San Juan (23-24 January)
The second destination of my journey is Amazon and northeast Brazil. In order to reach Manaus, I bought a ticket that first flew to San Juan for one night before catching an Avianca flight to Manaus via Bogota. This one-way ticket was only expensive but has given me a bad experience. My short flight from Dominica to San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the US, took just over an hour and a half. For some reasons, the US immigration officer required a thorough search of my luggage. It was the first time I was subject to such treatment. As a result, I had to wait for almost half an hour. I shall not go to the US again unless I have a good reason to do so.
San Juan founded by Spanish colonists in 1521 is the second oldest European-established capital city in the Americas and the oldest European established city under US sovereignty. Old San Juan has many historical buildings including defensive walls, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, La Fortaleza, which have been declared World Heritage Sites.
I stayed in a women only dormitory near the old town. The renovated building is well-designed, clean and stylish. After settling down, I went to a nearby eatery for brunch and planned to walk to the old town which is a World Heritage Site. Suddenly, I had problem in walking and decided to return to the hostel to rest. I lay down from about 2 pm to 7pm, got up briefly for two hours and slept from about 10pm to 7 am the next morning. As I felt better, I took a bus to the old town (2 stops).
Given my walking problem, I took my walking poles and walked slowly. The old town filled with well-preserved colonial buildings is attractive and charming. I sat inside the San Juan Cathedral for a long time, took a long walk along the old city wall promenade before reaching the Castillo San Felipe del Morros. I decided not to pay USD10 to visit the fortress as I did not think I should walk for another one to two hours given my conditions. When it started to rain heavily, I returned to the neighborhood of the hostel and had a nice brunch. I arrived at the airport around 3:15pm for a flight scheduled at 5:45pm. Alas the airline refused to check me in unless I could show a ticket leaving Brazil. They could not accept my ticket from Cape Town to Hong Kong on March 24 as proof of my plan to leave Brazil. I was forced to search and spent over an hour before getting a ticket from Salvador to Chile on February 26. My second most frustrating experience in San Juan!
Manaus (25-30 January)
The actual flight time for San Juan to Manaus takes less than six hours. I arrived at the Manaus airport before 3am. The immigration service was inefficient with only three officers on duty. Passengers had to wait a long time. I had asked Casa dos Frados to pre-book a taxi (USD20).
Things worked well! Casa dos Frades on the San Sebastiao Square, is located in the historical centre next to the San Sebastiao Church facing the majestic Amazonas Theatre. It resembles an art gallery and museum with interesting collections of books, ceramics, cameras, paintings, furniture etc. Through the recommendation of the hotel, I booked a 4-day trip to the Amazon, a day trip to swim with dolphins and a 5-day journey (31/1-4/2) from Manaus to Belem on Amazon Star. I am glad to spend ten days in the Amazon area.
4-day Amazon Trip (26-29 January)
Time does not seem to matter in this part of the world. I was told to prepare for departure at 8 am. Then I was told that as three participants were late, the group would leave at noon instead. The tour company compensated me by arranging me to visit Amazonas Musa (a botanical garden). It is a bonus and I find the park well-designed and illustrated.
I finally set off around 12:30 pm with three young men from America and Claude (a Swiss). We first crossed the Amazon, then took a van to Araca to board a boat to Pousada Mamori (some 55km from Manaus) on the Mamori Lake. The lake is peaceful and expansive. I was glad to have a cottage by myself. I discovered all groups had different programmes: Claude came for fishing for four nights hoping to catch a pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) one of the largest freshwater fishes in the world while the three young men would spend a night in the lodge and another night camping in the jungle. Given my mobility issue, I decided to stay in lodge for three nights instead of sleeping in a hammock in the jungle for one night.
I had a leisure and most peaceful stay in this paradise. On the first night, James (a 64-year-old guide) took me to find alligators after dinner. It was an atmospheric evening on the lake with full moon. I saw the red eyes of an alligator and that was all. But I enjoyed the total silence and moon reflections on the lake.
On the second day, I joined Neto on an easy 2-hour jungle walk next to the lodge. I fell towards the end of the walk. Luckily I did not hurt myself as the soil was damp. When the boss of the agent heard about this, he was worried about me that he asked James be my guide/minder to look after me! I therefore joked James was my baby-sitter. In the afternoon, I joined two Dutch ladies Diana and Chantel on a piranha fishing trip. While Chantel caught three and Diana one, I failed to catch any! After dinner, I joined them with Neto as our guide in search of alligators. Neto and the boatman are skillful and Neto soon caught one in the shallow water. He explained its life cycle. It was tamed and soft when we held it in our hands. Soon we released it back to the lake. To touch an alligator is an incredible experience.
On the third day, James took me and two other young men to visit the village next to the lodge. It is a small community with only 12 families and two churches and a school. The houses look tidy and the land is well-tendered. As I did not go camping with the Dutch ladies, I joined Claude on his fishing trip. It was a beautiful afternoon and the experienced boatman took us to another part of the lake. Claude is passionate about fishing. It was wonderful to sit and watch the boatman and Claude working as a team. We were all excited when Claude caught a Tucunare Peacock Bass and an Arapaima. Around 5pm, it started to rain: the thunder and torrential rain were a bit scary. I was wet despite my raincoat. Anyway, it was a nice experience.
On the last day, when everyone was out, I sat in the veranda reading and listening to lectures on Buddhism. I felt a sense of inner peace and indescribable happiness. After lunch, I left with Diana and Chantel and returned to Manaus around 5pm.
On January 30, I joined a day trip from Manaus with four stops. Owing to misunderstanding, I waited to be picked up while the group departed at 8:30am from the tour office not far from my hotel. As a result, I was put on a boat with Brazilians. Hence, I did not know what the guide was saying. Anyway, I had a good relaxing time watching and swimming with the pink river dolphins. We have pink dolphins in Hong Kong. But the Amazon dolphins seem bigger and friendly. It’s the first time I get so close to a dolphin.
The next highlight was to see the meeting of the waters at Negro and Amazon Rivers: the two rivers different in colour, temperature, density and velocity run side by side without mixing. The second stop was at a floating village for fishing with a pirarucu, one of the world’s biggest fresh water fishes on display. At the lunch stop, we had a chance to walk to a small lake with gigantic water lilies. On the way, I saw a monkey too. At the final stop, we watched an indigenous tribe performing their traditional rituals (fairly commercialized).
Once back in Manaus, I was able to finalise my travel plan beyond Belem with Armstrong and Mariana. From February 4 to 26, I would visit Belem, Sao Luis, Lencois Maranhenses National Park, Fortazela, Recife, Fernando De Noronha, Salvador and Biopeda.