The Amazon Jungle
In the dead of night we paddled our
way down the murky black River Uburu surrounded by the
dense vegetation of the Amazon jungle. The river is an
isolated tributary of the Amazon River and at night the
dark shadows of the trees reflect in the still water
against the dim glow of the moonlight sky.
The rain had stopped some time earlier and the
humidity started to sink back in as we drifted down the
river. Even when it rains in the Amazon you never really
stop sweating. Earlier
in the day we spent a few hours fishing for dinner, I
had never eaten much less fished for piranhas but after
hiking around the jungle for a few days they made a
tasty dinner to say the very least.
Now as we floated in a narrow wooden boat we were
looking for alligators along the shadowy riverbanks for
no apparent reason other than to see how their beady
eyes glow a weird orange from a distance when a
flashlight shines on them. Later we shined our
flashlights into the massive canopy of trees above where
we set up camp. Its amazing the number of creatures
howling, chirping, and rustling in the canopy at night
as we occasionally glimpsed strange pairs of eyes
glowing from the trees above.
This is what one does for fun at night in the
Amazon.
The Amazon is probably one of the
more remote places I’ve been in my travels. I had
traveled from Dallas to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a few
days of fun on the beach. No doubt frolicking on the
beaches of Rio is a good way to break up a long trip to
the Amazon. From Rio I later took a flight to the remote
city of Manaus, an old city situated in the middle of
the Jungle. Flying into the city you see nothing but an
endless blanket of thick green jungle from above until
out of nowhere an isolated city appears at the
confluence of the Amazon and Negro Rivers. The city of
Manaus was once know for its rubber plantations until
the rubber industry moved from Brazil to Southeast Asia
at the turn of the 20th century. Manaus was a
remarkable enough city with outdoor markets, small
plazas with interesting architecture, and a number of
docks along the river, but my main reason for going
there was to arrange a trek into the jungle. Eventually,
along with a few Australians backpackers I had met in my
hostel, I arranged an expedition with a Brazilian guide.
Before leaving for the jungle I lingered in
Manaus for a while, and spent a day taking a ferry down
the mighty Amazon River before heading out for the River
Uburu.
From Manaus we took a three hour
bus journey into a random small village situated on a
tributary of the Amazon River called the River Uburu.
From there we crammed ourselves into a narrow wooden
motorboat and sped off into the rain for a two hour trip up the river.
The ride was fascinating as the serpentine river
meandered along the jungle shores. It was the
“drier” season by Amazon standards and all along the
banks endless tangles of barren intertwined tree roots
carved through the exposed banks of sand and into the
shallower than usual water below. After a couple of
hours there appeared out of nowhere a small campsite
maintained by an indigenous Caboclo family. I don’t
know how the guide found it because for hours everything
on the banks looks essentially the same. We strung up
our hammocks in the open air on some poles under an open
thatched canopy for the night. The jungle for all its
fascinating flora and fauna is unbearably hot, intensely
humid, and full of voracious bugs but an utterly
astounding place to be nonetheless. During the days we
trekked and trekked hours through the Jungle. Toucans
sing high above in the trees, the sun is bright but
sometimes barley visible beneath the shadows of the
thick canopy. The vegetation is thick even with a
machete to hack away a trail. At one point our guide dug
out a giant hairy tarantula from beneath a tree stump,
it had menacing sets of redundant eyes and fangs to
match. He showed us rubber trees, camphor trees, plants
containing quinine, and demonstrated which trees you
could hack away at the bark and drink the milk-like sap.
The next day we spent hours fishing for piranhas with
makeshift fishing poles made of sticks, fishing line,
and chunks of raw chicken for bait. We probably caught 8
or 9 piranhas that we later ate for dinner. The guide
told us the fishing would be good because the water
level was lower this time of year and the fish would be
more concentrated.
A couple of days later we left the
first campsite and made our way further up river and
trekked deeper into the jungle to set up another
camp. We took 2 small canoes and paddled our way up
river an hour and then hiked another hour into the
jungle as we hacked our way through the bush. We later
strung up our hammocks again on some trees beneath a
canopy of leaves. We then built a fire and cooked a meal
using large jungle leaves for plates and wood chipped
from trees as small utensils.
