AMAZÔNIA - A POUSADA FLUTUANTE E COMO SE VIVE SEM TERRA FIRME | RESERVA MAMIRAUÁ | PARTE 01/02

Crew, prepare for takeoff! How about staying at a floating hotel in the middle of the Amazon forest? We went to the Mamirauá reserve to visit the amazing Uakari Lodge and the riverine communities that live in this region which is completely covered during the flood season.

My name is João Victor and this is the Tesouros do Brasil. We landed in Tefé, 1 hour from Manaus on this flight from Azul. It is hot here, high humidity in the air.

we still have to take a boat transfer. I think it is an hour by speedboat to the UaKari Lodge which is in the middle of the Mamirauá reserve of over one million hectares. The staff of the lodge was already waiting for us at the airport.

At the moment the only national airline that operates this flight between Manaus and Tefé is Azul, with three flights per week. If you want a more typical trip, you can take a boat in Manaus that takes on average two days to arrive in Tefé. We crossed Tefé to the port of the city.

and there we took a boat to the Mamirauá reserve. Later I learned that here they call these boats voadeiras. The ride is beautiful and it's great to start disconnecting of city life and enter the rhythm of the forest.

The Uakari Lodge a project within the program of community-based tourism of the Mamirauá Institute, which is a research institute based here in the Amazon, in Tefé. The main idea of this lodge is to merge conservation with the improvement of the quality of life of the region's traditional populations, trying to create an alternative economic income for them, and at the same time, actively involve them in the process of conservation of the region's natural resources. This is something that was even stipulated by the workers' association here of the lodge that in 2022 to move the management completely to the hands of the association.

Then the Mamirauá Institute would leave as the main agent of the lodge and would pass it completely to them. I can say that there are more than 60 families involved who work in shifts of 10 to 12 days this way we maximize the number of people who can work here and, at the same time, they can continue developing their traditional activities in the communities where they live. They are not full-time employees.

Now talk a little bit about you, I want to know How did you end up here? How does a biologist at PUC University in Rio de Janeiro, end up here in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, in Tefé? Not even in Manaus?

! As a biologist and working in Rio de Janeiro, we have an ideal, an idea of ​​wanting to know the Amazon, an unexplored forest, it has been in my imagination since childhood. Back in 2018 I had the opportunity, through other contacts I made, to come here, to the Mamirauá Institute, which I knew only by name.

I worked with the researchers of the group project about felines in the Amazon. I took part in a field job with them. so I got to know the reservation I visited the lodge, I was impressed with the project, with the place.

It's quite incredible! Did you already know the Amazon? I didn't.

It was my first contact with the Amazon. Love at first sight? Love at first sight!

I kept an eye on the vacancy notices they launch. The first one that showed up was for a spot here. Good morning, it's six thirty, we're going to the dining hall, to eat breakfast, and then we will leave for the first activities of the lodge.

It is always in this scheme, wake up super early, eat breakfast, do some morning activity when the heat is milder. In the middle of the day, have lunch, rest for up to three PM, then we have more activities Good Morning! Here is the dining room, the common area, yesterday We had dinner here too.

We have fruits, cakes, breads, there are tapiocas, and what I most need, what I love the most, eggs. Inside the boat, there is this catalog, both of mammals and of birds, which helps a lot in sightings. I'm taking a picture of everyone we've seen, so I'll remember it later.

We saw this! This nice fruit with this strong yellow peel is called bacuri coroa, a fruit of this region. I asked how they consume it if they only eat the fruit They said they make juice, they also take it with a Little bit of cachaça for snacking.

Let me open and try it because I also have no idea of ​​its taste. Look, there's a very white flesh. This yellow is the same as a lemon.

It's beautiful! Let me eat it. Super tasty.

It's gooey, sour, but it's very yummy. Now I understand why he said that sometimes, they put salt. I think, just like mine that is pretty sour, if you put salt, it cuts the acidity and it is perfect to eat with cachaça.

This one is the ingá açu. Look at the packaging. You must have a little courage in the Amazon.

Since we're here. The texture is the same as the other, but it has no taste. What the other was sour, this one is very subtle.

I do not know if you heard our colleague, he said: This one tastes almost like nothing. And it's true. It is more texture and the taste is very faint.

One more experience from Tesouros do Brasil. We are at São José, this community has 13 families with 27 children. In the past families lived very isolated from one another each in a corner of this region.

A long time ago, priests arrived here and instructed them to join to form a community that, in this way, they would get more things from the government, organized. They have a hierarchical organization with president, vice president, a council. They were able to demand some benefits such as electricity, the building of a school and other things they can ask for according to their needs.

I will retract myself because I said benefits, but the correct is rights. They are demanding their rights as a Brazilian population, as an indigenous population, as a riverine population. One of the benefits of joining them is that they they share the infrastructure to make cassava flour.

They are not making flour now because they do it in March, which is when the water is not too high yet, they harvest and start all the preparation to make the flour. Each family is responsible for its crop, but they do all the processing together and when one does not have a good harvest and another does, they divide as a community and can survive here. As I already said the Mamirauá reserve gets 100% flooded.

This land that we are on, in a few months will not exist, and the community will be floating, needing a boat for any kind of movement. Let me explain how the tour with the guide João was, earlier today. Basically, he tried to explain how it works the dynamics of his community, these riverine communities that live in a land that, every year, floods and this represents several challenges.

One challenge that was explaining to us is that some plants, even the plants! Need to transplanted to pots and put on rafts to float. Same thing they do with chicken, dogs and any other animal they are raising in the community.

2015 was the record flood here. He told us that when the water rises just above the floor of the house, they lay a platform and continue in the house, but this time in 2015, they had to leave the region. Another major challenge they have during the flood season is the parenting of children because parents do not have the courage to leave the children alone at home, at any moment.

Here in their community, both men and women go out to fish, then when one leaves the other stays at home taking care of the children. And this dynamic is for everything it's a care they must to have because very young children still cannot swim. They were telling me that the football championship had to be interrupted because the water covered part of the field.

Formerly the teachers who taught in the community came from the city. Graduated teachers. What happened was that the teachers - in the guide's words - started a cycle very well, came here, spent fifteen days, then returned to their homes.

But in time, the teachers would be absent for weeks. Or they spent only three days here, and the teaching of the children was affected. So, they got authorization and training today, teachers who give classes to children are members of the community itself.

The Mamirauá reserve is the first reservation of sustainable development in Brazil. Instead of closing the area and expelling its residents it was a pioneer to include the local population in the recovery of the protected area. That is why in this first video the focus was to show how are the lives of these people that are fundamental to the reserve and to the Uakari Lodge.

in the next video, we'll talk more about the lodge we will take a tour of the floating bungalows and I will show you this place that is one of the best to see wildlife in the Amazon. If you liked this video, hit like and tell me in the comments, if you want to visit the reservation. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and click on the bell to receive notification of new videos.

My name is João Victor and see you next time.