Enthralling boat trip: the Amazon River | WIDE

foreign smells of the port I've begun to feel the pulse of the Amazon fascinates me and I want to follow its course Upstream taking the opposite direction to Francisco de orelana who traveled down it hundreds of years ago with a handful of badly shaven conquistadors [Music] I have learned that balam a city of one million 700 000 inhabitants was founded in the 17th century by the Portuguese who are Keen to exploit its potential as a major Trade Center the rubber boom soon proved them right and became the basis for the city's prosperity that is charms I can't bring myself to stay here for long and I can't wait to embark on this adventure I want to get onto the river as soon as possible and start my exploration of the country's Rich interior hastily recruited interpreter helps me make the arrangements for my long-awaited departure there's no boat on Tuesday so the next one is on Friday night is that okay I have to wait two days long days to fill I'd heard about mariju an island as big as Denmark located at the heart of the River delta that's how I ended up at Key 37 in the early hours of the morning ready to board the San Francisco the first local boat I would travel on [Music] foreign [Music] I begin to realize the size or rather the enormity of this River and the fact that we are 100 kilometers from the Atlantic where this giant serpent the mother of man as the amerindians call it ends its Journey foreign [Music] I am briefly tempted to take in the breeze at the bow of the boat but quickly realize that an occasionally violent wind from the ocean greatly exaggerates the pitching of this frail craft of course that is an inappropriate description of this boat but the vastness of the river is such that it has warped my sense of scale I've only skippered this boat for a few months but don't worry I've sailed up and down the river mouth for several years we don't have too many problems on this service at this time of year the dry season the concern is the wind from the sea which can cause problems it can cause waves as large as those out to sea this boat doesn't have a large draft so when it's windy it moves a lot in the rainy season there isn't much wind but the heavy rains greatly affect visibility common it took us a little over three hours to reach the cork I say cork because marajo is short for umbaraya which is the word for cork in a marijuara language the original inhabitants of the island believed it had been placed here by a Divine being to prevent the River from emptying itself entirely into the ocean the bus taking us to 37 kilometers from the pier to Sur aboard a ferry to cross an inland River and so reached the town in its population of 29 000. foreign considered the capital of the island appears to be a small Seaside town where life is good a kind of tropical and perpetually peaceful could deserve [Music] the hustle and bustle I get a glimpse of what Sunday will be like for the procession of Our Lady of Nazareth patron saint of the city the enthusiasm with which the preparations are made makes me wish I could be here instead I'll be somewhere between bellam and manaus the most surprising thing on marajo island are the Buffalo it is said that the Buffalo arrived here by accident in 1870 when a ship transporting them to Guyana sank today they are everywhere they can be found at even the smallest Waterhole wallowing like hippos along with fishing they are the backbone of the local economy there are around 1 million on the island whilst the human population is only 385 000. thank you the Buffalo is the island symbol and there seems to be nothing the Beast can't be used for in fact mariju is the only place in the world where the Mounted Police Patrol on the back of a buffalo I've served in this unit for three years I'm also a vet as I know a lot about animals especially Buffalo we've used buffalo on patrols since 1992. because on the island we have six dry months followed by six months of very intensive rainfall during the rainy season the island is completely flooded so it's very difficult to get about so the only really effective mode of transport is the water buffalo better than any vehicle even horses because they can go anywhere here we call them four by fours on legs I leave the place in their strange mounts someone told me about a Posada a sort of rural Cottage owned by a Frenchman and I have one day left to kill on the island Thierry the proprietor has been living here for three years so he should be able to give me some good advice all right yes okay thanks were you with some guests I don't have any right now no no it's the low season that's a stroke of luck you can take him into the rainforest he needs a guide aren't you a bird expertise thank you that's why the following day I bought an old tub to an unknown destination accompanied by a french-speaking ornithologist as my guide [Music] my name is Oswaldo I'm a tourist guide for the bellam region I've been doing this for 17 years we'll be going up the paraguari river to the Island's interior to visit a buffalo breeding Farm buffaloes are the basis of the Island's economy or Buffalo difficult to get away from them here but during the journey the the superb particularly the shortcuts down the inguarapes the small natural or artificial canals which create a network of secondary waterways across the whole of the Amazon rainforest it's incredible to think that in the late 18th century a Portuguese landowner made his slaves open a canal to shorten his journey and avoid losing cargo when sailing on the river [Music] they built this whole Canal as a shortcut protect themselves