This is the Amazon. Our adventure (i.e. resort) was a little over 50 miles downstream on this boat -- about a 2-3 hour trip. The boat was referred to as a "speed boat" (bote rapido) to distinguish it from almost every other boat on the river.
The morning of our trip down river was stormy and windy and a little foreboding. This is a big river, about a mile and half wide. The waves were driven by the wind, like in the ocean or a large lake, not the river current. The waves are larger than they appear in the photo! Also, in the boat we were seated just inches above the water level. Although they are remarkably stable in the water, these boats are long, narrow and flat bottomed (-trigger warning to some -and seemed to me like canoes that tip over). Despite the brutal pounding of the waves against the hull and the wind and rain, we had a largely uneventful trip down the river, although we did have to stop once to allow the storm to pass and the waters to calm before it was safe to continue.
We are passing one of the several towns along the river.
While I wasn't sure what to expect on the river, I was not expecting to see an oil tanker. According to the guide, the tanker brings oil down the Napo River from Ecuador. The vessel was anchored near the confluence of the Napo and the Amazon. There is an oil refinery downstream from Iquitos, which refines gas and diesel, largely for distribution to communities along the Amazon.
Tow boats and oil and gas barges were docked on the river. From the perspective of mine reclamation in the arid Southwest, the Amazon basin seems very resilient. If you disturbed some land in the Amazon, within days, if not hours, something would be growing again, and the land would naturally reclaim itself, unlike the slow growing deserts of the Southwest where it would be years, if ever, before something grew. However, this perceived resilience is a little deceptive. The Amazon is also a highly evolved, interdependent ecosystem. For example, a relatively small amount of oil pollution in the river affecting only a few fish or species, nevertheless could cause larger problems in the intricately interconnected "food chain" -- a bit like throwing a very small spec of sand into a very large and complicated but delicate set of gears. In any event, the river pollution was clearly a concern to our guide.
Leaving the Amazon and heading up a small tributary to the lodge. For some reason, I kept thinking of the Congo and entering Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
This is the Amazon equivalent of the family car, every family has one or more. It is how you get around (as cars would be useless since there are no roads). Narrow, wood carved boats like this have been used here for hundreds of years, and it would be hard to improve on the design. What modern technology has added, however, is the long shaft "peke peke" motors. Visualize a basic weed whacker with a propeller, instead of a cutting blade or string, at the end. They work much better than an ordinary outboard motor and are an amazingly versatile way of navigating around the Amazon and its shallow tributaries.
The boat we toured around in was aluminum and wider (safer for clumsy quests) than the wooden boats, but was flat bottomed and powered by the same kind of motor. Here, the shaft was pulled from the water while we maneuvered around some logs.
This is along one of the streams off the Amazon. The boats are those of workers in the fields in the higher ground (what they call a plantation).
The floating plastic bottles mark the location of fishing nets placed in the river. Many of the people who live along the Amazon and its tributaries are still dependent on the River and the jungle for their subsistence.
This is another small stream off the Amazon. Think about Tarzan and whether the limb hanging down is a tree branch or a tree boa (snake) and whether the root on the ground is really an anaconda (ground snake)!
Seated in the front of our boat is our guide taking us through what seems to be grasslands but really is the river covered with floating plants.
The Amazon has defined wet and dry seasons. The river peaks in May with the lowest level typically in September. The difference in the water level between the wet and dry seasons is about 50 feet. We were there in the dry or low water season.
In the dry season large amounts of land are exposed as in the picture above. This fertile land can be farmed, mostly for rice and beans. It's not that unlike farming up north, where as soon as spring comes and the snow is gone, you hurry to plant in hopes of being able to harvest before freezing winter, and the snow comes again. Here you plant in the dry season when the sand bars are exposed in hopes you can harvest before the wet season comes, and it is all covered again with water.
An activity we requested from our guide was canoeing (unguided). I was hoping for one of those sleek wooden boats all the locals use. Instead we got this aluminum tank. I think the resort considered this safer for bigger (and clumsier) North Americans. In any event, we enjoyed paddling along a calm stream off the Amazon on our own.
Returning across the Amazon to the lodge at the end of the day. These sticks are often used to mark land boundaries (that the locals intend to farm when the water level drops).
This part of Amazon river is where we saw the pink river dolphins, although not this particular one. We saw a lot of them jumping and around the boat, but never could get a picture. It really was exciting them suddenly show up swimming and jumping around the boat. The resort offers an activity of swimming in the river where the dolphins appear. We chose to enjoy them from the boat. The river dolphin is a little smaller than its ocean counterpart.
Sister Hyer at sunset on the Amazon
On the far left is our guide and the right the boat driver. We spent a lot of time with them and enjoyed it all. We got fairly well acquainted with the guide, learned about his family and had to opportunity to speak with him about the Church. The driver is a local fisherman who just recently started with the resort. He was very good with the boat and spotting wildlife.
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