We landed in Manaus, Brazil, in 2012. Our accommodation was at the Tropical resort. ​In the Amazon jungle, we stayed at Ariau Towers, listed by tourist agencies as one of the 100 places to visit before you die. 
It was bordering the Rio negro and flooded forest (a surface as big as France).
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At Ariuau Towers, the water was 10-20 meters deep. In the dry season, there is much less. 
Celebrities like Bill Gates and Sylvester Stallone visited the resort. Above is the house in the trees where Stallone stayed. The resort closed its doors in 2016.
​One evening, we went out to see the alligators in a small boat.
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 with us was our guide and a young guy. Sometime during the night, the youngster (early twenties) jumped in the water to bring us a baby alligator. The fight in the water was about 30 sec, which seemed an eternity to us.
We chased nightlife wildlife until morning came.
The resort had a wooden trail that, at the time, was about 2 meters above the water level. 
On that trail we saw monkeys and birds.
We also had a cruise trip om Rio Negro. From that boat, we made some trips inside the Amazon jungle.
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On one of those trips, a very poisonous snake almost bit my wife. The guide caught the snake and showed it to us.
​We also had another trip on a smaller boat (same guide) that promised us we would see a big Amazonian snake. We did not see it in the wild, so the guide knew a local with an Anaconda and Python as pets. The local brought the Python to our boat.
​We also had some other trips planned on the cruise, like fishing Piranha and playing with Amazon dolphins.
Eliade Moldovan
​In THESE LIVES, daily Cold War existence under the despotic dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, is vividly documented. Drawn against a chaotic background of hardships, horrors, and hilarity, story after story depicts every imaginable aspect of that era: from cold, brutal murders and betrayal, to the abiding love between a husband and wife.