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The Brazilian Amazon
April, 2008
After another tasty lunch it was time to get back out there. For the afternoon we had two options, a boat ride through the varzea (flooded forest) or a trip to go catch some piranha. Not much of a fisherman myself, I armed myself with my camera and my binoculars and opted for the boat ride. Plenty of these in Florida, but strangler figs were common.
As usual, Greater Ani were also very common.
We hired a guy who lived on the shore near where we docked to lead our group through the forest waterways. He didn't speak english but he was the one to spot one of the finds of the trip.
Toco Toucan Ramphastos toco that I wish I had gotten a better picture of. It was gone after one quick shot.
I under exposed a few flower pics as we cruised by, but actually like the way they turned out. I would be interested in hearing what others think.
On the way back out, there was a group of 4 or 5 Black Collared Hawks, Busarellus nigricollis, that we were able to get decently close to.
As always, the scenery was serene.
We swam the evening away, which turned out to be an awesome time. I kinda drifted out a nice distance from the boat, and felt something brush against my leg. It wasn't a sensation I would like to replicate. Still sends shivers down my spine and I sure got back to the boat pretty fast...
That is me, way out there in the back. Photo Mai Vu.
Max with the catch from the fishing trip. Photo Mai Vu.
When darkness fell, we set out "alligator" hunting. I can't figure out why all the tourist companies and guides feel the need to call caimen alligators. I am sure they are just catering to the stupid gringos and talking in words we would understand. Regardless, the jacare hunting was excellent in the area. Three boats went out and we returned in about an hour with 5 jacares. My boat had the best haul, with 3 jacare captured, of two different species. Black Caimen Melanosuchus niger, only 1 of these was found, of course by our boat.
Spectacled Caimen Caimen crocodiles
The next day we visited a town that I think was named Vila Arixi. I also don't have the total number of patients we saw this day. Clinic was busy in the morning, but slow in the afternoon. We did break up into smaller groups of 2 or 3 and go make a few house calls in the afternoon. One of the men couldn't get to the clinic site because he had been bitten by a snake. I immediately got very excited when the leaders of the group suggested I tag along for that visit.
One of the odd towns with basically nothing, yet satellite dishes in the "yards".
They did have a manioc mill. You can see the canoe full of the root, and they will sink this underwater for a while and let the tubers soak. The actual mill is up on the hill.
This mans house was across a small section of lake, that during this time of the year, required a boat to get from the main town to his house. We had been attempting to survey different people in the villages along the way and he made an excellent study. Not a few hundred yards from the houses with satellite dishes, he did not have electricity, clean water or proper sanitation. It turned out his snake bite was 1 year ago, and he had undergone an operation in Manaus. Since then he has been battling infection on and off again for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, when the river is the source of the clean water to clean your wounds with, they don't really ever get that clean. Despite evidence of plenty of infections in the past, his wound actually did not look infected when we visited. We did our best to clean the site, apply some antibiotic ointment, wrap it with a dressing, and offer some suggestions for wound care.
This man used to make his living working in the fields, in fact, he was bitten while working. His wife has always just cared for the kids and house. It has been a rough go since the incident, he can barely move his ankle, not to mention walk. As much as I like to sympathasize with snakes usually, it is hard to ignore the destructive power the venom had on his leg and his family. Back at the main town, dinner was being prepared. It was really reassuring to our fish also being washed in the river water...
We headed back to the boat soon with the plan to put on some tennis shoes and go find a game of futbol. As I made the leap from the land to the plank we walked up onto the boat, I happened to glance in the water below. Imagine my immediate suprise and excitement when I spoted a group of eel like creatures swarming along the underwater concrete stairs. I immediately yelled for Max to grab the tubberware container that had made its way down to Brazil with me. Later, I took some heat for bossing Max around, and I do feel kinda bad, but I had catch some rubber eels!
Aquatic Caecilian Typhlonectes compressicauda
This is a happy, sweaty camper rocking the pocket protector...
It was a good dinner, and a great nap that evening.
Roadside Hawk?
We spent the night near Anama and our group took a speedboat up the Rio Solimos the next moring to visit a village on the banks of the main river. In the dry season, they claim to have sandy beaches stretching 100 yards out from the banks. Unfortunately, no beaches this time of the year and we had just missed their beauty pagent. The winner is chosen to compete in a regional competition in Anama the next weekend. Welcome to Vila Nova!
It had the usual smattering of cute kids, ugly cats, old bottles, pretty flowers, jute and manioc.
And moving on for lunch and the afternoon clinic site...
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© 2006 Last Updated: 2/11/07