from large waves took five long years to dig this 1800 meter bypass Channel with machetes and Spades sencho Farm Anna the manager is a long way from this amazing story here the focus is on the Here and Now ensuring the profitability of this Farm of several thousand hectares [Music] optional cheese making process one of many such traditions we continue to keep alive on the farm on this as on many others everything revolves around the Buffalo we milk them to make mozzarella type cheese as you can see but we do not just raise Buffalo we also have small horses as well as some nello cows despite their rustic appearance and seemingly Carefree approach to life the fascendaros are nevertheless practical people above all they are businessmen and women whose sole aim is for their Farms to be prosperous their employees The Vaqueros lead a very tough life especially during the rainy season they often have to cover many kilometers through flooded bogs in Search of Lost Buffalo come on I'll show you our little Museum not that strange to defy flexion it s tourists always stay at the for Zender I want a closer look at the lives of their hosts all of the pieces you see in this collection are the result of fines made on for zenders owned by my family certain pieces date back to the pre-columbian period but I don't have time to stay it's a shame because mariju island is the Cradle of one of the oldest indigenous Amazonian civilizations before leaving my hosts I sample some of the food as promised and on where's Oswaldo my guide got to I find him a bit later away from the farm he's indulging his passion watching some Scarlet Ibis he later tells me that Mario is the only place in Brazil they can be found I watched them fly away it is time for me to leave the island I have a boat to manaus to catch tomorrow [Music] I am writing again to tell you that I am finally cruising up the amazon we set sail late afternoon from bellam the Riverbanks seemed far away now disappearing into the mystery of the slowly falling equatorial night all is slow all is long all would be silent but for the incessant noise of the engines will take us five days and five nights to cover the 1500 kilometers which separate the two biggest towns along the river nabranko which means White Swan there are around 100 passengers everyone timidly watches each other taking in the surroundings and there is no shortage of things to see foreign [Music] there is little rest to be had on the first night as we regularly stop to let people on and off and load and unload various cargos even the captain looks exhausted and few people passengers or crew can get much sleep we stop again in the early hours and there are still things to be seen some freshwater Dolphins come tantalizing the interview and between two passing votes we even get to glimpse a rare pink specimen after unloading some cargo we set off again and I'm beginning to understand that the people of the Amazon basin travel more on water than on land this Forest doesn't like roads it prefers its natural paths the inguarapas the streams and rivers it's difficult not to share that view since in this vast network of waterways the 17 main tributaries which feed into the Amazon include some of the 10 biggest rivers in the world on the passenger deck everyone has secured themselves some space it's limited certainly but enough for the five days and four nights ahead The Hammocks lend themselves to laziness which is only natural these simple bits of cloth are the only place we can call our own and try to find some privacy while the journey lasts [Music] foreign the same cannot be said of the staff kitchen work starts at dawn the 15 or so members of the crew must have their two meals a day as well as the passengers it's occasionally tiresome work as the kitchen is next to the engine room and the incessant deafening noise is enough to put anyone off on the bridge deck above things are Karma so calm that the captain can read his paper there in peace Sailors even freshwater ones clearly need a few moments to themselves this boat doesn't have a relief crew and makes four or five return Journeys a month It's A peculiar lifestyle spending all your time on the river the job invariably means neglecting your family and sometimes the only way to see your children is to extend your stopovers in the pots where they live I'm the captain of this boat and I've skippered it for 24 years as you can see our job here on the Amazon is to transport cargo and passengers I'm originally from Santa M the large Port halfway between Bel Air and maneas my whole family also lives there wow with regard to sailing we don't have many problems a few storms sometimes and some of them can be quite violent the passengers Panic so we have to stop and drop anchor in a Cove but generally speaking it's quite rare we don't have many problems I would even say that it's a pleasure to sail on this River today the weather is very mild so people get together to pass the time a situation which lends itself nicely to a game of dominoes throughout the Amazon region dominoes are made of wood an abundant natural resource on the river it is not unusual to see barges loaded with logs in the Amazon nothing can stop nature except perhaps the chainsaws of the Foresters some might think that it's boring on this boat but I can that there is little respite and there's always something going on [Music] take these young Amazon boatmen they hook themselves onto the boat at full speed Like Pirates [Music] these Daredevils are sometimes barely five years old their aim is to clean a few coins by selling a variety of goods to the passengers often astounded