2nd January 2017On our first day in Manaus, we were introduced to the city and its surrounding rainforests.
Starting at 11:00, shortly after our arrival in the city, Rafael, Marcos, and Tayake, our tour guides, introduced us to the city center, as well as the city's history, which revolved for a long time around rubber plantations and the rubber barons such as Eduardo Ribeto, who brought not just unprecedented economic growth to the city, but also transformed the city culturally. One of Riberto's greatest contributions to the city at that time was the This transformation paved the way for Manaus to become a regional power. Later in the afternoon, at around 12:30, we left the city center for the Museum of the Amazon (MUSA), a large expanse of protected tropical rainforest in the outlying regions of Manaus. There we were introduced to, and learned much about, the local tropical rainforest biome which Manaus is part of. The ecological importance of the rainforests lies with water quality and carbon sequestration. Additionally, the flora of the rainforest has a near-infinite amount of medicinal benefits, and so all around the state of Amazonas, sustainable development reserves have been established, with the intentions of fusing economic development with sustainability. |
3rd January 2017Our second day in Manaus concerned continued study of Manaus's local ecology, along with an introduction on the hydrology of the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers and the anthropology of the local native Brazilians living along the Amazon River.
After leaving our hotel at around 7:00, we took our tour bus to the Manaus dock, where we promptly boarded our Tour Boat at around 10:00. After departing Manaus, we traveled upstream to a local Native Brazilian village. We arrived at our destination at 12:30. At the village, we interacted with them in several of their dances and they in turn performed several dances for us. Our experience with this tribe not only introduced us to their native customs and traditions, but also to their sustainable lifestyle and use of native Amazonian flora for their medicinal value. The issues of conflict between the rapidly developing nation of Brazil and the increasingly disenfranchised Native Brazilian and Caboclo populations. After leaving the village, we continued to head upstream to where we stopped at river barge built for swimming with local pods of the Amazon pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). I myself did not swim with the dolphins because of issues concerning the ecological ethics of it. Although this particular swimming area was open to the dolphins, there are other swimming areas along the Amazon where the dolphins are enclosed in a riparian paddock of sorts by netting. Not only are the occupants adult wild animals with dubious experience with humans, but there are also issues of proper treatment of the dolphins by their human caretakers. Even in cases when the dolphins are not enclosed by netting, there are also issues of the dolphins developing a trust of human and reliance on humans for food. This would impede on conservation efforts to create an self-sufficient reproducing population. After leaving the dolphin swimming station, we traveled downstream. We arrived at our destination, Ecological Park January, an riverside ecological preserve and buffet-style restaurant located in a stilt-building in one of the Amazon's lagos (lakes). After eating, we explored the boardwalk behind the buffet, where we encountered a troop of capuchin monkeys. This also invoked the ecology ethics similar to that of the pink river dolphin described above. We left the buffet at around 16:30 and proceeded to travel downstream back to Manaus, where we traveled past the city to the Meeting of the Waters, the area where the waters of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solomões converge just downstream of Manaus. The two rivers are two major tributaries of the mighty Amazon, and his formed as one continuous river. This merger has significant impacts on the hydrology of the Amazon, as the Rio Negro contains low levels of sediment (hence the name "Black River"), while the Rio Solomões is abundant in sediment. After going to the Meeting to the waters, we went back to Manaus, arriving at 19:30. We took our tour bus back to the hotel. At 9:00, Heather and Georgie did their presentation on the hydrology of the Amazon Basin. 4th January 2017 |
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On our third day in Manaus, we continued to learn more and more about the ecology of the Amazon rainforest and we also introduced to the geology of particular areas of Brazil's Amazon.
After leaving the hotel at around 7:00, we traveled northabout 100 kilometers to the community of Presidente Ferguiredo, where we went hiking through the rainforest of the GeoPark Amazon Falls. Our hike went from 9:00 to 11:30, during which we learned a lot about the medicinal benefits of many Amazon plants, such as the quinine molecules contained within a specific type of vine. Quinine is a chemical which can be used to treat malaria. Our hike destination was Maroaga Caverns, a 600 meter deep labyrinth of limestone caverns carved out over the millennia by the massive quantities of rainwater that the tropical area of Presidente Ferguiredo has received. We then proceeded to explore the interior of the Caverns, which contained much wildlife. Some examples of the wildlife in the cave included a nesting pair of cock-of-the-rocks in the roof of the Caverns, an extremely venomous Brazilian wandering spider, and a massive colony of fruit bats. After we continued our traversing of Maroaga Caverns, our next destination in the GeoPark was the nearby Judeia Grotto, a massive chasm that had become permanently filled with rainwater. The Grotto, similar to Maroaga Caverns, was formed from the gradual dissolve of limestone by rainwater. Both are part of the Nhámundá Formation, which was formed during the Silurian Period of the Paleozoic by the erosions of sandstone. After our hike, we headed to our lunch destination, Santuário Falls. After lunch, we headed to Iracema Falls, located within GeoPark Amazon and behind Santuário Falls. Iracema Falls is on Urubu River, the source of which is Maroaga Caverns. At the Falls, I was able to observe more examples of horizontal sandstone formation. We spent several hours swimming in the Urubu River, after which we headed back to our tour bus, and subsequently back to Manaus. |