Amazon Updates
24 September 2001
The two pieces of advice I have taken away from the Deni volunteer
updates are never swim at night and always have a back up.
Today we broke both those rules.
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12:30pm
Last night we arrived at the small town of Jutai. This is
our furthest stop up the Amazon and the furthest Greenpeace
has ever been up the river. From the harbour the town looked
deceivingly small, only a few dozen lights along the water.
But once we went a shore and climbed the steep bank we found
a small town. Some of the people here say there are 22,000
people or more living in the town.
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There is only one broken down main road with smaller roads off
it. There is a square in the centre with the church, two restaurants,
two hotels and a number of small juice bars.
We also found the dance club and danced with the locals to Foho
(a Brazilian dance music) and American dance music. The most unusual
part was that at 5'6", I was taller than everyone in the
club except the other Greenpeace people.
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We are visiting Jutai because a community nearby wants
to create an extractive reserve of 252,000 hectares to harvest
resources from the forest in an ecological manner for their
own use, and they would like this area to be protected from
logging and other industrial development.
Today we set out to visit two of the villages in the proposed
reserve and see some of the forest. We stopped at the town
first to pick up the coordinator of the reserve, the municipal
secretary for the environment and a few men from a local
catholic group who are helping the reserve community.
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João, the coordinator of the Jutái reserve. |
It is about a three hour trip up the Jutai river to the reserve
in one of the fastest Greenpeace inflatable boats. The ride was
beautiful. No words could adequately describe it and no photo
could possibly possess its magic. Even the faint half moon could
not stay away on this beautiful day. We passed many people in
small dug out canoes and motor boats, many small communities and
indigenous lands.
Bent our
chief engineer calling in with the part number. |
We had just entered the area of the extractive reserve
and I was thinking that it could not be a more perfect day
when an alarm on the boat went off and smoke started to
pour out of the engine - not a good sign.
We stopped in the middle of the river and open the hatch
to the engine. The belt on the cooling fan was broken. No
spare and no way to fix it, we were stuck, miles from anything,
already almost two hours away from the Arctic Sunrise, and
no oars to paddle to shore.
Luckily we did bring the satellite phone and were able
to call back to the ship to have someone bring us a spare.
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Eventually the current pushed us close to the beach and now I
sit under some camu camu bushes trying to find some relief from
the heat. I've just been told this bush produces a fruit with
the highest concentration of vitamin C in the world, unfortunately
it is too early for the fruit.
We have been here almost two hours now waiting for the spare,
I hope they don't get lost. It's really not such a bad place
to be broken down in the middle of the Amazon. The locals
said it is safe to swim here so some of us had our first dip
in an Amazon river. |
Swim stop
number one. |
It is a muddy brown river with lots of silt and very slimy on
the bottom. We cannot see more than an inch or two below the surface
which made me slightly nervous at first, but it was easy to enjoy
after a few minutes passed without any biting at my heels.
We saw several river dolphins fishing near the boat and where
we were swimming, but luckily no piranhas, alligators or mosquitoes.
In fact, I think I will get in another swim before the replacement
belt arrives.
10:00pm
I can't remember the last time I felt this exhausted. I wanted
an adventure in the Amazon and today I got it.
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Our rescuers arrived with the belt as I was in the river
for a swim. It didn't take them very long to fix it and after
a few adjustments we were off. The ride was spectacular and
the wind was certainly refreshing after sitting in the heat
for a few hours, I couldn't tear myself away from the bow
of the boat watching the forest and smaller rivers speed past.
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We lost almost three hours waiting for the replacement belt and
we knew we would not be able to see as much as we initially planned.
We headed straight for the first village, stopped only for a few
minutes to explain why we were late and that we would be back
after visiting another village.
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We went back the way we came only a short distance and
then continued up a different river. Dave let me drive and
told me to watch the water depth. He said if it gets down
to two meters you've got to be careful. I speed along at
26 knots for many miles. It took some time to get used to
the sensitive steering of the raven, and I was constantly
watching the depth and moving back and forth on the river.
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As the river depth started to drop from nine meters down to three,
then two, Dave and Wally took over the steering. We slowed down
and a few minutes later came to a stop in the mud.
We stepped out and the water level only came to our knees.
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Swim stop number two, it was time to push. We walked out
in different directions trying to find deeper water. Marcelo
was successful. The riverbed suddenly dropped off and he
was over his head. We pushed the boat in his direction and
all had a good swim as we each slid over the edge.
We didn't find a way around the shallow water, but we all had a good laugh when Edinoldo from the Brazilian catholic organisation slid over the drop off point. Most people in the Amazon grow up on the water and I think they only wore their life jackets because we were wearing them. Edinoldo still had his life jacket on and it inflated immediately.
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We returned to the first village and many people (I think most
of the village) came out to meet us. About 50 people live in the
village and most of them are children.
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There is a path that leads down along the river with houses,
a school, a church and a few new buildings that will be
their rubber making factories once they are complete.
The children were all very curious about us and it didn't
take long before they were laughing and playing with us.
One girl brought out her pet parrot to show us and another
man arrived with his monkey.
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Marcelo met with the people and talked to them about the
reserve and how we might help them. There are only 1,600 people
living on the reserve in 13 different villages. This is their
home, and like the Deni, they want only to make their living
from the forest as they have always done, and protect the
area from logging and exploitation.
We had some very sweet coffee with them as the sun started
to set, then said goodbye to our hosts and began the long
journey back to the ship.
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Marcelo talking with João in front of the rubber making houses. |
We watched a scarlet sunset as we drove away from the village,
the stars came out and the moon shone bright above. I was just
sitting back, relaxing for the long journey, when the people at
the front of the boat whistled and we came to an abrupt stop on
a beach. We had gone aground again, unable to see the beach approaching
in the dark until we were literally on top of it.
Several people got out and tried to push, the boat didn't budge.
All but a few of us got out and spent half an hour pushing, pulling
and rocking the boat with out any result. I hadn't minded being
in the water earlier in the day, but at night, and so close to
the beach, we couldn't see what might be waiting on the bank for
a late night snack.
Only when the last few people got out of the boat to help us
push did we manage to get the boat free and back in the water.
Unfortunately a few of us were left standing near the shore and
the boat could not come back for us so we had to swim for it.
I soon as they said we would have to swim out to the boat, I took
off, nothing gave me more pleasure at that moment than to get
far away from the shore. I'd take my chances with the piranhas
over the alligators any day.
We kept a vigilant watch out for shallow water and beaches for
the rest of the trip and only had one more incident when we hit
a log in the middle of the river. Luckily we were in a aluminium
jet boat and slid right over it, otherwise it could have taken
off the propeller or punched a hole in the fibreglass.
I did see an alligator on the way back to the ship, orange eyes
glowing in the dark, and it didn't even move away from the boat
as we approached, maybe it was hoping one of us would fall in
and it would get a taste of juicy foreigner.
We arrived back at the ship about an hour ago and although we
had a bit of a struggle today to get 50 miles into the jungle
and back, the one thing that sticks in my head is that for the
people we visited today, this is their home, and they are struggling
just to hold onto their way of life.
We still have a lot to learn here in the Amazon, and today we
learnt a few things. Personally, I learnt always bring a extra
change of dry clothes and never yawn into the wind going 20 knots
down river at night.
Tracy
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