by their incredible daring [Music] foreign [Music] disembarking at Santa M at around 4am is truly enchanting this is how travel should always be the ancient Greeks had a God for this perfect moment he was called Kairos and stipulated that arriving in Port had to be done at dawn no matter where in the world as for myself I want to enjoy a few moments on dry land and as the boat was stopping over here for about half a day I made the most of it to watch the activity of the market which was leisurely filling its stalls the early morning catches up with me to stay awake I need lots of coffee that's how I meet Tita the owner of the only refreshment stand here I've been doing this job running the refreshment stand for three years before that I used to work for the port authority it is very tough because this is a daily Market I'm here every day from 3 AM to 8pm I have little time to myself because when I get home I go to bed and try to sleep a bit my children are grown up and my husband a fisherman fends for himself I leave Tita to her grueling work I still have a bit of time in santoram before the cisne Branco leaves I've been told about an idyllic place about 35 kilometers from the town without much haggling over the price I hired the first taxi driver I come across to take you to Old chair I'll charge you 55 Euros the journey gives me another insight into the Amazon we're barely out of town before I see quite how dense the rainforest is at the end of the road is a magical place it's almost like a different planet and I wonder if this could be the perfect place to leave the rest of the World Behind Jean-Jacques Rousseau would surely have thought this an ideal place in which to hide an escape from human stupidity he would have loved this point of no return this island for Castaways happy to be just that here I am fascinated by the place I look around in silence and watch the Curious behavior of the locals [Music] I barely have time to board before we set sail everyone gets their bearings again less timidly than the first time these kinds of trips make it easy to form new friendships it's certainly true for Marlene and Sergio they are both Married with Children he is off to be a DJ on the Venezuelan border she is heading to manaus to see her family [Music] as soon as the river starts to narrow their back hitching a ride Sergio isn't interested he's enthusiastically telling Marlene about the new life he hopes to have it's actually quite a wrench because he will be away from his wife and his four-year-old daughter for several months [Music] suddenly I experienced my first storm it arrives without warning but I do have the Good Fortune to be under shelter which looking out on the river is not something everyone can say it is still raining when I see the Confluence of the Rio solimoes and the Rio negro it is the first thing that makes me realize that this boat trip is almost over the second is the activity of the passengers who hastily began Gathering up their belongings I am not in a hurry I don't want to miss any of the varying surprises which could still come my way like these Navy warships murdered about 1500 kilometers from NEC or ocean [Music] just a few meters to go before the Moorings are cast ashore after that is done everything happens quickly the passengers disembark with Incredible speed as though they were escaping I barely have time to Glimpse Marlene and Sergio saying goodbye All That Remains for me to do is to find a hotel a little later from the Headland I can see the city stretching out along the Left Bank of the Rio negro manaus seems to be buoyed by the nostalgic memories of its glorious past when it was called the Paris of the tropics the Golden City of the rubber billionaires today with its 1.5 million inhabitants the city attempts in vain to recreate the Splendor of its golden years staying here doesn't really interest me I have seen the people who live on the Riverbanks from my boat I now want to see the boats from where these people live I am saying sailing on the Amazon which from this point is known as the solimoyers with two engines a 960 horsepower we are traveling at more than 50 kilometers per hour the craft that I boarded in the early hours along with a few other people is known as a fast boat a true speed boat Amazon Style nothing to do except watch the riverbank speed by or why not the television which is belching out Bruce Lee's DVD collection it'll take us 12 hours to reach tefe where I'm thinking of staying a while after that I'll head for fonte boa and God willing tabatinga coming ashore at tefe a strange feeling comes over me one of intense oppression as though the further I travel on the river the more I reject all modern life and all large towns it's not that this one with its 50 000 inhabitants is excessively large but I'm already finding it too big for me I've made a decision tomorrow I will go out on the rivers in search of something more authentic I find this authenticity close by among the people who live on the banks of the river known here as Cabo close and who are of mixed European and Brazilian amerindian descent yeah man what else this Village of around 250 Souls which overlooks one of the branches of the solimoyes is called misau mission in English and when you arrive here you can easily understand why at First Sight everything is calm as though life had little or no relevance here hello my French friend I'm pleased to welcome you here I'm the village chief come on let's go for a walk and I'll show you around I learned that my host who answers to the name monato was first elected Village Chief in 1989. elections are by universal