Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Jaunts on the Japura
Well, have returned from our trip upriver. So much to tell and some of it cannot be shared as you reall need to see the awesomeness of the Amazon as pictures hardly capture it. Even 750 miles upriver from Manaus you find the river bank is the distance from Greenock to Helensburgh. Of course the water is still high from the rainy season and there are parts that completely dry out but it is astonishingly vast. Surprisingly quiet on the upper reaches in that you don't see many boats pasing. Incredibly easy to get lost as we found out on the trip back from Pecasi. A trip that should have taken 5 hours (in the dark) took 11 hours! If it hadn't been for Roberts' intimate knowledge of these waters I doubt we would have got there and back in one peace. The wildlife was not always easy to see but the kind you didn't want was never far away. The mokuto's eat you alive during the day and the mosquitoes took over for the night shift. Everywhere you went you heard the slap of people try to ward off these voracious parasites.
One of the outstanding memories was of the people, especially at Pecasi. A simple but deeply friendly people who truly loved Robert. Paulo agreed to take us into the jngle to satisfy my curiosity. He did not spare us! He set off in his bare feet through swamp and mud ,crossing tree trunks, checking out armadillo holes for game( he had his shotgun sliung over his shoulder, his machete in his hand) the pace never slackened. Within five minutes I was drenched in sweat. After one and half hours he asked if we wanted to go a circular route which would take another four hours or just go back the way we came, guess what we chose to do! Anyway he really wanted to go back and see Brazil play Germany on the telly! What an anomaly these people live in wooden huts, and there is the huge satellite dish outside and the telly standing on a box. They have barely enough food to eat but they have their telly! John Logie Baird has a lot to answer for.
The tales of the river are too numerous to mention here. Save to say it was a memorable experience and at times stomach churning as well as scary. E.G when we got caught in a tempestrale as we started out our journey in the little boat. We all had to sit in the one side to keep the boat from being swamped as the rain thundered down. Robert astonishingly at the age of 70 did this trip and was neither up nor down. AS Pam prophesied before I left I came down with something on the last 5 hours of the trip back to manaus, the details of which I will spare you. Haven't eaten anything for two days and still feel a bit light headed. But the fever has gone and I'm now planning to spend the next few days getting my strength back and seeing one or two things around Manaus which I haven't had time to do yet. I hear you are having sweltering weathre back home? At least here I can go into my bedroom and put on the airconditioning when it becomes unbearing. I wll try to add some of my pictures to this blog though still having difficulty with this part of the technology!
Jack of the Jungle
One of the outstanding memories was of the people, especially at Pecasi. A simple but deeply friendly people who truly loved Robert. Paulo agreed to take us into the jngle to satisfy my curiosity. He did not spare us! He set off in his bare feet through swamp and mud ,crossing tree trunks, checking out armadillo holes for game( he had his shotgun sliung over his shoulder, his machete in his hand) the pace never slackened. Within five minutes I was drenched in sweat. After one and half hours he asked if we wanted to go a circular route which would take another four hours or just go back the way we came, guess what we chose to do! Anyway he really wanted to go back and see Brazil play Germany on the telly! What an anomaly these people live in wooden huts, and there is the huge satellite dish outside and the telly standing on a box. They have barely enough food to eat but they have their telly! John Logie Baird has a lot to answer for.
The tales of the river are too numerous to mention here. Save to say it was a memorable experience and at times stomach churning as well as scary. E.G when we got caught in a tempestrale as we started out our journey in the little boat. We all had to sit in the one side to keep the boat from being swamped as the rain thundered down. Robert astonishingly at the age of 70 did this trip and was neither up nor down. AS Pam prophesied before I left I came down with something on the last 5 hours of the trip back to manaus, the details of which I will spare you. Haven't eaten anything for two days and still feel a bit light headed. But the fever has gone and I'm now planning to spend the next few days getting my strength back and seeing one or two things around Manaus which I haven't had time to do yet. I hear you are having sweltering weathre back home? At least here I can go into my bedroom and put on the airconditioning when it becomes unbearing. I wll try to add some of my pictures to this blog though still having difficulty with this part of the technology!
Jack of the Jungle
# posted by JackoftheJungle @ 6:12 AM 
