Amazon Updates
25 October 2001
We are now heading back up river travelling through the Amazon
delta. This area where the Amazon river discharges into the Atlantic
ocean through two large arms and some smaller channels stretches
300 kilometres from north to south.
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We are travelling up the southern arm, the Rio Para, through
narrow rivers and passing many small islands. Along the way
we are surrounded by dense forest which meets the edge of
the water on eitehr side of the ship. There are many small
wooden houses on stilts and some people came out in their
canoes to greet us. |
This afternoon as the sun was falling in the sky, illuminating
thousands of shades of green forest, I saw a small canoe with
two people paddling up river very close to the edge of the forest.
From this safe distance on the ship, the forest is beautiful,
but I rarely get a sense of how big and ominous it can be. With
the canoe travelling right beside the forest, and the trees towering
over the two people in the canoe making them look like small ants
at the base of a large bush, I was suddenly reminded just how
enormous this forest is.
I have been travelling in the Amazon for about two months now,
and I've almost started to get used to seeing the forest continually
pass by with the occasional small houses and towns. Almost.
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Going about the daily routine, the Amazon is often a backdrop
to what happens on board and I feel like I'm living in a
small world with the hull of the ship for my borders. But
then when I stop for a minute and really look around me,
I'm struck by the fact that I am in one of the most amazing
places on earth.
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This evening we had a brilliant reminder of just how small we
are in this huge forest.
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As the sun set, a storm developed ahead of us, filling
the sky with clouds unlike anything I have ever seen. The
clouds pressed down upon the river and what now seemed like
our tiny ship. The sky that usually feels endless and open,
felt heavy and close.
The lightening started and before long surrounded the ship.
Great bolts of orange lightening shot out in every direction.
Some of the lightening went straight to the tree line, others
splintered across the sky creating four or five electric
fingers tickling the clouds. Every few seconds there was
another bright flash or bolt lighting up the sky in the
distance. The show continued for several hours.
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I have seen little rain since I arrived, a few fierce storms,
but they haven't been very frequent. Now the dry season is almost
over and in just a few months, the river banks that we have seen
on our trip will be under several meters of water. The landscape
will completely change and most areas of the forest near the Amazon
river will only be accessible by small boats.
Some rivers, like the Solimoes which we travelled up last month
will rise by as much as 15 meters and the water will cover large
areas of the forest for up to eight months.
The trees in these flooded forest have some very interesting
ways to spread their seeds. The one way I am most fascinated by
uses the fish that enter the flooded forest to disperse their
seeds.
The ripe fruits and seeds of some trees are swallowed whole by
fish in the forest and the undamaged seeds are "deposited"
elsewhere on the river after the fish ingests the fruit. There
are so many examples like this that show how the whole Amazon
works together as one connected ecosystem. What would happen to
the ability of the trees to reproduce if one fruit eating species
of fish disappeared? There is still so much we don't know about
this rainforest and how everything works together.
It may be easy to get caught up in mundane activities of daily
life and forget about the world all around us that needs our attention,
whether it is a rainforest in the Amazon, or a war in Afghanistan.
But even if you can't walk out on deck and see a rainforest that
is being destroyed, you can do something to help protect it.
Tracy
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