Not a whole lot to do at night once
we set up camp deeper in the jungle but peer into the
dark vast wilderness. One tends to do a lot of
introspection in the Jungle, I felt one with the jungle
and indeed it clearly seemed the jungle felt one with
me, at least the ubiquitous bugs felt one with me. I was
bitten by a quite a variety of the pesky little
bastards....swarms of
mosquitoes, giant horse flies with long snouts,
annoying little sand flies, ants, and an extensive array
of little weird jungle bugs I had never seen. I laid in
my hammock at night getting bitten over and over despite
the hole ridden mosquito net I had wrapped around my
hammock like a cocoon. Every night it was quite hot and
I drifted in and out of sleep all night in the humid
stagnant air. I
often lay awake swinging back and forth in my hammock in
a somewhat futile attempt create a small breeze. I
periodically smacked bugs off my face and arms as I made
an effort to forget all those unusual bug borne tropical
illnesses I had so eagerly learned all about in
Residency.....the interesting
list of exotic jungle diseases goes on and on.....
Chagas disease, malaria, schistosomiasis, yellow fever,
leishmaniasis, and various parasitic diseases among
others. One morning I awoke to the Australian in the
hammock next to me jumping out of his hammock and
angrily cursing the loud swarm of horseflies biting him,
as their long snouts were able to penetrate the fabric
of the hammock from below. It was quite hilarious and we
all got a good laugh at his expense.
Despite the small annoyances of the
bugs and heat the whole trip turned out to be one of
most exciting camping trips I’ve taken and the
Australians and the guide made great company. Ah to be
in the jungle, no place like it in the world!
Eventually we headed back in our boats and I
continued to marvel at the majesty of the jungle as our
camp began to fade away, perhaps one day I would like to
come back
Rio de Janeiro
The twin beaches of Ipanema and
Copacabana stretch for several miles flanked by large
hills on either side. The beaches bask in the glow of an
impossibly blue sky as emerald green waves splash onto
the yellow sands. All along the beach a long promenade
with a wavy black and white mosaic tile design bustles
with people heading to and from the sands. Behind the
beaches, across a long avenue are towering blocks of
apartments, condos, and storefronts. Further back
overlooking the whole grand scene from high atop
Corcovada mountain is Rio’s famous and equally massive
statue of Christ the Redeemer. The stoic 38 meter tall,
1145 ton art deco statue overlooks the city with giant
arms stretched out toward the ocean.
There are few places livelier than
Rio’s vibrant beaches. On Ipanema masses of bronzed
bodies pack the sands for an afternoon in the sun no
matter what the day of the week. There is no shortage of
activity on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana.
Volleyball nets are everywhere as some beach goers play
traditional volleyball and others play a distinctly
Brazilian variation of the game called “footvolly”
using a soccer ball and the feet instead of a volleyball
and the hands. Elsewhere beach kids play soccer, couples
play paddleball, while others are just content to sip on
beer and caipirinhas
available everywhere on the beach. One day I was at the
beach and I randomly ran into a good friend of mine from
college named Scott, small world.
Ipanema and Copacabana are full of
little sidewalk cafes and churrascarias with all you can
eat Brazilian steak buffets. On the streets capoeira
troupes stop traffic in the middle of the road to
perform their amazing mix of acrobatics and mock
fighting martial arts routines for patrons of the
sidewalk cafes in hopes of small donations.
Rio and all Brazil for that matter
is know for the bacchanalian festival of Carnival. I
wasn’t there the right time of year for the actually
festival but I did visit the
“Sambodromo” where the parade takes place
every year. I
also went to
a “samba school” practice. Each year 14
neighborhoods parade down the Sambodromo with a large
float, and hundreds of performers, dancers, and
musicians. The parade is only held once a year, but the
rest of the year the different neighborhoods hold
parties every weekend to practice their routines at the
“samba schools”. The one I went to was basically
what amounts to a large red and white decorated
warehouse in the Salgueiro neighborhood.
