Bill's ordeal at Devil's Island!

The sea conditions were too rough for the humans to go on the tender but the French officials finally caught up with me and locked me away.

Tender with rough seas

But like Papillon I escaped! This picture is just after Paul and Candy pulled me back on board the Mariner.

Escaped from Devil's Island!

You can see Devil's Island in the distance, and it was a difficult swim with the strong current and all the sharks, but I made it!

Devil's Island

Also, here's a picture of me at the last lifeboat drill.  They refuse to make a jacket for me so I have to share Paul's.

Lifeboat drill

Life on the Amazon

We've now officially left the Amazon River, but after a week traversing its attractions we found rather than being stunned by scenery, we were more affected by the whole of the environment: the wildlife, the people who continue to live on its banks and the unique way of life that it delivers.  A total package rather than any one item.  So I've decided to concentrate on photo images in three categories rather than trying to capture it all.  It should be experienced by everyone and I frankly think it has changed our outlook on life.  Big call for a bigger river.

The People

Regardless of river conditions the residents have found a solution.  Schooling is maintained by running river school buses; when your home floods you move to the 'land that never floods' until the waters recede.  And the people of Parintins have developed their own cultural festival called Boi Bumba - a rival to Carnival - the winner gets to perform to people like us all year.  The story is too complicated to explain here, but the colour is self-evident.

River homes

A river village

Fishermen at work

Boi Bumba at Parintins

The logistics

Managing a community on a river creates some interesting challenges.

A floating petrol station

Barge with 15 semi trailers

River transport complete with hammocks for those overnighters

The wildlife

The wildlife is so diverse and frankly this is just a small sample of what we've seen.  I'm proud to say these are all creatures we've seen in the wild with no trickery, enticements or tethering.  I am barely able to take a photo, so there's no chance of Photoshop

Sloth

Jacana

Iguana

Wild Heron

Buffalo grazing with heron friends

The very elusive pink dolphin or boto

Manaus - Capital of the Amazon

Manaus was another of those places I'd NEVER heard of until we started investigating this trip.  A city of 2 million people at the cross roads of the Amazon and Rio Negro 1500 kms upstream from the mouth of the Amazon? With and ornate Opera House and a colonial heritage, Eiffel designed markets,

Eiffel designed markets, under restoration

 British bridges

Made in Britain - assembled in Manaus

 











and buildings?

Customs House - reassembled brick by brick from UK

 A floating dock made in Scotland and sailed out in one piece?  Sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.

But it's all there.  It sits on the confluence of the Solimoes  and Negro rivers - it becomes the Amazon downstream - and although established in the 1600s, it wasn't until the 1880s when a rubber boom - similar to the gold boom in Australia around the same time - kick started an amazing but short lived expansion.

It then fell into disrepair after the British smuggled out rubber tree seeds and established plantations in their (more accessible and better controlled) colonies such as Malaya.  In an effort to re-establish the area, a Free Economic Zone was established in the latter part of the 20th century which has led to a secondary economic growth period with many major companies establishing headquarters in the city.  It's also a significant export port for the crop du jour of soya beans.

Old and new-  Manaus

As the major link between a port city and the remote areas of the Amazon, not necessarily limited to Brazil, it's also a hub for small scale traders who buy goods to sell upstream.  Like many parts of the country, there is a distinct disparity in wealth, but it was certainly a very lively place to wander around.

Small scale local traders

The port continues to rely heavily on the river for its livelihood - travelling west you can reach Peru, north along the Rio Negro, Venezuela and is in fact considerably closer to Venezuela physically than say Rio or Brasilia.

River activity and mixed fortunes

Gustave Eiffel (of the Tower fame) was convinced that his fabricated steel buildings had a big future in South America and the markets in Manaus are a direct copy of his Parisian creation.  They're under restoration at the moment as Manaus is another city slated for FIFA World Cup matches in 2013; there's a bit pf work needed to finish the soccer stadium however.

The fantastically ornate Teatro Amazonas is the stand out building in town.

A modest Opera House?

  Almost a folly in its conception, it remains in use and is fully restored.

Curtain depicting 'meeting of the waters'

Murano glass lighting, French tiles

 Some of the other ornate buildings of the same era are not so lucky - it's hard keeping up with the jungle.

When the jungle takes over

Although not in Manaus, a similar fate occurred in Fordlandia.  In the 1928, Henry Ford thought he'd establish a prefabricated town downstream from Manaus to provide rubber for his vehicle manufacturing business.  It was a total disaster, with Ford losing 50% of his workforce to Yellow Fever - we've had the shots -  and discovering growing rubber in plantations was not the same as the naturally occurring trees in the jungle.  The remains of the plant are still visible near Santarem, 800 kms east from Manaus.

Fordlandia, image Atlasobscura

Although like the majority of South America, the region remains largely Catholic, there is a bit of a growth area in evangelical religions - as can be seen by this establishment.

Large scale evangelical church

The Amazon - water ain't water

Amazon - well how many superlatives can you use to describe this mighty river?  The facts and figures are just too mind boggling to list; everyone can Google, so I'm not going to repeat it.  And, yes it is a smidge shorter than the Nile, but the water volume of the Nile is pathetic in relation to the Amazon.  The Amazon was named after the Greek female warriors the original Spanish adventurers thought they'd come across in the 1500s when they found men and women fighting side by side.

There are only a few true tribal Indians left - less than 750,000.  Even though we went 1500 kms upstream we did not see them - they are confined to protected reserves and their only contact is with the Army and, as required, health professionals.  Most of the people who continue to live in villages along the River are termed caboclo and are of Indian, Portuguese and African descent.

Amazing Amazon sunset

Anyway, before embarking on this cruise there were a few things I didn't know.


