rolling on the rio (negro)

Sun blazing, sand burning our feet, we trooped toward the dock, where a boat would take us into the jungle. We kept doing the awkward, apologetic turn-back-and-smile at the muscle-bound dudes carrying our luggage. (For the record though they weren't even sweating and seemed to find it funny that we felt bad.)

Coming into view by the dock was a brightly colored, multi-story yacht with a bar, live music, two sun-decks, a dude-sized cooler-bin of full of beer-and-ice, and an on-board village of festive marquees and cardboard decorations.

And parked immediately next to that noise was the boat we would be taking, which looked a bit like a canoe with an umbrella taped to the back.

Its name: the Pantera Negra, translation: 'Black Panther,' which would have been funny even if its peeling shreds of paint hadn't been baby blue and white.

So I mounted the black panther, crossed that shit off my bucket list, and started getting excited all over again. I'd wanted to see the Amazon since third grade, and here I was.


Plus, the losers on the party-boat next door were doing it all wrong. They might as well have been in a gross college bar or on a Hudson River booze cruise. Here on the black panther I could feel the spray of the rio negro in my face (and did for the next two hours). I could smell the water and gaze out at the wildness we were heading into.

(Or pull my hat over my face and fall asleep, you know, whatever I felt like in the moment.)

And there was a cooler full of sodies too at the front of the Black Panther. So we had our own party.

But for miles and miles we just motored. I think it was a little over two hours. From the sweeping Rio negro, onto some smaller, 'side-streets,' laughing and taking pictures of each other.  I wish I was capable of describing how happy I was and how special that place is, instead of just making fun of stuff.

Like most tourists, my favorite part was that stretch where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes meet and run alongside each other for like six kilometers without mixing and you can see - vividly - the two different colors.

And i guess my second favorite was that first view of our Hotel-in-the-Trees.

:)