suffrage and by law no one can have more than two successive mandates of two years so our friend has been Village Chief since 1989 with a break of two years every four years laughs we have a small village but we produce some handicrafts 52 families live here which as of today represents 256 people we make our living mainly from agriculture cocoa bananas Akai Palm chestnuts and so on many also make use of the river for example by fishing but it is largely for their own consumption in this Village there are only farmers it is a pleasant Village but it is short of everything it has little or no electricity a single generator provides some electricity between 6 pm and 10 pm however the people do adhere to Brazilian Traditions especially football there are six League matches today it is the women who get stuck in first because they are daughters sisters or mothers and while football is important here so too is preparing meals foreign there is no healthcare system in the village either all it has is a small Clinic which provides a basic medication same in many villages in the Amazon and so the state has provided This Magnificent boat it belongs to the Army and Carries doctors dentists and other social workers on board it sails along the River from Village to Village to alleviate the shortages the women's match has finished they won one nil it is time to go to the kitchen while the men get ready to take on the nearby amerindian community the home leg went in favor of missal with an emphatic eight nil scoreline the away fixture will be fierce [Music] official day today we're playing football against the amerindian community from bairira this match counts towards the official provincial League we have a slight Edge for the next game but it's far from over this time the final score is three nil to the amerindians but it is not enough and missal qualify easily in the thunderstorm [Music] s the following day I'm off to the airport to catch an air taxi to fonte boa a town about 180 kilometers Upstream I'm a pilot with a company called amazonaves air taxis I spent three years at flying school in curatiba whilst at the same time studying aeronautical science at University I finished my studies five years ago and have been doing this job since then air taxes are quite common in the Amazon I mainly carry passengers some urgent letters and sometimes cargo the aircraft I fly a pie person at320cs the flight to fonte boa should take around 50 minutes storm is close and we take off in the rain Victor has told me that the main problem here is the weather which you can only forecast up to one hour ahead [Music] thank you [Music] I don't know [Music] [Music] it's still pouring when we land to Pilot an air taxi in the Amazon you have to adapt quickly to the unexpected at barely 30 Victor has been doing just that for five years now over an area eight times the size of France it's still home to amerindian tribes who are occasionally resistant to all contact with civilization I'm beginning to notice that at this time of year the rain often doesn't last long as I get off the plane I decide not to enter fonte bar the further I travel up this River the more I want to distance myself from these ever-growing towns which are threatening already fragile ecosystems I also want to meet some locals people who work hard every day just to survive and so I find myself in a village of barely 30 Souls on the banks of the river far from the hazards of the big cities I introduce myself to Francisca a fisherman who lives with his entire family in a Hut on the water it is the same type of home that I had the luxury of gazing at during my time on the boat from bellam to manaus I often wondered when gazing at them what they looked like inside Francisco satisfies my curiosity by inviting me into the privacy of his home [Applause] [Music] I am not disappointed quite the opposite the Simplicity of the place is touching these few wooden rooms where life is stripped down to the essentials are thoroughly captivating my name is Francisco I've been a fisherman for six years it's quite unpredictable here sometimes I managed to catch enough fish other times I barely catch enough to cover the day's costs hmm what do you say there aren't as many fish as before stocks have dried up it's a hard life if Francisco catches a six kilo fish he can sell it at the market for around six euros but that is rare nowadays at his daily costs including petrol amount to two euros it is not always easy to make ends meet so he also cultivates a small patch of land which he was clearing when we arrived improvised Farm means he can feed his wife and three children as I leave Francisco I feel like making a detour so I asked the pilot of the boat I hastily rented this morning to sail down a small branch of the river one of those famous in guarapeze I hope to catch a glimpse of the amazing wealth of fauna that people have told me so much about I'd love to spot an anaconda or any of the other reptiles that live in the water or on the banks of the river it is a magnificent place which reminds me of something I once heard said by a well-known presenter of wildlife programs on TV when Nature is as generous as this only one thing comes to mind silence this Caiman fleeing into the muddy water brings me back to my senses it's time to leave because tomorrow I'm going to visit the amerindians and so it was that in the early hours of the morning I found myself on the river javary traveling the 400 kilometers to Tres Jose a mayaruna village I'm accompanied by Evan DK an adventurous boat captain his assistant and the amerindian tribe tracker and above all Mowgli a guide of