Amazonas – Anavilhanas Archipel
We started the day with a walk through the woods, using again the canoe to reach the river banks, near what they call the sandwich stones. On our route we came along a lost settlement, already taken over by termites, giving a glimpse of how live would have been, out here. The family, which lived there, was gone to town for the education of the children. Never came back. on our way we learned about eatable plants, natures medicals, saw a spider web from a tarantula and the hole of a bird eater. We saw giant ants, heard some monkeys, smelled the path of a well fed snail, encountered birds and butterflies. Of course, we didn’t remember everything afterwards, for sure we learned, how different the rain forest is from our woods, and on the other hand, how much recognition there is.
back on the boat, we had lunch, and the crew took us to our next excursion spot: petroglyph stones along the river. Basically, it’s a kind of depressing we know so little about the history and development before the colonial invasion. How interesting would that be!!
With different water levels, you see different petroglyphs. What might that mean? What’s the message? As far as we know, the area behind the petroglyph stones is never explored properly. Would there some hidden secrets to be found? You only can guess.
We crossed some more miles on the river to some cascades, where this part of the river gets too shallow. Back to the main stream, and off we hit for the Jau National Park.
The Anavilhanas Archipel is impressive. The labyrinth is created by around 400 islands. It is one of the largest freshwater archipels on earth. Here, the Rio Negro spreads out over a total of 27 kilometers width.
The Anavilhanas Archipelago has its own unique ecosystem with a great biodiversity. We were told, that dominant plants are Astrocaryum jauari, Oenocarpus bacaba and Mauritia flexuosa. You would find the Black Caiman, the Boa Constrictor, the Iguana, the Common Squirrel Monkey, and the Brown Woolly Monkey. The region is also home to more then 2oo species of birds, including various species of parrots and Macaw species.
