Juma Lake, Amazonas, Brazil

One of the most fascinating things about visiting the Amazon is realizing how much water there is. The river/lake water level fluctuates by as much as 12 meters (40 feet) and since we visited in the middle of the rainy season we were canoeing through already flooded forests yet we could still look up about 15 feet and see the water marked line on the tree trunks.

We stayed in a family lodge on Juma Lake and spent a night camped out in the jungle in hammocks. Juma is a 3 ½ hour journey from Manaus by ferry across the meeting of the waters, to a taxi on a military road and then a speed boat through a sunken mangrove forest. Trail blazing through the jungle was like living inside an episode of Lost, with thoughts of The Medicine Man and the Hunger Games flowing through our minds. At any moment we felt like we would turn our heads and see Yoda making an X-Ray rise!

We ate so many new things from bright juicy fruits of the tree to juicy white grubs from the middle of huge nuts.

What impressed us the most about the Amazon was the sheer variety and diversity of the jungle flora and fauna. When our boat brushed against the leaves of a tree top (literally) or the floating rice, our boat would fill with critters of all sizes… including supersized snails, mini jumping spiders, caiman (think crocodile) and of course piranhas!

The heat, rain and mosquitoes were not as bad as we were expecting and we had a packed schedule full of surprises and adventure. All and all the trip blew our expectations away!