Lindisfarne – Forgus 37 – 7,5t (>9t equipped)
Salvador and surroundings, and a trip to the Amazon
26 June – 31 July 2006

After a month in Brazil we feel almost at home here and of course especially here in the bay of Bahia.
We spent our first week cleaning the boat, the laundry and all the formalities with the immigration, health, custom and harbourmaster. They have no specially rules for Yachts, so we are treated as a merchant ship with all their paperwork... But we managed and survived.

After this first week we started to investigate the possibilities to go to the Amazon. Flying there turned out to be the only acceptable way, it's almost 2000 km away!

So Salvador, Brasilia, Manaus and four days at Ariau Tower jungle lodge with a lot of tours into the jungle was the final decision.

We left the yacht in Aratu Yacht club, very sheltered and secure, and then a taxi to the Airport. One day in Brasilia with its modern architecture and very special planning of the town and its infrastructure. Quite an unusually experience.

The next day we flew to Manaus and from there a river transport on Rio Negro to the jungle lodge. The lodge, actually the hotel consists of a number of hotel towers connected with gangways above the water, hardly possible to describe, you have to see it!
www.ariau.tur.br

We where lucky having the water surrounding the hotel,  in November the water is 10 to 12 m lower, and the hole  establishment is on dry land and not very easy to access. Another advantage with the high water was the surprisingly absence of Mosquitoes.  This was coursed by to the acid water in Rio Negro.
All our tours into the jungle were by canoe.
Big canoes, carrying about 25 people and driven by an Outboard in 15 kn. We where lucky to be in a small group with only 10 very pleasant guests and an English spoken German guide. There where one trip in the morning and one in the afternoon, and sometimes even in the evening, when we where to catch some crocodiles!

We even did some swimming with Pink dolphins, and Annika was actually bitten by a big dolphin when it missed the fish and took here hand instead. Fortunately the dolphin  noticed the mistake almost instantly and let go before she was under water and the bite was only marks in the skin. Quite an experience and something to remember from her 50th birthday!
On our excursions we learned a lot, among other how to get drinkable water in the jungle. Cut one meter from a liana and if you do it right, you will get half a litre of good water. But be sure it's the right liana, a very similar one contains cyanide!! 
We had full pension with three very tasty meals and a lot to drink every day so we didn't have to try the lianas!  

The fourth day we spent on our own, the normal program was two days, walking around on the very extensive gangways around the hotel area into the jungle and along Rio Negro. We saw quite a number of different birds, three different species of monkeys, crocodiles, and lot of other animals of which we don't know their names.    

Then back to Manaus where we visit the famous over 100 year's old opera house. The town is fantastic, especially when you think of its position in the middle of the jungle. The town has been up and down during its history, in late 1800 the rubber tree and the industry around that made a lot of people wealthy, and of course the town prospered because of that. It was with this money the famous opera was built. When the rubber tree was smuggled to Malaysia with much higher production, the rubber barons went back to Europe and the town suffered from lack of founding's. Today the town is back in full action and a busy city with a big harbour for ocean going ships.  The old opera is restored to its old heyday and lots of other buildings are also refurbished.

After one night in Manaus we was supposed to fly home to Salvador and our yacht, but our plane was delayed five hours, and without possibility to reach our connection in Brasilia they didn't allow us to start the journey. Instead we got the same flight next day, god for them, saving taxi and a hotel in Brasilia, but now we had to pay for taxi and hotel in Manaus.
After an extra long journey we arrived in Salvador in the middle of the night, fortunately our taxi driver was at the airport waiting for us and brought us back to the yacht where we relatively exhausted went to bed 2 a clock in the night.     

We spent the next day at the buoy and then we sailed to Itaparica where we met Parlan II, with Monica and Janne from Gothenburg and two Norwegian yachts, Embla and Empire. Parlan and Embla had crossed the Atlantic together from Africa and Empire with Heidi and Eivind crossed the Atlantic with the ARC to Caribbean and from there to Salvador. They are like us heading south, so we will certainly meat them again several times.

Now we will nice and quiet prepare ourselves and the yacht for the continuing trip to the south of South America, starting mid August.      

31 july 2006
Annika & Björn
S/Y Lindisfarne

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