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Logs & Blogs
'The living forest'
Dec 5, 2011
December 5th-6th
On Monday morning our group divided – half going for a walk up a hill and half going to visit a waterfall by boat. Janot went on the tramp while Cara went with Miguel to see the waterfall.
Cara was incredibly lucky to see some amazing sights on her journey. Bosco, the pilot, took them for a tour around the small islands in the area to see rocks, and a conical shaped rocky hill before going to the waterfall. On the way they saw Toucans high up in a tree. They were beautiful! One could see their long beaks, even though they were far away. As they approached a rock they then saw an otter lying on top of it, eating a fish! It didn’t hear them at first, long enough to get some photos - but then dived into the river, leaving its fish behind. It is so incredible to see these now rare creatures.
They then travelled up a river that was covered in natural foam. The water was so still that the foam almost looked like snow. It was a very different sight – there still was the incredible reflection of the trees and roots into the water that are so often seen here, but this time the reflection was scattered with white. The foam came from the waterfall further up. It was not a large one but still very powerful.
Back on the Apurissaua, Bosco took Cara, Rod and David into the village were the boat was docked. It was very quiet initially. A few young children came out, and Bosco spoke to them. They followed the group around, as they looked at all the different houses and structures of their village. You could see the ones that were their homes, and another large, open shelter that was their meeting place or church site.
One area was for cooking. The family came out, and sat around while one of the women cooked a traditional food. We watched her combine ‘goma’ (starch from the manioc root), with water to make a paste-like substance that she smoothed on to one side of a banana leaf. She folded the other side of the leaf on top, and laid it on the hot pan, or forno, that they use for cooking. This made tapioca.
Janot and the rest of the group went for a day tramp. The goal was to climb up one of the hills that are towering above the river in this region, close to the Guyana ridge. This is the highest mountain formation in Brazil with a summit at 3014 meters named “Pico da Neblina” (the mountain in the mist).
The hill is only 275 meters above the river level, but the walk to reach its foot took about four hours. The canopy is so dense that you cannot see through and find your direction. One of the local guides had to climb up trees on two occasions, using vines and smaller trees to reach the top of the highest one in the surrounding, in an amazing agile way, in order to give the group some orientation. When finally reaching the foot of the hill, there was still another hour to get to the top, through deep jungle with the guides slashing and hacking a trail on the steep terrain.
Once up at the top, the view suddenly became fantastic. Overseeing the whole region for miles, high above the canopy, with the Rio Negro meandering through that huge and fantastic live being, the rain forest.
The way down was much easier, backtracking in the jungle, and took only three hours to reach the riverbank again. Everybody sat down, silently, tired but very happy.
This day, on the 5th of December, was the anniversary of Sir Peter Blake’s tragic death. We remembered his life and saluted him, and his incredible contribution and approach to life. We did this with a traditional drink – the caipirinha.
On Tuesday morning the boat was back in Santa Isabel for provisioning. New plans are to head back to Barcelos, down to the community of Carvoeiro to then venture up the Rio Branco. This is very exciting, as the Rio Branco is meant to be home to a lot of wildlife, and be very different from the Rio Negro.
~Team Amazon
