Since we'd mostly just been hanging around our little casa all day, we planned a little road trip with another couple from the orchestra who are our good friends, Mark and Débora.
We originally were going to rent a car to drive the 1.5 hours or so to the town of Presidente Figueiredo- a town with hundreds of cachoeiras (waterfalls) in the rainforest. After calling and speaking to someone from the first agency with a good price, we hopped in a cab to quickly reserve a car before they closed. When we arrived, we were told that price is not correct and it would be much more expensive. Strike 1. OK, fine. We don't need you anyway- there's another agency across the street. Of course, that was too expensive, too, and didn't include kilometers with the rental. Strike 2. The final place we rushed to in another cab seemed pretty hopeful at the start, until the salesman told us that no company in Manaus offers rental insurance for their cars. We were shocked to discover this, and we all walked away realizing we will probably never rent a car here. I certainly don't want to be held responsible to pay for an accident in a city where people drive down the center of the road in a 2 lane street and ignore red lights. Strike 3.
We checked out the bus options next, and Débora spoke with someone from the bus company who gave her the bus schedule to Pres. Figueiredo. For a very reasonable $16R each way, we solved the transportation problem. Of course, this being Manaus and all, it couldn't actually be that simple. When we showed up the next morning for our 8:30 am bus, we were told that that bus wouldn't be stopping in Pres. F., but we could catch the 10:30 bus instead. What happens after Strike 3? Hit the batter or something? Anyway, we bought the last 4 tickets for that bus and patiently waited at the bus station for our time to board. Despite all of these early setbacks, we got on the bus on-time, left on-time, and arrived only a couple hours later.
This is Jay's fake no-way-am-i-annoyed smile.
Once we arrived to our pousada/hotel, we did a quick tour of the beautiful, lush grounds, ate lunch at the self-service restaurant, and changed into our swimsuits and hiking gear.
After grabbing a ride with some hotel employees, the four of us started our search for the waterfall. This particular cachoeira is called Iracema Falls, and we were immediately impressed with its size when we first saw it. Of course, it appeared that tons of other people were, too, so we continued on to find the next less-crowded waterfall.
Our cute, back-2-back rooms
Our view of the Amazon rainforest
After grabbing a ride with some hotel employees, the four of us started our search for the waterfall. This particular cachoeira is called Iracema Falls, and we were immediately impressed with its size when we first saw it. Of course, it appeared that tons of other people were, too, so we continued on to find the next less-crowded waterfall.
Along the way, we passed a really cool cavern that was super dark and quite large. The walls are covered in white bat poop, and we even spotted a bat hanging upside down from the ceiling. Gross for the girls, cool for the guys.
We explored some more along the trail and eventually made it to the next waterfall. It was much smaller than the first, but also much less crowded. We all waded out into the water and were totally surprised at how strong the current was. There was one part in the middle of the river that literally knocked you down, and the water was only knee-deep! Once past that part, we climbed up the rocks and found some nice nooks in the rocks that were perfect for sitting. It was really relaxing and felt like a really strong massage as the water went rushing past. It was a little hard to leave this behind...
but knowing that we had a deadline of about 6 pm (when the sun sets), we had to head back to the pousada. We all took a shower and a nap before going back to the restaurant for a delicious dinner. After dinner, we stayed up really late playing card games and eating caju from the local trees. For those who don't know, cashew nuts that we eat actually come from a fruit off a tree. There is an apple-sized yellowish fruit that grows with one cashew nut on the end of it. The fruit has a weird texture and doesn't taste at all like the nut, but we now have soooo much more appreciation for the amount of work that must go into creating an entire bag of cashews. No wonder they're so expensive!
To make an already long story shorter, we walked to the falls the next morning and hiked to see what the trail would bring us. We were able to discover one more big waterfall further along the path, but since we had to catch an afternoon bus back to Manaus, we had to cut our exploration short. We were able to spend an hour in the morning at the biggest waterfall though, and it was even better than we could have imagined. The constant flow of water leveled out the rocks to create a rather walkable and smooth floor in the river. The other cool thing is that the rocks are very climbable, making it possible to sit in the middle of the rushing waterfall. Sometimes the pressure was pretty crazy, but again, it mostly feels like a great massage!
We're in there somewhere!
The beautiful walk back to the hotel
We completed our short trip by sharing a big lunch in town of fresh fish, rice, beans, farofa (type of flour), and some Guaraná (type of soda w/lots of caffeine, courtesy of the guaraná). This type of meal has to be our favorite thing to eat. We usually don't even know what type of fish we're eating- something from fresh water- but it is always delicious, and there are never any leftovers!
Hopefully we will have the chance to explore a little more of Brazil outside of our state, Amazonas. It's hard being so isolated from the rest of the country here, but at least we've got our waterfalls!
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