Across the Rio Negro: Day Two

(Part I)
Last September, on our second day across the Rio Negro, we spent the day with a big Brazilian family exploring the Amazon forest. Sunday morning we woke up around seven and emerged from our cottage, had coffee over in the main cabin and then headed over to an area nearby where there were supposed to be lots of wild monkeys. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, we were told the monkeys had already come for breakfast and wouldn't be likely to return until the next day, but we did see some iguanas hanging out in the trees. When they saw me peering at them, they surprised me by dropping off their branch into the brush below and dashing away in the blink of an eye. So we headed back to the car and all piled into Ary's Volkswagon to go through town and hit a cafe along a part of the river where you could see the waters of the Rio and Amazonas run parallel for miles. As we ate our breakfasts, Ary, his wife Samara, her little sister Simara, and Jing and I watched the boats pass by; some small boats were hardly making any progress against the current but Ary said it was easier than making the trip on land.
After breakfast, we stopped by Ary's sister's house which was nearby. Almost his entire family lives in the area, and it is a big family indeed--he is the youngest of 19 brothers and sisters! She said we should go with them out to another sister's house which is located deep in the forest on a plot of land the government gave to her with the agreement that she would maintain the forest. We drove for about an hour, through the hilly, winding road, the only road that passes through that area of forest. The Amazon practically stretches across the entire continent, and people have been living within its boundaries for centuries. Along the way there were deep patches of dense, closed forest, but also places where cattle were grazing, or plots that had been burned illegally. There were, in fact, plumes of smoke visible in every direction; such clearing of even small plots is reportedly responsible for a large portions of deforestation, although the Brazilian rainforest around Manaus is one of the best preserved (98% according to the INPA).
Finally we pulled off the main road onto a car-sized path that led into the forest and to his sister's house. About halfway between the road and the house we stopped and Ary rolled down his window to talk to a sweaty Brazilian man wearing grungy clothes and holding a machete. As they spoke, the man seemed to be looking through Ary, not at him, but they spoke--in Portuguese--as if they knew each other. Suddenly the man threw his machete into the ground and reached his hand into the backseat to shake our hands and say hello. He had a big smile on his face and spoke to us in Portuguese, so Ary yelled back to us that this was one of his brothers. Then he told us that his brother was legally blind and couldn't tell that we weren't Brazilian. Apparently he then explained this to his brother, who didn't seem to mind and just smiled and nodded his head. Ary said he'd meet him at the house later and we drove on.
When we got to the house, we met a few more people, some of whom were related to Ary, others were not but seemed like family anyway. We also met one of the dogs, a dozen ducks and a parrot. We were told the dog was a little bit sad these days because her mother was eaten by a jaguar the month before, but we were assured that most of the wild animals keep out of sight during the day.
Our first stop was about 300 meters behind the house to a small stream where we dipped our feet in the cool water. On the way back to the house, Ary saw a big cashew apple hanging on a tree wrapped in plastic and called out to his sister if he could eat it. She said she was saving that one but we could try another one, so he picked the next largest fruit and handed us a piece. It was like nothing I'd tasted before; sweet and fleshy with thick juice that was refreshing in the hot sun. We got back to the house and all put on our swimsuits to head out into the forest, where we were told there was a great swimming spot. Jing put on her bathing suit and a big-rimmed hat, I put on my trunks and donned my sunglasses and then we slapped another layer of sunscreen on before heading out.