Explore!

Journeys on the Amazon are measured in days, not hours, as in it’s a six day trip “up river” to Columbia. Roads are few in this vast open country and the river and its 1000+ tributaries are literally the arteries and veins of this amazing region. There are two seasons here, rainy and dry and two temperatures hot and hotter. Towns are far apart with an ever changing natural landscape of dense jungle, remote islands, and on the horizon distant hills and plateaus. Buts its really all about the River. The Amazon’s birth is in the Andes Mountains in Peru where annual rainfall ranging from 6 and 20 ft send forth an almost unfathomable fount of water rushing downstream, literally racing across the continent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Boats are literally aground in Manaus awaiting the return of the rains. Waters are expected to rise 90 ft!

The start of the rainy season is ominous, we’re told its already raining in the Andes and the waters should start to rise in early December and rise quickly. The rivers now are very low (relatively speaking) and smaller streams are no longer navigable. As we walk along make-shift wooden bridges and plank walkways that have been laid across eroded vast beaches and mud flats, we see evidence of the high water marks on trees well inland. Its hard to imagine that the river will literally consume much of what we’re now seeing.

In Manaus Brazil (a town of almost 1.5M people) the levies are enormous and a wall commemorates the annual high water mark. 2012 was a record year. We’re told that the waters will rise an expected 90 feet above where they are today and quickly. We’re treated to an early preview and immense thunderstorm with lightening zigzagging across the horizon followed by an absolute deluge. In Manaus the waterfront is literally packed with boats of all sizes, most resemble mini versions of Riverboats you might have seen on Mark Twain’s Mississippi. To go upriver, travelers bring their hammocks which are strung across the open decks, side by side. Passengers are advised to get aboard early to ensure a good spot.

Everywhere on the River are these mini Riverboats serving as taxi's and shuttles for people and goods.

One of the most interesting trips we took was to see the “meeting of the waters” where the River Negro meets the Amazon. The Negro is a “black” river flowing through the jungles from Columbia. Its clear, warm and acidic. The Amazon is a “white” river filled with sediment from its journey from the Peruvian mountains and thus denser. In reality Amazon appears muddy, the color of watered down coffee. Where the two rivers meet there is a distinct line and they literally run side by side, black by white for miles downstream until the Negro is finally assimilated.

Joining of the Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers near Manaus Brazil

The White water of the Amazon is 30 degrees colder than the Black water of the Rio Negro

Soon all the this land will be covered with water.Many little wooden bridges through the jungle.

From what we saw the Amazon jungle is both teeming with life and empty. We’re told its hard for outsiders to see wildlife because plants and animals have become so acutely adapted to their environments that they become almost invisible. The river teems with fish of all sorts: the playful grey and pink river dolphins who delight us daily with their antics, catfish that can weigh hundreds of pounds, over 60 varieties of the feared piranha whose teeth are so sharp they can literally snap off toes and fingers of the unsuspecting bather and strip a carcass of a fallen animal within minutes. Other river predators include bull head sharks that swim thousands of miles upstream, the inch long Candiru catfish that is attracted to warm streams of urine and can literally swim “upstream” and into human orifice then attaching their hook like gills “internally” (there were NO takers on the “Snorkel with Local Wildlife” excursion). Also visible along the way, River Caiman (Amazonian crocodiles) of all sizes and the feared Ananconda and other poisonous water snakes (personally I was not disappointed to not encounter many snakes on our travels!).

While warned of the threat of disease carrying mosquitoes in advance with the requirement for yellow fever shots and anti Malaria pills, we really didn’t encounter many in our travels. At night when the lights were on, there were giant moths of all sorts, flying beetles of all shapes and sizes buzzed all around. It is the height of the dry season and I imagine that in the next few weeks, the situation will change dramatically.

All in all its been a fascinating journey to some fairly primitive and largely undeveloped areas. Brazil has had 2 rain forests of equal size and has managed to “de-forest” 98% of the Atlantic rain forest to date destroying the habitat for thousands of species and upsetting the delicate life balance. Ten years ago the Amazon was still judged as “pristine”, today only 83% remains and 10% of that has been destroyed in the last 10 years. We are lucky to have been able to visit now and are hopeful that issues of deforestation can be addressed by Brazil because once this pristine land is gone…its gone.