This day was INCREDIBLE!!!! I highly highly highly recommend it. We started with hotel pickup by Milton who is a great guy. He picked us up in a small car... read more that had two other travelers from the group in it. We were squeezed in, but it was comfortable. The ride to where we start the journey was about a one hour ride. Make sure to use the bathroom before you leave. On the way there, Milton stopped to buy the water that we would use on the trip. Everyone got one tall bottle of water the big one, I believe it was a 1.5L bottle. Make sure to bring a backpack with you that is large enough to hold the big bottle, because everyone fends for themself on the hike. You will have to hold your own bottle if it doesn't fit in your bag. The ride was so great because we went over the beautiful Rio Negro bridge and drove through some neighborhoods which allowed for another perspective of Brazil.
We got to a little 'town' where the small motorized boats are and met Fabio our GREAT guide. I cannot speak highly enough about Fabio, he is so great! The call him the 'mini guide' because he is a short man. He is very knowledgeable and speaks English and Portuguese. Fabio took us by boat to the start of our two hour hike. We got lucky because it did not rain. Bring a poncho!!!!
During the hike we saw many things that you can expect of the Amazon including a HUGE and I mean HUUUUUUUUGE tarantula!!!!!! Don't worry you will be fine. I have a huge fear of spiders that I made Fabio aware of, he actually saw the tarantula on the trail and before he mentioned it, he made sure to get it to walk away from the path and close to his hole, once the tarantula was at a good distance, he told us to look. I thought the way he handled that was so great!!!!! We then got to take all types of pics of it. Fabio did whatever he does to get it to crawl around a bit for us (at a distance).
During the hike we also passed the place where we would have lunch, and at that time we were given the option to drop off any bags that we don't want to carry, because we would be returning to that area in about an hour.
Lunch - Fabio carried with him all the items that he needed to make the lunch himself. He had us all gather wood to make a fire to cook the food. We actually watched him make the fire with his bare hands. So cool to watch. Very safe!!!! We had chicken and rice, and THE BEST pineapple I've ever had, for dessert. The coolest thing about lunch is that during the hike Fabio actually got wood from the trees and carved out a spoon for each of us. This is what we used to eat with. He also grabbed some huge leaves and gave us each one. This was for us to eat out of. Fabio actually made bowls out of the large leaf. It was incredible to watch him make these things and to actually use them to eat. I kept my spoon!
If you are a germaphobe, make sure to bring your own sanitizer, spoon and bowl, because nothing was professionally cleaned. This is a very grassroots experience. Any washing of hands or utensils will be done in the nearby stream. Prepare yourself! I absolutely loved the experience!!!!
After lunch, we walked back to the boat and made our way to the pink dolphins. Another great experience. You walk into the water and onto a platform that you cannot see, but it is under the water for sure. You stand on that and the dolphins pretty much swim to you and around you. The platform is not visible AT ALL. It extends out a decent amount for multiple people to be out at the same time, but at a certain point it ends and you will not have anything under you, so you will have to swim. They make you wear a life vest type thing that is not a vest, but more of a safe floatie thing that wraps around your waist.
Nothing under that water is visible AT ALL. Be warned that you might freak out at first because most times you cannot see the dolphins until they are actually on you, and by on you I mean, you will feel their slippery tail or body slide against yours, and it does catch you off guard. Everything is safe, but I only give this as a warning for you to prepare yourself for. You can touch the dolphins, but make sure not to touch them on the top of their head where the blow hole is. The guides will tell you this. The dolphins also have a very strong body so when they do any jumping up (to grab the fish) there body will sometimes push you as they land back in the water and swim away. Be prepared! I hope I'm not making this sound scary. It is such a safe and amazing experience. My other recommendation for germaphobes is to put on water shoes because the platform that you stand on is very slimy feeling, again, you cannot see under the water so I can only imagine what we were standing on. It truly is a Black River (Rio Negro).
After the dolphins, we boated to the area where we did the piranha fishing. This personally was the most boring part of the trip, but only because I find fishing boring. It was however very cool to see the guys actually catching some piranha. One of our guys was able to catch about six. All of the fish were pretty small and all returned safely to the water. Fabio would have kept any large ones for dinner, but we only caught small ones. I fished for a few minutes and then took the rest of the time to just enjoy watching everyone else fish and relax. You should know that you stay in the boat, floating on the water the entire time. Don't expect to be able to walk around and explore. The fishing lasted about 30-45 minutes. Make sure to pee before you leave the dolphin area!!!!!!!! Once you leave that area you will be on the water for over two hours. You might not believe this, but I had to go so bad, that I asked the guys not to look, and I stuck my butt off the boat and peed in the water! Listen!..... I had to go bad!!!!! And that was also an experience I'll never forget either. LOL
We watched the sunset from the boat while fishing, then we continued our journey by boat and started the night alligator search. This was very cool. It is so dark out there and Fabio has a headlight that he turns on so that we can see all of the glowing eyes on the water! The amber/orange eyes are the gators and the green eyes are SPIDERS!!!! This part of the tour was very very cool. We got to a point where Fabio actually pulled a small gator out of the water and we all took turns safely holding it and getting pictures with it. This was the last activity of this tour.
We then boated back to our starting point, where there was a big van with someone ready to drive us all back to our hotels. The journey back to the hotel is at least an hour depending on when you get dropped off. Fabio gets dropped off first because he lives very close to where we were, We luckily were the first to get dropped off at a hotel,
The entire trip with drive to and from was roughly over 12 hours. Milton picked us up at the hotel at 830am and we got back to the hotel at about 930pm.
I highly highly highly recommend you do this tour. Bring snacks and extra water. You can purchase snacks at the dolphin facility. Be prepared to pee in the jungle if needed, because the only bathroom you'll find is at the dolphin facility. Bring a poncho, hat, and some Reais to give Fabio a tip, he deserves it!!!!
Hope this review helps! 🙂
THANK YOU FABIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU MILTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xoxo~ Mariela
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