Happy New Year!!!

We are back from our Amazon adventure!!! It was very warm and humid, and rained almost every day. We stayed at the TIWA Resort just outside of Manaus. Our guide, Washington, was very helpful and showed us lots of stuff in and around the jungle. He took me (Pam) on a walk through the jungle one morning before breakfast and I was amazed at how many different plants can be used for medicinal purposes! We all went piranha fishing, but didn't catch anything. They were too fast and ate the bate off the hook before we could snag them! We took a jungle survival tour, guided by the Jaguars, a group of ex-military guys. Jeffson, our guide, even managed to start a fire using a battery, steel wool and palm tree shavings in the POURING rain! Impressive. Garrett was followed around by the two Macaws that live at the resort. You can see the male in the pictures scrolling above. That picture was taken about 3 feet outside out door after the bird had been chasing Garrett! We took a boat ride to visit a rubber plantation started by a Portuguese guy in the early 1800's. We took another boat ride to see the meeting of the waters. The Rio Negro and the Solimoe rivers meet but don't blend because they are of different temperatures, speed and chemical make up. They move next to each other for 9 km before they become the Amazon. The Amazon river is actually made up of a bunch of other rivers that come together to become the Amazon.
We spent New Years Eve on a boat outside the port of Manaus. We saw lots of other boats with tons of people partying on them. The fireworks started at midnight and lasted about 15 minutes. The Brasilian new year celebration feel just like the American 4th of July!
I kept a journal of our trip and will put together a scrapbook/report that we can keep and look back on in the years to come. Garrett will be able to keep this and show it to his kids when he grows up!
Hope everyone is happy and healthy for this new year. I'll post again soon! Thanks for keeping in touch. Tchau, Pam