Swimming with dolphins, dancing with indians, learning about borracha

8/1/12
We met "botos", a type of dolphin that lives in the rivers of the Amazon. First of all, the water in the Rio Negro was quite dark as the name suggests, and that is because of the dead leaves and other substances in the water that turn it into a dark brown/gold/black color. After a group of six of us got into the water, the dolphin trainer would shake some fish on the surface of the river, and wait for the dolphin to come over and eat it. The moment the dolphin tried to reach for the fish, we would reach out and touch his neck or belly. It was really interesting because I thought that the skin would be a bit rougher, but it wasn't; it was super slippery and silky.

It was also kind of weird to feel the dolphin swim around our feet, because we touched often and those moments were so unexpected.
After this awesome moment, we went to visit an Indian community. We were received by an older man who represented the chief of the group. We then entered a huge straw covered hut where a group of boys and girls and men and women proceeded to show us several dances, one of which we participated in. All the girls and women were topless, and since that is a cultural characteristic of the Indian people, everyone in our group was mature about it.

It was great to see and dance with this people, and think about how their ancestors were the first inhabitants of this beautiful and rich land. I especially liked to children and had fun holding this 5 month old baby.

After that we visited a rubber plantation, or "seringueira" that has been turned into a museum. We learned there how much work it was for the extraction and manufacturing of rubber in early 20th century. Despite abolition from slavery, some plantation owners kept their slaves and this place was no exception. Slaves extracted the sap from the rubber trees, which looks just like milk, and they mixed it and turned into a paste, over the fire, that would eventually dry to a big ball of rubber. Washington, our knowledgeable guide, explained to us the whole process and it was fascinating.

We also got to look inside the house of the daughter of the seringueira's plantation owner. It was quite large and open, with beautiful furnishings and and valuable artifacts.