Inside the people party late into the morning
as dancers in elaborate costumes perform and a
massive percussion troupe bangs away to the loud
singing. The place is electric and the caipirinas are
cheap and strong. Elsewhere in Rio the nightlife is
amazing, I especially liked the
bohemian neighborhood of Lapa. Lapa is in a
historic part
of Rio full of colonial
architecture where
endless masses of people wander the streets
hopping from bar to bar.
Rio is certainly an
amazing place but no city is perfect, and violent crime can be a real
problem in Rio. It
seems like everyone you meet from locals to others in
the hostels have stories of someone they knew who had
been held up or mugged or had been themselves.
Unfortunately you pretty much cant walk around with
anything valuable on your person on the steets of Rio.
I certainly didn’t walk around with my big
camera most of the time, which is hard to do because Rio
is incredibly photogenic and I felt like I missed a shot
every corner I turned around. The locals tell you not to
walk around with more than the equivalent of $5 in your
pocket so great are your chances of getting held up even
in the nicer areas like Ipanema and Copacabana.
To illustrate the point I was
walking around downtown Rio in the middle of a busy day
and I noticed a guy with a beer bottle in his hands and
two of his companions walking a few feet behind me. I
turned around and walked the opposite way and though to
myself I’m being paranoid. Ten seconds later I heard a
bottle break and the guy who was walking behind me ran
across the street with the shards of a broken beer
bottle in his hand and held the bottle to the neck of a
tourist and struggled to get his camera. I considered
myself very lucky and marveled at how brazen an attack
like that could be in broad day light with people
around. Unfortunately stories like this are commonly
heard in Rio.
The Favelas
Part of the reason for all the
crime is a class struggle rooted in the ever expanding
economic gap between the vastly wealthy and the
desperately poor. The rich and poor essentially live
side by side as the slums know as “favelas” are
built right into the edges of wealthy neighborhoods.
Added to the mix of poverty in the favelas is the drug
trade that dominates the slums. The largest slum in Rio
is the favela of Rocihna. I was curious to see what the
favelas were like especially after having seen the indie
Brazilian movie “City of God” before I left on my
trip. To see the slums you need a guide. There is
actually somewhat of a cottage industry of local guides
giving tours of the slums to curious backpackers.
Ironically touring the slums with a guide is one of the
safest places to be in Rio. The favela residents respect
the guide and there is essentially no threat of crime
when you are with a guide, in fact the guide encouraged
us to bring our cameras. In some ways crime in the slums
is less frequent because the drug lords don’t want to
attract the attention of police. People who commit
violent crimes in the slums answer to the drug lords who
rule the community with a violent hand themselves. So
those residents of the favelas who are so inclined
commit most of their crimes outside the favelas in the
more affluent neighborhoods.
The local guide told us he had just
resumed giving tours of the slum after a 2 week hiatus
sparked by a recent rash of assassinations and police
raids that had enveloped the favela prior to our tour.
Two weeks earlier the police had infiltrated the
favela and staked out the local drug lord. He was killed
in the attempted arrest and a local power struggle
ensued as several gangsters fought to become the next
drug lord. Two more were killed until someone finally
prevailed and a new power structure was established with
a new drug lord. As
we walked around the guide spoke of the local problems.
Favelas he told us are essentially illegal settlements
built by squatters who build shacks wherever they can
find space. In this case Rocihna is build on the slope
of a large hill and is said to be the largest slum in
South America. The people of the favelas live in poverty
but the slum is not totally devoid of certain amenities
like electricity and some running water. For instance,
the power lines that run near the favelas are highjacked
with pirated connection wires
so that each power line has hundreds or low lying
rigged wires running off like a mass of snakes, in this
way much of the slum has access to electricity.
Everywhere you go gang signs mark territory with
graffiti. Children with bottle rocker firecrackers sit
at the entrance road to the settlement and in the event
that police are spotted they shoot the rockets into the
air to alert the slum's drug lords that police are about.
Elsewhere drug foot soldiers walk around with their own
firearms. The tour was well worth it and the favela was
in many ways one of the more photogenic places in Rio.
My time spent in Brazil was quite a
trip. I hope to return one day and see the rest of
Brazil.
