Manaus

When we got off the boat in Manaus, we were greeted by a man who said he had a great price for us for a place to stay. So Hilary, Hilary, Adam and i decided to get a room together at this hostel. He wanted to talk to us right away about jungle trip options, Hilary and Adam only had a day there before they flew to Bogotá, they did a day trip. Hilary and i agreed to a 4 night 5 day trip. We were then given a walking tour of manaus. Manaus was not what i expected at all! It is a very large city On the Río Negro where it meets up with the Amazon river. Manaus used to be the Richtest city in Brasil. The people who lived there used to send their laundry to europe because 1. They has the money and 2. Because they didn't want to Wash their clothes in the Amazon water. 
Our jungle tour started with a long boat ride to see the meeting of the Amazon River and the río negro. The río negro is Black because of the acidity in the water. The difference in the water allows for their to be a defined line in the water between Brown and Black. We arrived at our jungle lodge and right away put into a small Green Amazon canoe. We were taken pirana fishing. At night we were taken in the same boat to go camen "hunting" not killing but looking. Our guide got into the water and roamed around until he found one. This should have been hint number one for me of the unethical things about our amazon trip, i was uncomfortable the whole time that this poor animal was being passed round and cameras were being flashed in its eyes. By day three all we wanted to do was leave because we realized that this was not worth what we had paid for. It was so disapointing being Hilary's last thing she would do in south america. To top  the cake we saw a sloth in a tree (which was awesome) but then the guide Climbed the tree, tied a rope to the sloth and dangled it so we could eventually hold it. Hilary and i were outraged, we yelled at our guide. But unfortually the other people in our boat loved it. We begged for them to let us go home, but language was a barrier. 
Not all of the trip was a right off. We had an amazing camping experience in the jungle in hammocks. It was crazy because we could barley sleep because the bugs surrounding us were so loud. We also did a really informative jungle hike, we saw a tranchula the size of my hand.
Overall it was diacourging because the amazon is such a amazing place and it makes me sad to see it being taken advantage of by tour agencies. Please do more research into the company if you choose this is something you want to do.