The Mighty Amazon, its Gatekeeper City, and its Forest

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Four days after leaving the Caribbean, the water starts to turn a tanish brown, a sign that we have arrived in the Amazon. The waters begin to calm a bit, though no land is in sight in any direction. With over 500 tributaries and over 50 miles wide in places, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. One must not mistake the color of the water for pollution, the logical assumption one would make when seeing a river of such a color. The Solimões River, one of the rivers that make up the Amazon, gets its color from its mineral content. It will take us 3 days to reach the city of Manaus. As we navigate this mighty river we can occasionally see land, a lush green color dense with rainforest. Entire tree trunks float by, drift wood like no other I have seen. The sunset each of the three nights on the Amazon are so incredible that the entire community comes to a stop as we all head out onto the desk to take pictures on the sky painted hues of gold, yellow, orange, and red. People are giddy. One can’t go far without overhearing exclamations such as “I never in my life thought I would be sailing up the Amazon” or “we are so lucky to be here.” There is an excitement building on the ship as we navigate, at a slow pace, toward the city where we will launch our adventures into Brazil.

Manaus, the largest city in northern Brazil and the gateway to the Amazon, had its hay-day back at the turn of the 20^th century when the Portuguese had a monopoly on rubber production and Manaus experienced a rubber boom making the Portuguese barons quite wealthy and the indigenous quite exploited and enslaved. Manaus was long called the “Paris of the Tropics” for it European-inspired architecture, most notably the opera house. It is rumored the reason for such a Parisian feel to their architecture is that most of the mistresses of said barons were from Paris. The city’s most famous landmark the Teatro Amazonas Opera House, built in 1896 at the height of the rubber boom, was assembled from pieces sent from Europe, including a dome of 36,000 ceramic tiles set in a mosaic of the Brazilian flag.

The city of Manaus only has one road out of it, which goes to Venezuela. It takes 36 hours to get there if you drive non-stop. If you live in Manaus and want to go anywhere else you have to either take a plane or a boat, so most people take a boat. The river is busy with riverboats similar to the one that will take us up river for three days on a tour of the Amazon. We will sleep in hammocks, just like the locals, however our boat will be stacked with only 35 hammocks instead of the normal 200. Ironic really, because with the mere 35, we feel cramped and complain that we are unable to sleep well in such tight quarters.

A short time after leaving the city, we reach the “Meeting of the Waters” the place where the Rio Solimões and Rio Negro meet. True to its name, the Rio Negro’s water is black. It too has a high mineral content, though more acidic than that of the Solimões and considerably darker in color. At the Meeting of the Waters the two rivers don’t quite mix, a marvel not fully understood despite several theories attempting to explain why there is literally a division in the water. Perhaps it is the density, perhaps the acidity, perhaps the mineral content. Whatever the reason, it is as if God has drawn a line in the river and painted one side brown and the other black. Three days on the Amazon and in the rainforest affords the opportunity to see things I had never imagined seeing.

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Photos

The Meeting of the Waters
No, that is not a shadow... the two rivers just don't mix.

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

We have not yet traveled to the Amazon
An interesting history

[Chante Mouton Kinyon]

Great video and pics!
You got into this water?!? WOW!