Amazon cruise - day 6 : A swim and meeting of the waters

This is our true last day onboard. Tomorrow, we disembark at 7 am.
We start with a morning launch excursion to see wildlife, but apart from a few ducks and some dolphins, we are not lucky. However, we used the electrical engine and we have a beautiful time hearing all nature's noises.

We are within 55km of Manaus, and we won't be doing much more wildlife spotting today. The morning outing is replaced with a stop at a sandbar for our first swim in the Rio Negro. The water is deliciously warm. It's brown and the bottom has a lot of leaves but otherwise, it's very pleasant. We stay there for a little less than 2 hours enjoying ourselves before going back on board.

After lunch, we are invited to make our own souvenirs using seeds as beads. I would say that everyone was enjoying themselves and it helped pass the time pleasantly until we reached the meeting of the waters. This is the place where the Rio Negro and the Amazon River meet. The water color of each river is different and they flow separately for another 18km before become all brown. This natural phenomenon is due to two factors: flow speed and temperature. The amazon river is on average 16 degree Celsius, the Rio Negro 27 degree Celsius. The first is has a stronger current that the latter.

We spend a good 15min looking at it before going back to beading and finishing our respective bracelets. Because we made good time to get there, we have enough time to do a last short launch trip to spot wildlife but on the Amazon River this time.

Our guide picks a small channel this time, and it’s interesting to see along one side all the habitation and floating houses. Since the river system of the Amazon can have drastic change of level ( +/- 10 m et sometimes more ), they have a system of ropes to maintain them, and are built on huge floating logs.

Surprisingly, the wildlife we see here must be used to human sounds, because they are a lot less shy than on the Rio Negro and we got to see birds, iguanas, sloth from much closer than before. The bush and forest are also a lot less dense, which facilitate the observation. And that’s it ! Our last little adventure into this wild ecosystem. 

The crew has prepared a very nice table for tonight and we regroup on the observation deck for caipirinha and some nibbles. We all chit chat and enjoy the evening air while looking at the city of Manaus. We are now cruising back towards the docks and have a good view of the harbors and city lights. It’s a very pleasant way to finish this cruise.

After diner, 4 of us finish one of the bottle of wine “rebuilding the world” in the dining room before calling it a night.