going there are they!”– into a modest waterfall off to the side.
Back downstream and into a side channel, a spectacular series of waterfalls coming over the cliffs. Turn left, OMG, water churning out of a gorge, foaming clouds of spray. We slide right underneath, White- Out!, like a thousand showers pouring on our heads. Huge smiles and whoops all around!
Next stop, the Amazon! Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state, has two million people living on the immense Amazon River in the centre of the worlds' largest rainforest.
We loved Armando's sidewalk café and jazz bar near the Opera House: full of locals, with great live music and our bill was tallied by the number of empty beer bottles under our table. The Opera House was splendidly built in 1896 with marble from Italy and crystal chandeliers from France, all to suit extravagant tastes of the rubber barons.
We flew from Manaus to Tefe, a town 500 km further into the rainforest, then by small boat up a tributary of the Amazon for an hour. A feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.
First sight of the Uacari floating lodge — what a beautiful setting. Colleen had seen the image on Google and we had to go there. The Uacari is an ecotourism lodge in the one-million-hectare Mami-raua Reserve.
The river is “white” water, actually muddy looking but importantly, full of organic materials washed off the land which supports a vast ecosystem. Delightful, but no dangling fingers in the water — too many hungry caimans and piranhas.
The water level rises 12 meters in flood season which means that all animals, including monkeys, sloths and jaguars have adapted to living for months in the mid to upper forest canopy.
When we were there the water had flooded five meters and it made seeing the animals much easier. One night we went caiman “hunting” in small boats with flashlights in the pitch black — red reflected eyes surrounded us on land and in the water!
We had a presentation by a local researcher. They use rope snares to capture jaguars for tagging and studying. They tracked three jaguars and interestingly their territories all overlapped right around the lodge!
One tourist group in a small motor boat videoed a jaguar swimming across the river in front of them.
Some lodge staff said they hadn't seen one in two years working there.
All our exploring was done by boat or canoe. A Brazilian highlight was quietly paddling in a wooden canoe through the flooded forest, surely one definition of tranquillity and beauty. Colleen and I looked at each other and smiled — this is the Amazon.
Our second rainforest visit was to Antonio's Jungle Lodge about 200 km northeast of Manaus. The lodge is on “black” water, Rio Urubu, which is Andes' run-off, it's more acidic, clearer of organics and doesn't sustain the same level of bugs (or mosquitoes), fish and birds as white water. However, you can swim in it before the caimans come out at night. And, the piranhas don't bother unless you're bleeding.
A highlight for some adventurous guests is to camp overnight in hammocks in the jungle. One fellow slept in a hammock over the river. Our ancient backs weren't up to it.
We did a rainforest walk with our very entertaining guide, Wellington. While I fiddled with camera settings, Colleen saw an anteater or at least the big, fluffy tail as it ran down the path ahead of us.
Later we had a memorable trip with our guide slowly paddling for several hours down a flooded stream bed with the trees forming a green canopy overhead. Such quiet serenity.
Wellington took us piranha fishing using just a hand-held fishing line and a baited hook. Colleen snagged a piranha, it did a loop in the air, came off the hook and landed right at her feet.
The lodge cooked up all the piranhas we caught — very bony but quite tasty.
Next it's off to Rio and Carnival.