1. I thought there was salt aka sweet water and fresh water.  Wrong.  There's three types of fresh water in the Amazon alone.

Paul swimming ar Alter do Chao beach

Amazon and Tapajos 'meeting' at Santarem

Clear water - you can swim in this - watch out for piranhas and stingrays however... These are generally smaller tributaries to the Amazon - this Alter do Chao beach has been voted one of Brazil's top 10 - not bad given it's on a river.



Black water - slow moving, supports little life but does not breed insects like mosquitoes and is full of minerals and has higher acidity/Ph levels. These are generally major tributary rivers that 'meet' but not merge with the Amazon - this shows the meeting of the Amazon known as the Solimoes at this point and the Rio Negro near Manaus where the two types of water flow together for about 6 kms - at different speeds and temperatures!




Sediment water - like the Amazon. This looks polluted, but clears quickly when allowed to settle, it supports plant, insect and fish life - including those mozzies. It's generally fast moving, but I wouldn't want to swim in it or live along it, but plenty do.

Boca de Valeria,  muddy Amazon water

2.  You can sail a 50,000 ton ship 1500 kms up the Amazon to Manaus.  They have to take on two pilots at the start of the journey, as navigation charts cannot reflect the ever changing river profile - they'd have to be redone every 6 months.  So these pilots steer the ship in alternating 4 hour shifts.for the week we're in the region.

3. The water can be quite shallow even though it's thousands of metres wide - we have a minimum draft of 21 feet, but they prefer 30 feet.  This is why the river boats - the main transportation for everything from school to shopping all look pretty much the same

Riverboats, Santarem

4. Only 12  cruiseships a year sail to the major city of Manaus, partly due to the size restrictions but also due to the water.  Ships make their own water by distilling sea water, but the Amazon water, plentiful as it is, contains too much sediment to be processed.  So we have to carry enough water for the 1150 passengers and crew for a week on board.  We've been told to treat the water as precious, but I guess we always do anyway,

5. The Amazon jungle or rainforest as it's euphemistically known these days, sits on a layer of fairly poor muddy clay.  It's not rich volcanic soil like other parts of South America, and supports only limited life.

Typical jungle vegetation

6 There is no bridge over the Amazon as it's banks are constantly changing; there are a few over the tributaries however.  This recent bridge over major tributary Rio Negro at Manaus is known as the bridge to nowhere.  It was designed to encourage migration upstream but has only resulted in the reverse so far - it's a big bridge, so you'll need to click and enlarge....

Bridge to nowhere, Manaus

Salvador de Bahia Brazil

Trivia alert:  Brazil is the only country name after a tree.  Pau-brasil, 'red like an ember' from the brasilwood aka Pernambuco tree famous its red colour and for making bows for stringed instruments.

Back to Salvador: this pretty coastal city is a gem in Brazil cultural history and was Brazil's capital for 200 odd years though also a little notorious for petty theft.  AND there's a UNESCO heritage listing for its colourful 'old town' including its square known as the 'Pelo' after its full name Le Pelourinho, Portuguese for Pillory, where slaves were whipped.

Pelo Square

Colourful townsfolk

It was founded in 1549 and for hundreds of years was the central exchange point for the slave trade between West Africa and South America.  At one point just after we left we were closer to Sierra Leone in Africa across the Atlantic than Canberra is to Adelaide!

From the ship's TV - we're the red arrow

It's also one of the poorer cities of Brazil with 20% of its 3.5 million inhabitants unemployed and some desperate renovations underway as again, this is one of the host cities for the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

Renovator's delight?

Yet its famous church Sao Francisco begun in 1708 allegedly has 800 kilos of gold (in the form of gold leaf) decorating its interior.  Now that figure is debatable and difficult to verify, but it's certainly a very ornate example of Portuguese baroque architecture

Sao Franciso Church

Ornate gold leaf interior

The upper and lower cities are connected by a public elevator Elevador Lacerda originally opened in 1873 (Brazil's first) and renovated in the Art Deco style in the 1930s.  It operates 24 hours a day, and even in the 1600s there was a rope and pulley mechanism in place to transport people and goods the 85 metres between the two centres.

Elevador Lacerda

Michael Jackson came here in 1987 and sang from this balcony - he's now replicated in cardboard (!)

Micahel Jackson's cardboard figure on balcony

The Capoeira is a traditional dance orginating from here that's described as a mix of martial art and dance but  the real skill is the agility required to avoid an orchestrated 'attack'.  We were treated to an on board display from a local troupe complete with tradional music.

Capoeira Dancers

The great coffee tasting.

There are a number of coffee producing countries in South America and our favourite lecturer Terry Breen gave a tasting for interested addicts.

We had coffees from Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia (of course!)

All were interesting, and I liked the Ecuador and Colombia coffee best of the tastings, but a very rare treat was in store for me.  I was one of only 20 people drawn to taste some Jacu coffee.

Jacu is 100% organically processed via the digestive system of the Jacu bird, similar to the Civet cat coffee from Indonesia.

Jacu - coffee 'processor' bird

Coffee gardens, Orchid centre Santos Brazil

It really does taste special and it is very difficult to find in Brazil as it is almost all sent to Saudi Arabia at $240 a kilo.

Will I share?

$240 per kg - It's MINE!!

Next stop was Fortaleza - another city of 2 million people we'd never heard of...

Brazil's Macca's - though better

We had lunch at Bob's Burgers - named after the tennis star who established it in 1952, Robert Falkenburg who moved to Brazil from the US in 1950.  Other than the 'Big Bob' hamburger, their trademark is the Ovomaltine crunchy chocolate milkshake - a favourite since 1959 - just wonderful!!!

And the modest shopping mall

Fortaleza Brazil shopping mall - Westfield anyone???

and the Amazon's coming up very soon!