Amazon Updates
8 October 2001
Today we woke up in a new world. Not just here on our trip down
the Amazon, but around the world. The US and the UK are now at
war, and although I think we were expecting this would happen
eventually, it is still shocking news.
Sitting in the radio room yesterday, listening to the hollow
voice of a BBC reporter coming over the short wave radio declaring
that bombs had been dropped in Afghanistan, I felt numb and thought
it can't be real.
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It is a strange place to be hearing that a major war has
begun. Sailing down the river, we are cut off from the outside
world, living and working on a ship that is self-sufficient.
Our only contact is through satellite phone and radio. It
makes the reality of the war seem even more distant, unbelievable. |
We arrived in Santarém shortly after sunset and the mood,
which is usually excited arriving in a new port, was sombre and
stunned as we discussed what is happening in Afghanistan.
Santarém is much smaller than Manaus, only around
25,000 people, and from the water at night looks like a nice,
small town. But it is also one of the major exporting ports
of Amazon timber and there were stacks of lumber piled up
where we docked. |
 |
Sunset
on the Amazon river. |
The town sits at the mouth of the Tapajós river.
Unlike the Amazon or the Negro rivers, it is a clear water
river and the biggest in the Amazon. Last night after we arrived
I sat on the helicopter deck with Menno and we watched the
moon rise over the Tapajós. The moon started very low
on the horizon, the colour was so unusual, a brilliant crimson,
at first I wasn't sure that it was the moon, it looked more
like a fire spreading through the forest. As it rose and the
clouds covered its path, the colour eventually gave way to
a warm yellow glow. |
The reflection made a path across the water and we heard some
splashing and a faint sort of squeaking. Then, through the dim
light of the moon, we saw several dolphins playing. There were
at least three of them, playing only 50 metres or less from the
ship. They poked their heads above water, diving together and
jumping, we could only just make them out in the darkness, but
could hear them splashing and squeaking. They remained playing
in the moonlight for maybe 10 minutes beside the ship.
To be able to find such a moment of absolute peace and happiness
at this time seems like a fantasy, while the people in Afghanistan
who have not been able to escape war and death for decades are
living a nightmare.
Tracy
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