amerindian descent helped Along by a 260 horsepower engine we speed along at over 50 kilometers per hour I'm told the journey will take eight hours the river chivalry marks the border between Brazil on the Left Bank and Peru on the right the funniest thing is that during the whole journey we regularly cross from back to back from one country to the other [Music] [Music] I'm called Mowgli but my real name is Tony I've worked on the javery for 10 years I'm a guide because I know the amerindian communities here I know the cultures and traditions so I regularly accompany tourists to the various villages I'm respected for my knowledge of their customs and practices origin from the Marina House tribe from a region on the border of Brazil and Colombia both my parents are from this tribe but at the time of the last rubber boom they were forced to flee to avoid being killed as others had been was born in tabatinga the last Large Brazilian town on the border with Colombia [Music] [Music] [Music] but I would like you because of the loops in the river we frequently save a few minutes on our journey Time by taking shortcuts down certain natural canals they are rarely used at this time of year though because the water levels are still low and you can get a nasty surprise I soon learned that unfortunate but enlightening lesson first a tree blocks our pass it takes over an hour to chop my guide Ventures into the water to check for any further obstacles we finally set off again but not very far another fallen tree this time even bigger blocks our path we set to work but without much conviction [Music] impatient I ask if this is a frequent occurrence the answer is yes with my occasionally condescending Western attitude I say don't you think a chainsaw would be useful the slightly infuriated Captain replies immediately we barely have enough to eat so how do you propose we buy a chainsaw and so I learn another lesson with no choice but to turn around and although we've lost a lot of time I won't say another word [Music] we get back to the javery still must search for The Village I'm told it has been moved because of land reforms we eventually find it and not before time as I was worried we'd turn up with the tribe settlement after Nightfall not out of fear but because I want to see as much as possible of these people and their lives my first surprise is the way they dress it's nothing like the Amazon I saw in my vision in the forest I can't spend much time with the mayoruna Indians but I hope to gain at least an insight into their culture the gods are on my side because in one of the village Huts the local Shaman is about to start work Mowgli explains enthusiastically that the shaman is doing the job of a kidney sciologist and one of the men from the tribe who has back pain it's one of the Shaman's regular roles in addition to that of doctor [Music] I imagine the pain is supposed to disappear thanks to the massage and the incantations but on closer inspection I realize that's not all the shaman uses local herbs to blow on the patient's back and then inhales the pain which he then spits out elsewhere I don't know if the man will be healed but the treatment continues for some time Mowgli tells me that a more traditional and more important ritual is due to take place later this evening the shaman has been asked to help one of the villagers who has lost his power to hunt and fish in fact he hasn't caught anything for several days for this type of ritual you need a patient a shaman a Warrior from the tribe who is a great Hunter and fisherman and a toad that you've caught the night before the warrior is believed to pass his powers on to the unfortunate who has lost them first he must inhale Ayahuasca a hallucinogenic powder highly prized by the amerindians this mysterious and powerfully psychoactive drug is the subject of great debate much like peyote and lsdi were in the days of Carlos Castaneda and Timothy Leary the shaman Burns small dots on the patient's skin so that it will easily absorb a white liquid extracted from a toad it's with some alarm that I discovered that the liquid is in fact cure air used not so long ago to coat blowpipe darts and used to chase off or even kill Intruders it's quite a mystery because the amerindians were decimated by flu but have always been immune to cure [Music] I'm going to say foreign hours after the ritual comes to an end I remain in a sort of daze full of wonder and lost in thought I even find it hard getting to sleep in the hammock I'm given for the night the only thing on my mind is to find out if the Ayahuasca the curer and the incantations have done their job very early in the morning I find myself watching the fishermen who'd been the center of the ritual the day before foreign [Music] and yes it works after a few fruitless attempts and despite my incredulity he succeeds in harpooning a fish time for me to meet to return to civilization or rather to my civilization I find it 400 kilometers Upstream in the last Brazilian town on the river tapatinga I'm at the end of my journey and I won't be going any further on the other side of the Border in Colombia the lights of Leticia are shining brightly I stopped by the river for a moment and think back over my journey 3500 kilometers packed full of emotion and Adventure but my quest is over [Applause] [Music]

Channel: SLICE Travel

Views: 604,509

Keywords: wide, widedocs, journey, documentary, voyage, discoveries, full documentary, free documentary, eco guide, travel, around the world, road trip, green trip

Id: wbhXvoIIDwQ

Length: 49min 20sec (2960 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 03 2022