They Bite Back

Up this morning at the crack of dawn and rolled out to yet another airport in Manaus for another 2 hour flight into the middle of nowhere yet once again.  Interesting sensation when I stopped to realize that I was getting on a plane to go someplace that I had no idea where that someplace was with two guys that I met yesterday. Turns out, I am once again out there but not quite as out there as I have been the last week. I have no idea what the river is called that we are on, but it is huge…like Mississippi huge, but clear.

The lodge has been around for a few years and is trying to branch more into fly fishing, moving away from bait casting and bottom fishing. It is a beautiful mother ship that is located just upriver from a small village with a landing strip and a handful of houses, an old church, and a school. It’s a remnant population from the days of rubber and then gold. But, they are doing more and more fly-fishing and invited me to come check it out and fish for a few days.

We headed out this afternoon for a casual fish off. The “draw’ here is the diversity of species that you can fish for. I got a few small peacocks and one that maybe went 4 pounds. They were exceptionally strong for their size. I also sight fished and hooked something that looked like a small Barracuda. It came off after a good jump and they told me that it was a trophy size thing that looks like a small Barracuda.

So, I am here for 5 days I think…I start home on the 19^th. I am missing everyone these days, especially as I get ready to go eat dinner with 15 Brazilians that are here bat fishing for giant catfish and no speaking da English. I have learned a few words in Portuguese, but I don’t think that they are appropriate for use in casual conversations. The cadence of people talking in Portuguese is really quite pleasant though.

The jungle is Hamazing. I think that if I ever were to truly become an environmentalist, saving the rainforest is something that I could see myself fighting for. I hope that my children see this place someday.