Brazil

Manaus (Amazonia)


Boats on the Rio Negro at the waterfront of Manaus, right. It is here that this darkwaterriver meets the grey water of the Rio Solimões after which the stream is called Rio Amazonas. The pictures below were taken in an area not far from Manaus in the watershed of the Rio Negro. Ananas comosus var. ananassoides was portrayed in a garden of an Indian family as was Aechmea mertensii with orchid Cattleya violacea.
                




There are sandy places in the rainforest that make attractive picnic locations; temperatures are agreeable (and not that low as the frozen impression of the water on the photo suggests). Illustrated to the left is Hylaeaicum eleutheropetalum from the Amazon region, and below are pictures of Aechmea vallerandii, the best known species of the former genus Streptocalyx (S. poeppigii).

               
Guzmania brasiliensis (below) and a meeting with a friendly sloth hanging from a branch over the river.