amazonas - a fine balance

this is the natural amazon - vivid colours, natural materials, raw, difficult, honest, magical co-existance with nature. i took this photo from the boat, heading up from belem to manaus. the trip took 7 days and 6 nights. it was the richest travel experience i have ever had. the river is majestic, immense, yet fragile. the forest is the same, except bigger and even more fragile. all the elements - the water, the vegetation, the animals - co-exist in a fine balance. humans, where they live natural lives, fit in with minimal intrusion and can seem to be a seamless member of this biosystem. humans more often impose their ways on the system, build cement and consume plastic, demolish vast areas of natural habitat and in its wake build what can only be described as depressing, ugly, vulgar, squalid and poor outposts.

the most striking example of this was the approach to any significant village along the shore of the river: just before reaching the village one crosses the outer boundaries of the village - the rubbish depot. so the scenery from the boat would progress something like this: for long stretches its lush and vivid nature sometimes punctuated by simple wooden frames built on stilts above the water along the banks; then the vegetation begins to sparse, giving way to blank dry land dotted with vultures and perfumed with the stench of rotting compounds; then the mountains of rubbish appear - rust, plastic, rotten lumber, shattered and baked bricks, bottles, diapers, ... -; then the red dirt gives way to gray cement, and the dusty villages appear.

what strikes me the most about humans in this landscape is how so many choose to live in modern poverty, in squalid and dirty cemented garrisons, most toiling in relative misery, consuming coca colas, fake plastic trainers and cheap jeans, watching numbing television, all the while rejecting a simpler, but potentially more plentiful, healthy and peaceful natural co-existance within nature.

i live in london, and i know many successful people who once wealthy enough dream of nothing more than a country cottage somewhere green, rural, unspoiled. having destroyed so much of nature to build monstrous megapolis, the wealthy now rush back to the natural setting. its ironic, and depressing how we seem to need to destroy everything before we value any of it. but these photos are not about that, they are about the beauty that exists there now, and the Amazon basin is the most beautiful and rich environment i have ever had the fortune to visit.

rio amazonas

it was explained to me that for many of those who live at the edge of the river, the water is the sole path for transportation and communication, as there are no roads running behind these outposts. and as you can sort of see in this photo, the houses are built on stilts so that they can ride out the significant changes in water levels during the seasons. I was told that in many portions of this vast river basin, the river bed is relatively shallow, so that after the rainy season the river spreads sideways, not down, submerging large tracts of land under its rich waters for long periods of time. durign the dry season these locals can farm their surrounding areas with simple produce, but for many months these gardens are submerged, forcing them to find other sources of food. it also means that for long periods they can live only inside their homes or in their simple handmade canoes. as you will see in other photos, a lot of commerce takes place on the river. if you want to find out more about the amazon here are a few good links: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Amazonia/Facts/basinfacts.cfm; http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildplaces/amazon/facts.cfm

rio amazonas 

the smoothest milk chocolate in nature

there are places where the river becomes an ocean, infinite and eternal. view from the boat. rio amazonas

the sunsets on the river were spectacular. on most evenings the sky went through an intensely colorful period before the night clouds rolled in, heavy and impregnated with magnificent storms. the gold then gave way to a dark metalic silver and the heavy clouds battled mightly for control of the horizon, resulting in awesome displays of lightening and thunder. an amazing spectacle of nature's symphonies and power. 

 

sunset on the river

the view from the boat. 

patriotism ;)

this is the ship i took in belem. it has an open section in the centre where most travellers hang hammocks where they sleep and live for the duration of their trip. there are also a small number of private cabins. i rented a cabin, as i had a lot of camera gear and all my backpacking possesions so could not afford to take any rists. the prices are all reasonable for a foreigner but clearly the cabins were beyond the reach of most locals. the trip from belem to manaus took 7 days and 6 nights. we made a number of stops along the way, where the ship unloaded supplies and mail for local communities, and where i spent a few days, including a marvelous day at an indegenous carnaval festival in which different tribes paraded in their own smaller version of carnaval. the trip itself was amazing - the scenery is beyond description in intensity and sheer dimension and beauty. the people on the boat were extremely friendly, very curious about me (i am brazilian born but grew up mostly in the US and Europe) and about life in big cities. i felt absolutely safe, confortable and welcome by all and in every location. the accomodations are reasonably confortable, although understandably simple and basic. we ate most meals on board from the kitchen and they were more than acceptable. but nothing beats the experience of waking and retiring on the river, bathed by majestical displays of colours and sounds from the skies and the surrounding nature. the river is immense, in some places eternal. 

