My trip to the Amazon jungle (6)
Two-colour river tour
Rio Negro (the black) meets Solimos (the brown) to be the mighty Amazon.
Rio Negro and Solimos make up the
great Amazon
The area of the Amazon basin is 6 million square kilometres, 70% of which is in Brazil.
The widest river in the world, and the longest after the Nile
We returned to our driftwood lodge after spending some time looking at the giant lilies of Lake Janiwari and perusing some of the products on display along the boardwalk. On our way back, we took the conversation to many topics such as the environment, culture and politics. Fargo said that Brazil's problem lies in the corruption of its politicians. I said that the matter is the same in every country in the world, except for those on whom your Lord has mercy. It was time for dinner, after which the driver of our boat asked for permission and went to his bed, and Fargo and I kept talking until sleepiness began to creep into our eyelids, so we retreated to each other's beds.
The following day, after breakfast, we took the double-decker boat with other travellers, primarily tourists, across the Solimos River to reach the confluence of this river with another large tributary, the Rio Negro, to form the Great Amazon.
Variety of fruits coming out of the forest
The weather was clear, and we were flowing on the waters of Solimos, and the river was calm, as the season of floods had not yet arrived, as it begins in January and lasts for six months, while we were in June. We were sailing at the beginning close to the river bank on which the city of Manaus is located, and it was possible to see the opposite bank, but as we continued in the flow, the other bank would sometimes disappear, and it looked like a mere green thread. Then we gradually approached the bank again and encountered boats loaded with fruits and coming out of the forest, heading towards the city of Manaus, where these products are collected, some of which are distributed throughout Brazil. Some of them are exported to countries of the world. The heaps of colourful fruits looked bright and radiant under the sun, and some pieces of cloud gathered over the forest and mingled with the mist that rose from beneath.
Solimos river
The name Solimos, given to the river where we sail to meet the Rio Negro River, is the upper reaches of the Amazon River and extends from its confluence with the Rio Negro River up to the Peruvian border. And the Solimos and Rio Negro rivers are not the only tributaries of the Amazon River, as the number of its branches is nineteen rivers. That Rio Negro is not the only black river in the Amazon basin, but also all the tributaries that come from the regions of Guyana in the northeast, such as the rivers of Rio Branco, Tapagos, Zengo, Araguaia, Tocantins, Rio Napo, Rio Caqueta Gaborra, Rio Gurua, Rio Puras and Rio Madeira Mamori. At the same time, but the colour of the waters of the Solomon River And its tributaries that originate from the Andes Mountains is the colour of mud or coffee mixed with milk.
Amazon basin map
Dialogue between the two rivers
confluence of the two rivers
After about two hours in the Solimos River, one of the banks of the Rio Negro River became clearer. Fargo said we're approaching where the Solimoes and Rio Negro rivers meet to form the great Amazon. It was a unique ceremonial scene that rarely allowed a person to witness and live with it if he had the opportunity.
I lived once before the Amazon, a location similar to this scene, to some extent, when I witnessed the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to form the Shatt al-Arab. But it must be remembered that the Shatt al-Arab itself, compared to the Amazon, is nothing but a small stream in whose waters a little boy can play.
We entered the Amazon at the point where Solimos and Rio Negro meet. The waters of the two rivers were rejecting each other. As you contemplate the scene, you feel it is a dialogue between the two rivers, not a meeting of hugs but a panel of two distinct peers, both proud of their uniqueness and greatness. They both feel that their merging with the other is a renunciation of antiquity that extends back millions of years, an exaggeration in the glory of origin and history, the hand of one of them opening to the other in a cautious handshake and a careful dialogue, as two beings from two distinct races and two opposite sides of the planet meet suddenly for the first time on a fateful issue. They both feel that the other is a stranger who possesses the element of surprise and therefore is insecure.
I would see a small piece the size of the palm from the muddy water entering the black water, but it quickly retreated or the other expelled it, then it tried again and stay longer, this time as if it was smelling the other for a while, but this did not respond.
Gradually, with time, spots began to appear at the other end. I saw black spots on the yellow clay side and dark yellow spots on the black side; then, the sites began to stretch into tiny grooves on the opposite end. Over an hour they were passed as we walked through the Amazon amidst this hesitant encounter between these two distinct colours. Then the grooves widened and widened, and the yellow colour began to devour the black one. The dark colour gradually receded, like darkness receding before the onset of dawn. We walked more than thirty kilometres before the alluvial colour dominated the Amazon and the black colour surrendered and plunged into the depths of the glorious river.
The passengers in our boat were talking dully, expressing their amazement at the strangeness of what they saw. I closed my ears and began to contemplate the mighty Amazon. Here I am sailing in the world's largest, most exotic, magical, seductive and mysterious rivers. What a good luck!
