piranha – Page 3

Amazon Nature Walk

This is the seventh article in a series about the Amazon region of Brazil featured in my illustrated picture book, Alexander the Salamander. This post is about a nature walk in the Amazon. Previous ones highlighted the Amazon River, the Meeting of the Waters, the city of Manaus, Amazon Ecopark, piranhas, and a monkey reserve. The next and final article will focus on the Amazon’s indigenous groups. Enjoy these travelogues with photos and stories from one of the world’s mightiest rivers.

During our visit to the Amazon region in July 2008, we took a long walk in the rainforest to explore under its canopy. The trained guides who led us through the jungle showed us a bevvy of interesting flora and fauna with so many useful properties that the walk was like exploring a natural laboratory. The promise and danger of this intriguing rainforest gave me a health respect for it. Our walk was a major inspiration for my children’s picture book, Alexander the Salamander, where Alexander and his friends get more than they bargained for when they wander too far into the Amazon rainforest.

As we walked, the guides demonstrated how some trees and plants produced a variety of compounds and substances that were poisonous, medicinal, flammable, or could be used or consumed by humans. Our guides showed us edible and poisonous fruit that looked startlingly similar to the untrained eye. They sampled sap from trees that could be used as a salve to treat wounds or as fuel for torches. One tree had bark that smelled like fragrant incense when burned. Another produced berries used in cosmetics. Years of exploration had uncovered many potential uses for the rainforest, convincing me that what we were seeing was just a glimpse of what this green realm offered.

My son was awestruck handling a fiery sap-fueled stick while my wife tried on bright orange nail polish made from small round berries.

Our guides showed us how a tree commonly known as the “telegraph” tree produced a loud echo that could be used to send coded messages over long distances. The forest’s acoustics easily beat any home theater system.

They also pointed out parasitic vines and foliage that grew from or wrapped themselves around trees in a delicate dance where both grew dependent on one another.

The guide pointed out some potential pitfalls, including plants with thorns sharper than needles and plants with poisonous or hallucinogenic properties capable of killing humans. We skirted a dark swamp hiding all sorts of nasties waiting for an unlucky trespasser. I was glad that we went with guides who knew how to avoid the Amazon’s pitfalls.

The guides made the walk more fun by showing us how plants and trees could be used for leisure. My son, who fancied himself the king of this jungle, loved the crown and glasses one of the guides fashioned from palm fronds.

My son and I both enjoyed swinging on a makeshift swing made from vines and sticks. The living vines were so strong that they easily bore my weight as I swung through the jungle like Tarzan!

Our tour of the Amazon rainforest taught us a healthy respect for this place filled with wonders yet to be discovered and unseen dangers lurking in dark corners.

About Alexander the Salamander

A young salamander named Alexander living in the Amazon River Basin joins his friends Airey the Butterfly and Terry the Tarantula for an unforgettable jungle adventure. Come along with Alexander and friends as they meet birds, monkeys, and other creatures, enjoy the beauty of the rainforest, and face danger along the way.

The first book in the World Adventurers for Kids Series, Alexander the Salamander is an illustrated story inspired by the authors’ visit to the Amazon in 2008. Fun for kids and adults alike, the story teaches children the importance of listening to teachers and other authority figures.

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Meeting of the Waters in the Amazon