loading in belem. 

it took a few hours to load the lower cavity of the boat. passangers are allowed in first so that they can secure their hammock positions. after that the goods are loaded. 

loading the nelio correa, belem. 

loading of the nelio correa, belem 

hammocks at the centre of the ship. it was quite interesting an uplifting to witness how a natural order arouse out of a process which i would have imagined highly chaotic and possibly conflict-ridden: hanging your hammock, storing your belongs and co-existing with strangers in this tight space. people seemed to know how to organize themselves, and i didnt see any conflict or dispute arising out of such squeezed population. no episodes of radios on loud or late, no mobile phones ringing annoyingly and endlessly (amazingly i had normal mobile reception for most of the trip and saw many mobile phones being used during the days on board - i latter learned that the brazilian government has built a vast network of radars and mobile stations throughout the amazon basin in a programme called SIVAM, and thus it is possible to get mobile reception in the middle of the jungle - go figure :) ) . For more information on SIVAM and the Amazon, check out these sites: http://www.global-defence.com/2003/sivam_03.htm; http://www.amazonia.org.br/english/

many of the hammocks had beautiful embroidering, and were clearly a possession of pride and individuality, and served not only for sleeping but also for eating, chatting, reading, playing cards and many other activities. each persons luggage is stored directly beneath their hammock, leaving little room for foot traffic along naturally emerged paths. 

 

the local mobile shop :). throughout the trip a number of sellers in canoes approached the boat selling their stuff, mostly food. this guy reached us while the boat was docked. many, as you will see in later photos, reached the boat while it was on the move, in the river. that took an amazing act of paddling and coordination first to approach the moving boat, and second to secure the canoe to the moving boat so that they could then transact business. 

well stocked and well organised - the ingenuity of the locals was something which gave me much pleasure and sometimes garrulous laughter during this voyage :)

i think its a beautiful flag. it reads 'order and progress'. very aspirational for the brazilian reality, a bit militaristic in essence, which i think is quite foreign to a culture so steeped in romanticism, colour, chaotic beauty and almost enchanting disorder. the design has very specific meaning: green, yellow and blue symbols of the vast natural resources of the country. the stars in the top and bottom half of the blue moon simbolise the states - the ones in the southern half the states, the lone star on top the federal capital, at first Rio de Janeiro, now Brazilia. As I understand it, there is an actual order to the stars, the totality reflecting the sky as it appeared in Rio at the time, and each one assigned to a particular state. im not sure what happens now that there are more states (for example tocantins) - i assume they add a star. 

fellow travellers on the nelio correa. there were lots of families on the boat, including one couple just recently married on their honeymoon :) 

by the time the boat was loaded dusk had fallen, and i had a chance to get out of the boat one last time to take a few shots of the most amazing and intense sky and sunset. these are the real colours, i have not touched them up in the slightest. the coolest thing was to witness the arrival of the dark night clouds, with their seductively menacing charcoal grey outfits and often thunderous noise. i think i was lightly frightened the first night to see the boat sail into an apparent end-of-the-days storm. we didnt. maybe it was down to the captains expertise, but though we saw these menacing clouds virtually everynight, the most rain we ever got was a brief and normal heavy downpour. we never got what i would consider a real storm, and by the 5th day i began to morbidly and secretly wish for one extreme experience. the boat itself hugged the shoreline very closely, never unecessarily drifting into the open waters of the river and maybe this had something to do with our relative luck with the storms, and with the fact that i do not remember any unconfortable rocking.

concentrated melancholy in someone so young? brazilian culture is romantically melancholic, saudade - the active missing of something, or someone - being one of the essential brazilian words and sentiments. port of belem. 

and then a smile for mom, whos staying behind. 

the water is so brown, silky smooth, that i literally had the physical desire to touch it, taste it. it doesnt look dirty, or grimy, but rather seductively natural. beautiful.