Yet the Amazon

March 3, 2006-Yet More Discoveries
(Photos:Breakfast al fresco,
Dugout jam)

We were awakened at 5:30AM. It keeps getting earlier. The jeans I put on for the 5th day in a row are staying here. They have fashionable holes around the rear pockets through which you can see my underwear. Some people pay lots of money for that touch, but at my age I’ll take a pass.

Our “treat” today was yet another skiff ride in search of ….birds. I fell asleep twice for fairly long periods during the two-hour ride. But, I wouldn’t have missed our picnic breakfast for the world. The skiff tied up to a tree and the crew passed out trays lined with cloth placemats on which were china plates laden with sandwiches, a roll, juice box, and a banana. They had urns of coffee, marmalade, butter, and best of all, peanut butter. Where have they been hiding it? We Purelled en masse and tucked in. We sat in rows on either side of the skiff and ate like we dined al fresco on the water every day. There was enough swapping going on to rival a grade school lunchroom. People traded ham for chicken and Phil cornered the market on the fresh tomatoes. There was a brief dolphin show interlude where the pink ones breached higher than I’d seen before. River dolphins don’t jump like fresh water ones. The black water was so dense and impenetrable it was impossible to see anything but reflections in its ebony surface. The staff collected our trays and offered to take us to the jungle “rest stop.” The boat was a half hour away so we all crossed our legs and held on.

We barely had time to do our toilette before we re-boarded the skiff to be taken across the tributary for our dugout canoe ride. I thought they’d replaced it with the catamarans but I was wrong. I really didn’t want to go into that water and the dugouts are as wobbly as they look. We were given life jackets to wear (not a good sign) and lowered onto splinter-laden seats. The challenge was what to do with my legs. I sat spread-eagle until I realized that my knees were vulnerable then I gingerly stretched them out in front of me ever so careful not to overbalance. My paddler was a very strong woman. I had an oar and tried to keep up but when we entered the dense mangrove area I put the paddle between my legs and tried not to interfere. We were gone half an hour and it was a trip into the bowels of the wetlands. The water was up to the treetops. That meant that we were too. We cruised silently under the tops of giant trees and weaved in and out of fallen trunks and jungle debris. Every once in a while my paddler bailed. I didn’t realize until we were back that all the canoes leaked. Arches of aerial roots reached out their woody tendrils to enmesh the unwary in a deadly embrace. It looked as if we’d found the forest that tried to swallow Snow White when she was fleeing the wicked queen. We circled around the perimeter of an isolated lake before heading back. I claimed the most unique sighting of all. I was the only one to glimpse the blue and yellow microwave popcorn box hanging on a limb. I forgot about my notoriety when David asked if I noticed how the paddler kept looking up into the trees trying to spot snakes. Thankfully, I had not.

During lunch a wild storm moved in. It lashed the boat to the point where I thought it would blow doors open. Plastic deck chairs skittered down walkways as the crew ran to retrieve them. Rain pounded the roof and wind gusts drove sheets of water from roof to one deck then the other in a cascade. Eric said it would only last a half hour and it did.

Yet More Learning

Our siesta ended in time for a lecture on the Amazon. The origin of the name Amazon was interesting. When the Spanish encountered what looked like blond women with no breasts they went home and reported they’d seen Amazonas. In Spanish “A” means without and “mas” means breasts. What they had really seen were native warriors wearing dried palm tree fiber on their heads and palm tree fiber skirts. The yellow of the dried raffia appeared to be blond hair. For those of you not interested in statistics you may stop reading now. Eric was the lecturer and he told us that there has been a debate as to which river is longer, the Nile or the Amazon. The latest wisdom says it’s the Amazon.

In 1984, Jacques Cousteau investigated the river. He found that the mouth was 200 miles wide on the Atlantic side. It’s been called the Rio Mar (River Sea) and it’s up to 450 feet deep at that point. The source is 4,500 miles away high up in the mountains of Araquipa at 18,200 feet. When the water of the Amazon enters the Atlantic it pushes the seawater back 120 miles before fresh and salt-water start to mix. It flows at the rate of 7,100,000 cubic feet per second. If Lake Superior was emptied the water from the Amazon could re-fill it in an hour. The Amazon has 1,100 tributaries and 2,500 species of fish. It holds 75% of all the fresh water in the world. Every three years on March 21, and September 22 or 23, there’s a riptide lasting six hours. At that time the ocean pushes the river back fifty miles. People come from around the world to surf it. The river only drops two inches every mile and is too wide to build a dam so there are no hydroelectric plants. There’s talk about building one along a tributary.

There’s no regulation of logging. The government owns all the rain forests and taxes have to be paid but logging isn’t controlled. Anyone can present a project to the government for anything, e.g. research, and proceed to strip the trees and no one will bother them. Natives can live anywhere they want and may hunt only to feed their family. The only limit on natives hunting endangered species is that it has to be an amount used to feed their family alone.

When all the continents were joined the source of the Amazon was in Africa where there is only desert now. Tectonic plates are moving the continents closer together again. Asia and South America will be joined one day and North America is on its way towards the equator. So much for trying to fix global warming. This might happen in 250 million years but there’s a bigger concern. There will be an ice age first that will last fifty million years. Poor David didn’t know whether to sell our house now or wait until it was in a more moderate climate.

Playing Hooky

There was an excursion up Nauta Creek this afternoon. I skipped it. David went. I was sure they’ll spot the only jaguar left in the jungle. I enjoyed the solitude of the boat and stayed on deck with another couple and read. When they came back they hadn’t seen a jaguar but there was an amusing moment. Eric asked them to sit quietly and listen to the sounds of the jungle. At that moment a jet flew over.

Tonight was Shabbat. We asked the other Jewish couple, Phil and Nina, to join us as well as Judi. John and Kathy, Catholics, asked to come to our room out of curiosity. I like being able to stop and welcome Shabbat even when we’re busy traveling.

We’re tied up outside Nauta, a metropolis of about 13,000 or 30,000 ( I couldn’t understand Freddy). After almost six days of having the only lights on the river when we tied up it was curious to see the flickering of the big city on the shore.

The Mute/Dolphin Band became the Screaming Band tonight. Lots of laughs. Surprise! They have a CD for sale. We were ready to buy one but they need a business manager. They had none here on the boat. They said they’d take our addresses and mail them to us.

Tomorrow we go into Nauta for our last chance to buy Amazonia. At least the wake-up knock is at the relatively civilized hour of 7AM.

Toby