Fish on the tree leaves
Fish that leave on the trees
The Amazon Basin still holds a great deal of its secrets. when the Brazilian government began its program in 1971 to draw a map of the Amazon by photographing from space and using radar to penetrate clouds photography, scientists discovered, while they were studying the captured images, a new tributary to the Amazon with a length of four hundred miles that was running invisibly under the dense, tall trees. This river was not known at all until the moment of its discovery. Before this, in 1913, former US President Theodore Roosevelt had participated in a trip to the Amazon. He discovered a tributary of the river with a length of a thousand miles. The new river was named the "Roosevelt River". Also found in the early sixties of the last century, two Indian tribes in the jungle's depths were unknown to scientists, ecologists, until then. Also discovered a towering mountain hidden among the giant trees.
As for fish, there are more than three thousand species of fish in the Amazon, of which only thirty species have been classified and known so far. The late type of these was a fish without eyes, bones and scales, and it lives in dry seasons, not in rivers, but on tree leaves and wet sand on the forest floor. There are more than five hundred species of catfish in the Amazon of different sizes, and there is a small type of fish called Candiros that all the inhabitants of the Amazon fear because of its danger. Its ability to manoeuvre is fantastic, and its size does not exceed a matchstick. Still, it penetrates the body of humans and animals that swim in the river through the openings of the sexual organs. Where it settles there, implanting itself in its body through sharp thorns, causing excruciating pain to the victim. It cannot be removed from the human or animal body without surgery.
In exchange for these small fish, there are giant fish such as Perarco, which may sometimes reach a length of more than fifteen feet and a weight of one hundred pounds, and it is believed that this fish is the largest freshwater fish in the world. In addition, there is an electric water snake (eel), as its tail-like battery generates an electric charge between five hundred and a thousand volts, which can stun and kill animals and humans.
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Predator piranha
Piranha and tambaqui are two types of fish found in all rivers of the Amazon region. The piranha is distinguished by its size and large and sharp teeth that work in the prey's body like scissors. This fish attacks humans and animals in seasons of food scarcity and the months of receding flood waters. However, it fiercely attacks a wounded person or animal, perhaps because of the smell of blood or because it feels that the victim cannot defend himself. There are many stories told about the ferocity of this fish. It is impossible to decide whether they are myths or facts, including that a whole regiment of army personnel was crossing one of the deep streams on horseback when they were attacked by piranhas, which quickly devoured the animals and the flesh of the soldiers, and their clothes remained floating on the water. However, there are more than twenty species of this fish, not all of which live on meat, but instead on grass, fruits and seeds.
Strange Invitation!
Fargo invited me to the Alligator crocodiles hunting scene, I panicked and shrieked: Do you want me to be in the middle of the wild river, in a small boat, at night and among the crocodiles? No thank youFargo, I'm not sure I'm that lucky!
In the wooden restaurant of our lodge, the smell of grilled fish was firm, mixed with the pungent smell that blows from the lake, resulting from the decomposition of organic matter in it. It was humid and hot. Fargo asked me if I would like to have tambaki for dinner, the tastiest fish in the Amazon. I suddenly thought of the clothes of the soldiers that had been devoured by piranhas, floating on the water stained with their blood, and a slight shiver ran Through my body, I asked for something else for dinner.
crocodiles Hunting
On our way back, when we got closer to the bank of the river, Fargo looked at me and pointed to the bank, where several crocodiles were lying on the bank under the sun. I shouted oh, those are crocodiles! but he said they are not African crocodiles, they are alligaitors, they called Jakari in Brazil, and added that one of the strange things of nature is that crocodiles, in their African form, do not exist in the waters of the Amazon. However, they can live in the waters of the tropics. It is one of the longest Amazonian reptiles along with the anaconda snake, with a length of five to six meters. However, this animal that used to fill the waters of the Amazon river is gradually receding due to the high demand for hunting it because of its desirable skin in the leather industry. There are organized tours in the river where they take you at night to see how to pursue it, as the hunter shines an intense light from a flashlight on the eyes of the animal, and it freezes in place, and they pull it from the water to the boat. However, the actual hunting is done by spears, which is still practised despite the legal prohibition against it. The female jacquard lays 30 to 60 eggs in her nest in two layers. The nest is usually lined with decaying grasses, whose chemical reactions help provide the eggs with the necessary warmth. And if the warmth ratio is good, the egg hatches within a month, or the hatching process takes a month and a half if the temperature is low. Fargo asked me if I would like him to arrange a hunting scene for me tonight when we return from our tour. I said thank you because I do not wish to be chewed between the teeth of crocodiles, so he laughed, saying: Do not be afraid, as jacare crocodiles are not human killers, but feed on fish, turtles and herbs, and it has not yet been recorded that they attacked humans. I told him: In this brutal river, at Night, in a small boat and among crocodiles?! no Fargo Thanks; I'm not going to try fi my luck!
Yacari alligators corocodiles