I have an adventure hat. I wear it for adventures. My colleagues and friends laughed at my tatty hemp woven hat as it hung in my cabin for 4 months whilst we meandered our way across Europe, north Africa and the Atlantic on our way to Brazil and its immense Amazon river. However, the morning we called in Alter do Chao, a remote sandy haven a few hundred miles up-stream, I donned my hat and was proud. My pippi-longstocking braids were in place and I was off adventuring!! Little did I know that my day would include hoarding fallen mangoes, bullet ants bigger than my lipstick, cocktails and swimming in piranha infested water! However, when one wears an adventure hat… adventures will happen.

Moored just offshore in Alter Do Chao

Our adventure took the form of a trip to an arboretum on the edge of primary rainforest about 50 miles from Santarem and Alter do Chao. An arboretum in the greatest rainforest on earth confused me somewhat at first, but the premise of the place is clear. It is a protected area where the trees are catalogued and researched. They open their gates for people like us to experience the majesty of the primary rainforest and hopefully appreciate the delicate balance of life it provides.

I was, in fact I was going into the rainforest with a group of 50 pensioners on an organised and probably somewhat tame ‘meander’. However, that didn’t dampen my excitement one bit. This was my first foray into Brazil! As I emerged into the hot morning sun, the tattered straw hat rammed onto my pigtailed head, excitement bubbled through me. We were moored about 200 metres from shore at Alter do Chao just beyond the town of Santarem from where the tender boats would take us across the thick brown water to the shallow sandy banks of the village. Stepping onto the sand my flip flops slipped and sank into the heated ground as I virtually skipped to the old wooden walkway leading over the marshland to the village square. Tom joined me for the trip, his excitement rivaled mine as he poked fun at the now infamous hat and raced me through the village square to the bus that would take us into the jungle.

The pier at Alter Do Chao

The bus was old and hot. It shuddered along crater filled roads deeper into the Brazilian wilds. Shuddering indeed but not in a refrained British sense of the word. This bus raced, bounced and careered mercilessly past markets and countless churches: icons of Mary fruitlessly blessing us as we rocketed towards blind bends… maybe she expected to see us soon. The fact that this bus was older than my parents didn’t seem to bother the driver one bit. The sooner we got there, the sooner he had a break. Brazil is wonderful.

One of many Churches on the way to primary jungle…

The road to the wild…

As Brazil streaked past the windows Raul filled in a largely disinterested audience on his Amazonian heritage. He grew up in the jungle and hadn’t left it until he was 14 years old when he went to Santarem for school. His memories of leaving one world and joining another were vivid and fascinating. He spoke of living, as most Amazonian tribes do, without knowledge of money or outside influences, of needing nothing except what the forest can give on an hour by hour basis. Life dictated by the heat of the day and the sound of the wind in the trees. “Could you go back to that life?” I asked him. “I could walk into the jungle right now with the clothes on my back and live happily for the rest of my life” He replied. That’s freedom.

The bus pulled to the side of the now undistinguishable track. We piled out into the heat of the day and heard the deafening sound of jungle insects. The Amazon is a largely nocturnal environment due to the heat of the day. The life that buzzes and chatters around you during daylight hours tends to be winged and many legged! Covered in bug spray I stepped into the shade of the canopy… me and my adventure hat disappeared into the jungle.

I don’t remember how many kinds of trees we were introduced too. Rubber trees, hollow trees that resonate sound for 10 miles if you hit them with a big stick (perfect for if you’re lost apparently- I didn’t want to find out!), trees that seem to grow from the sky downwards, wrapping their tendril branches around their more traditional rivals. All in all the scale of the place made me feel like a borrower! I was tiny with insects bigger than my hand rustling in the trees. It was incredible. We followed the track past a mound of roots that arched like a jungle gym above our heads and below our feet. Before I reached them I heard gasps, some screams and many expletives! Bullet ants swarmed around our feet. These are ants that are 2 inches long and have a sting that causes excruciating pain for 24 hours if touched! Raul mentioned that in his tribe a boy must put his arm into a bullet ant nest before he can become a man. Wow. I lingered as long as I dared and set off to see some more.

They were big. They were scary. They were well camouflaged!

The great thing about traveling with Tom is his ability to play. Soon we began to hang back from the rest of the group, winding our way off the track and pretending we were explorers. Posing in funny angles next to trees to look like we were climbing them in our snapshots. Peeping through undergrowth looking for animals we imagined were waiting to be discovered. Slipping and sliding in mud and undergrowth like children. We were hot, we were muddy, we were tired and we were having the most fun I could remember in all my adult life. Arriving back at the bus, we filled our arms and back packs with mangoes from the jungle floor as the passengers looked at us as though we were mad. Packed back into the furnace of a bus, we snacked on our mangoes and dozed all the way back to the village. We had been gone 4 hours… it felt like days!

 Trees and vines weaving around one another

Footbridge over caymans and snakes…

Feeling tiny…

And tinier…

If you’re lost you can hit this tree with a stick and it can be heard for 10 miles!

Our lovely guide Raul

Free mangoes!!

Time to go

Who needs a TomTom when you can find your way with this???

Hot and exhausted Tom and I decided we needed a sugary drink…. Asking a vendor with a pile of limes if she sold juice she emphatically waved us over. “Yes! $1!” Sold. However, she tipped a cup of sugar into each glass, followed by 4 limes and what turned out to be 6 shots of Cachaca (sugarcane spirit)!!! Emboldened and somewhat hammered from our thirst quenching cocktail we proceeded to find the beach…..make friends with some local children… share their sweets with them… and swim in the great river. Cocktail in hand I placed my feet in the muddy water, the same water that held crocodiles, pink dolphins and the infamous piranhas. Their presence was tangible as the beach was littered with the less fortunate of these tiny terrors who had been caught and varnished for sale to the passengers! I caught Toms eye… Cocktails and Piranhas?… yes! With that we dove. I swam unseeing through the opaque water feeling the roots of plants and unknown inhabitants of the river rubbing against my legs. When I rose for breath I was joined by the children who had been paddling in the shallows. Passengers watched appalled from the banks, convinced we were playing with death whilst the locals laughed and splashed in themselves. I must admit, it probably wasn’t the wisest swim I’ve ever had, but I’m fine and well with no disease or injury to report. The piranhas kept their distance and Tom and I felt a kind of joy I’ve not managed to feel since.

The lovely lady who gave us our drinks

A glimpse of what was in the water… out of sight and very much more alive!

Cocktails!

The children we met on the beach

The moment I went under!

No turning back!

One of the local children enjoying a paddle!

The vicious sun dried us off as we walked back to the ship. Once there I headed to the bar for a cocktail… (without the Piranhas this time) and watched the equatorial sun set over the endless canopy of trees. All in all, it was a blooming lovely day.

Tom and I a little worse for wear!

A beautiful end to a perfect day.