This is the sixth article in a series about the Amazon region of Brazil featured in my illustrated picture book, Alexander the Salamander. This one is about the Meeting of the Waters. Previous travelogues highlighted the Amazon River, the city of Manaus, Amazon Ecopark, piranhas, and a monkey reserve. Upcoming articles will focus on the rainforest and indigenous peoples. Enjoy these travelogues with photos and stories from one of the world’s mightiest rivers. The Meeting of the Waters, where two major tributaries, the Rio Negro and Rio Solimões, merge and form the Amazon River, is a sight to behold. Like the convergence of the Blue and White Nile rivers in Africa, the collision of these rivers is a spectacular mixture of color that looks like a blend of black coffee and milk tea. The darker Rio Negro with its decaying, organic debris and foliage flows into the light brown Rio Solimões. The result is a swirl of lighter and darker water that ebbs and flows for more than six miles downstream like yin and yang. Differences in the temperature, speed, and water density create a boundary between the two rivers that continues like an impenetrable wall until the Rio Negro is finally absorbed by the Solimões. The slower-moving water of the Rio Negro flows about two kilometers per hour at a temperature of 28°C (82°F) while the Solimões moves up to six kilometers per hour at 22°C (72°F). In July 2008, we took a river cruise from the Amazon Eco-Park Jungle Lodge to see this phenomenon. The swirling mixture of water looked almost potable. Almost. Our boat cruised for a while up and down the snaking line, giving us the chance to snap photos. I watched in amazement as the Gemini twins battled for supremacy. The Solimões was the more aggressive of the two. Sometimes it made some gains; sometimes the Negro rebuffed its advance. Our cruise boat departed the Meeting of the Waters about noon and passed through shallow water of a channel on the Rio Solimões. I wondered whether the trees protruding from the water were tall or the boat was close to scraping the riverbed. We stopped for lunch at a small village not far from the Meeting of the Waters. It was just half an hour downstream from the city of Manaus but felt a world away. With no motorized vehicles that I could tell, the residents relied on their feet and boats to get around. The church and school were the main buildings in the small, dry earthen square shaded by stately palms. The locals seemed industrious and enterprising. They helped the tourists who disembarked to eat and browse the large gift shop filled with handmade souvenirs like stuffed and mounted piranhas that were presumably made by the villagers. I’m sure the residents earned a healthy income from the steady stream of tourists who visited each year. Others were busy working on the dock, farming, or fishing. I saw one villager making rubber from the sap of a rubber tree. After tapping the tree with cuts that looked like slashes from a bear’s claws, the man collected the oozing white substance in a container and melted it into a large ball on a stick. I assumed that he was gathering the rubber to sell to a manufacturer or broker. We returned to the Meeting of the Waters in the afternoon and followed the Rio Negro upstream past Manaus to our resort. Another day in the Amazon introduced us to yet more facets of this fascinating place.

About Alexander the Salamander

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Amazon Monkey Reserve

This is the fifth article in a series about the Amazon region of Brazil featured in my illustrated picture book, Alexander the Salamander. This one is about a monkey reserve in the Amazon. Previous posts highlighted the Amazon River, the city of Manaus, Amazon Ecopark, and piranhas, a well-known fish native to the Amazon. Upcoming articles will focus on the rainforest and indigenous peoples. Enjoy these travelogues with photos and stories from one of the world’s mightiest rivers.

Not far from the Amazon EcoPark Jungle Lodge on the banks of the Tarumã River lies a sanctuary for monkeys that have been orphaned, injured, or confiscated from illegal dealers. The dozens of primates who are rehabilitated and, if possible, released back into the wild find respite there from the harsh reality of the jungle. Visiting the reserve managed by the Amazon EcoPark and spending time with its friendly residents was one of the highlights of our trip to the Amazon region.

The gray woolly monkeys, one of two genera of monkey at the reserve, greeted us upon arrival. Their name comes from their thick, wool-like fur that beckoned to be touched. Their longing eyes looked at us for hand outs with an eagerness that cast a spell over even the most calloused visitor.

The gray monkeys are cousins to the brown, or common woolly monkey, the Colombian woolly monkey, and the silvery woolly monkey that live together in the same areas of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Even though we didn’t feed them, a job we left to their caretakers, the woolly monkeys still mingled with our group. One took a liking to my young son, who fearlessly pet its soft fur.

We also encountered red bald uakari monkeys. These were more timid and reserved than their woolly counterparts, preferring to linger in trees and making wide berths around our group. These distinctive creatures are from one of four species of uakari (pronounced “wakari”), the others being the black-headed uakari, Ayres black uakari and Neblina uakari. This one inspired the character “Manny the Monkey” in my book Alexander the Salamander.

Both woolly and uakari monkeys prefer to spend most of their time in trees, although the reserve’s inhabitants might have been an exception because they seemed to spend much of their time milling about on the ground with the humans. The woolly monkeys had long, strong tails that allowed them to balance and swing from limb to limb without using their hands, while the uakari’s strong arms and legs helped them jump long distances from tree to tree. Both used their arms and legs when they walked on the ground around us. It was fun watching them swinging in the trees as if putting on an acrobatic show.

I watched the monkeys lounge around and eating food. Meal time was a shared free for all. The two species seemed to get along well as de facto neighbors in the reserve. None of them fought over their lunch and seemed content with their fair share, although I’m sure they’ve had food fights and monkeyed around.

While some might disapprove of the close interaction between humans and monkeys and tourists wanting to pet and take photos with these creatures, I appreciated the efforts of the Lodge to help rescue and rehabilitate them. Their populations range from vulnerable to endangered because of legal and illegal hunting and habitat loss caused by deforestation, and the sanctuary’s efforts will help the monkeys survive for generations to come.

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