Before we left on our journey.... had to get the malaria pills and vaccines...my arms were sore for like 2 weeks! I believe I got a total of 8 vaccines (only one vaccine had nothing to do with the trip). I ended up get the Rx Mefloquine. I got 10 pills (only needed 8) and started taking them the week before we left and once a week until our return and 3 more after, according to the directions. I was contemplating at the time whether or not I should even take them. We had been researching online if people actually take their malaria pills when in the Amazonas region or in any malaria-risk area. We found that it was somewhat half and half. Some did and some didn't. I made the decision to just take them. Better safe than sorry! Let me tell you, the side effects were out of control! In general, I felt fine and didn't get those little side effects like nausea, dizziness, etc, but I did get those crazy ones they say you would most likely get from taking the Rx.
The main ones for taking this Rx are bad dreams, nightmares, and hallucinations...and I had every one of those side effects. And they were not pleasant at all. I think there were a lot of nights when I would just wake up in the middle of the night in a quick jump. It was not fun at all. I think one thing that stands out now was when we were on the bus heading out to Mendoza, Argentina from Buenos Aires, we were in and out of sleep and trying to watch Taken in Spanish on the TV (which by the way was currently in theaters here in the US); unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to watch a free movie, fell asleep in front of the movie, and woke up in a jumpy manner, looked down the aisle of our bus and seriously thought I saw a pack of dogs running down it. It honestly freaked me out. It took me a second to realize that it was just the shadows from outside as the bus was moving. It was really weird. Of course we all know that what I saw would be impossible, but seriously that drug does tricks to your head. I can't think of anything else on the top of my head at the moment, but I do remember when we were actually in the Amazon and Nicole woke up on, I think it was our 2nd or 3rd day there, to what she thought was someone standing in our room, which she, of course, turned on the light and no one was there. She let me know the next day and of course that freaked me out since of course I was also taking the crazy drug.
Anyways, besides all that, I did have a lot of bad dreams and nightmares and literally woke up in the middle of the night many times when I first started taking it, during my use of it, and a couple weeks after it. I don't miss taking this prescription! OH and for the record, I am FINE now, not acting crazy or anthing, just normal. Of course during all of this I wasn't acting crazy, it just mainly affected seeing things at night and bad dreams and nightmares. These side effects did not affect us during the day; I find that it was only at night, but it really wasn't too often. Had to get that out of the way before I got into our time there. Just general information if anyone is researching going to the Amazon.
The start of seeing the trees, flora, and fauna in the waters of the Río Negro.
We found that we were staying on one of the many exotic beaches that the Amazon has (one of the pictures below is also located at the top of this blog)
The first thing we enjoyed there..
We got our little cabin that was literally in the middle of the rainforest, FAR from pretty much everyone there...We loved it but there were times when we were walking back there late at night, it was a little scary! Fortunately but sad at the same time, we didn't see any jaguars roaming at night. Just the usual spiders, snakes, unknown flying bugs, bats, and other animals that I can't remember off the top of my head what they were called. It was pretty neat though how into the rainforest we were by being in that cabin.
A funny video poking fun at our long walk in the rain forest.
Nicole and I agreed that we enjoyed the food that we ate in the Amazon the most throughout our trip. They were like full, home-cooked meals. I'm still dreaming about the food there till this day! Here are pictures of the food that we enjoyed throughout our journey in the Amazon.
More food photos to follow...
Just a brief overview of what we did in the Amazing Amazon:
-Looked at the local flora and fauna
-Looked around an Amazon cabaclo village and watched some of the residents dance
-Explored a part of the Amazon Rainforest -Went to the Monkey village
-Piranha fishing
-Caiman watching at night
-Meeting of the waters -The Amazon River
-Exploring another cabaclo village off the river
-Amazon exotic beaches
---etc.
More photos and thoughts to come.
Eu tive um sonho...que se tornou realidade!
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