Amazon 3.0 - The Bicycles of Barcelos, a Four-Minute Photo Essay July 24, 2008, Barcelos, Amazonas, Brasil Note: This blog posting is out of order. When I get to a better internet connection I will get back to the story and photos from the Rio Orinoco. Perhaps bicycles are an odd thing to notice on an Amazon trip. But anyone who has been to Brazilian cities or towns would notice the difference here - very few cars, a few trucks, plenty of motorcycles and scooters, but hundreds of bicycles in this small town. Lucho had noticed them - back on Iguana [View Full Entry]

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Amazon 3.0 -- Part 4 -- Continuing Up the Orinoco June 27-30 This set of photos is from June 27 to June 30 as we continued up the Orinoco on Iguana. [View Full Entry]

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Amazon 3.0 - Part 3 - Getting Onto Amazon Time June 24-26 What day was it? I’d been on Iguana four days and had lost track of time. I asked Lucho what day it was and he said Saturday. But Lucho had it wrong also and he was in charge of the trip. It was Friday. When I told Lucho I’d lost track of time he responded “That is a good thing.” I may still be on the Orinoco but am definitely on Amazon time. Why am I here? It started by looking at some maps, wondering if I could take [View Full Entry]

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Amazon 3.0 - Vines and Epiphytes June 25-July 7 A tropical rainforest rarely allows any plant the space to just grow and be left alone. To a vine a tree trunk is a convenient pathway to sunlight. To an epiphyte a tree branch is a pleasant place to just hangout and wait for water and nutrients to drift or fall your way. Aside from my Spanish-English and Portuguese-English dictionaries and the appropriate chapters torn from Lonely Planet’s Venezuela and Brazil guide books, John Kricher’s A Neotropical Companion is my most valuable resource for this trip. Most - probably all - of [View Full Entry]

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Amazon 3.0 - Part 1: Puerto Ayacucho June 19-23, 2008 There has been one major change in my travel plans for this, my third Amazon trip: the addition of Harrison, my 23-year old nephew. The two-month trip is a retirement present for me and a graduation present for Harrison. Getting there is half the fun? Not when it involves an overzealous airline agent who tries to take away my insect repellant - from the check-in luggage nonetheless - until his colleague convinces him it is not flammable; a screeching baby kicking the back of my seat most of the way through [View Full Entry]

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The Amazon - Planning Ahead and Looking Back - Part 2 Note: This is part two of a narrative of my 1982 Amazon trip (Amazon 1.0) -- a prologue to the blog I will post during Amazon 3.0, which will begin in mid-June (2008). Riverboat Life El Arca’s departure was rescheduled for Monday evening. The hammock deck soon became crowded. You meet people quickly when you are butt-to-butt in swinging hammocks. As the only foreigner on this trip I would have ample opportunity to improve my Spanish. I introduced myself to my new neighbor as she strung her hammock, apologizing for [View Full Entry]

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The Amazon - Planning Ahead and Looking Back April, 2008 It is late April and I am in full countdown mode. Twenty-five more commuting days until retirement. Less than two months from today I’ll step off a plane in Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, to start a two-month river trip. Anxious, I click onto Weatherunderground, check the weather in Puerto Ayacucho (hot and wet) then follow the satellite photos from Puerto Ayacucho up the Orinoco, through the Casiquiare to the Rio Negro, down the Rio Negro to Manaus, down the Amazon to Santarém, up the Tapajós [View Full Entry]

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