Inabu Igarape

It has been a week since I have been able to write.  So much has happened. First to address a few comments or emails I have received. I have been writting Rio Negri when it is Rio Negro... thank you for pointing out my error, I think I heard or read or made up that at some point so best corrected. Next some one asked if the machette was for self defense, No.  except possibly from small snakes. If it came to anything else  it would not be a good idea.  The machette was just for hiking through the jungle and building a make-shift lean-to house. Also a couple people asked me a couple different ways about if I took a tour or went to a lodge or how I arranged things. No tours, I stay as far away from them as I possibly can.  Basically I read the Lonely Planet Guide and read where they said  tourists never go alone and rarely in groups and where the places were that were as far into the jungle as I could reasonably get to and back given the time I have.  Sao Gabriel Cocheria  fit all of those as did Pevas.  Next the problem is how to get there, once I figure that out... people must go to a place right? I try if possible to figure out before I get there where I will stay but if I cannot I just go and wing it.  For while I was basically squatting in a place in Sao Gabriel that had a great view, no running water electricity sometimes. Once I get the the place that is as far as I can get I try to meet people who are there who can help me get farther into the jungle. Getting into the jungle is not a simple matter.  It is both largely protected meaning one needs to be invited by the indiginous people or one must have a license to go and then there is the problem of where and how do you enter it.  I met in Sao Gabriel, Aiko who had been living there for the last 2 months. Aiko is Japanese and fortunately for me speaks some English and quite good Spanish as well as is becoming quite proficient with Portugese.  She introduced me to Rosy and her husband Elisandro. They are Brazilian  and do really interesting and important work with the Dew (pronounced DO as in do ra me fa so) people one of about 23 known indigenous peoples in the area.  I have been told there is a caste like system here and the Dew are considered the lowest caste. This means in part, as it has been described to me that they are closest to nature. In fact, Elisandro says that the Dew and the jungle are  one and the same, I hear the hyperbole in this but I also see the truth in it. They do not enter the jungle as I do or as you may rather they are it. Elisandro and Rosy and a true love for these people and I can see why. Jee  who was described to me as the best hunter of the Dew was at Elisandro and Rosy´s home when Aiko and I dropped by last week. Jee said he was going into the jungle and invited us to join him. This is the way I wanted to go into the jungle not  through a tour or a group but with someone whose home it was, so I jumped at the chance. We left in a dougout canoe with a motor on the back and crossed the Rio Negro. Once on the other side we spent the night in the Dew villiage. About 28 houses spread out in the jungle on the edge of the river. I was asked not to take pictures in the village.  The homes were more modern than those I published from Brillo Nuevo. They all had tin roofs and some cement floors and most had  wooden walls.  They fished, hunted, and maintained a small planing area for agriculture. One problem that Elisandro and Rosy told me  they face is that in the presence of government support the people stop thier traditional practices  of  caring for themselves.  Still these people  were quite active hunting and fishing.  Night before I arrived I was told that a jaguar had come into the village and killed two dogs.  Jee went hunting and brought back a paca. It looked like a very large rodent maybe 40 lbs. He killed another in the jungle later.The Dew still maintain traditional birth practices where the mother to-be goes off into the jungle alone or with one or two other women to deliver the baby.  Funeral practices have been altered in the past 20 or so years since the Christianization of the tribe. They now bury the dead in a Christian cemetary in Sao Gabriel.

Before we left Elisandro was careful to tell Aiko and I that there were many very dangers in the jungle, poisonous snakes the pórtugese word for snake is rather unfortunately `cobra`, anacoda, jaguar, scorpions, spiders,  various fish that  are quite large and have  teeth. He warned us to not look around in the jungle as we hiked but to watch exactly where we put our feet because small snakes are often the most poisonous.  With this all in mind we set out.

After a night in the village we set out in a dougout canoe again down river about an hour or two. We entered through a swamp much like the Everglades. Where we eventually  made it to land. From there we hiked several hours into the jungle until we came to  the Inabu Igarape,  a small river,  where we made camp. I brought my tent, and sleeping bag. We all set out immediately to make a fire, a difficult task in the rain forest where everything is very wet, and build a lean to   that Jee, Aiko, Elisandro  Ing and her baby put their  hammocks. I brought a hammock to but it was fortunate I had a tent because the lean to was  barely big enough for everyone else and I lent my hammock to Elisandro when his failed. The  place we camped and the jungle was simply beautiful. we made came on a small hill beside the river bank.  Most of the first day was spend with us doing what was needed to set up camp. Building the Lean to took most of the day.  Jee went fishing and later that night early the next morning he hunted and killed a paca which they ate. I have tried very hard to maintain my vegetarian diet though I have also tried not to  offend anyone. I had a small piece of the paca which was quite good. Hard to describe the taste perhaps pork like?  I brought potatoes and eggs that I boiled.  I was also grateful to find out that Aiko brought ramen noodles.  The water purifiers that I brought all seemed to work quite well. Though I was told the stream was clean and safe to drink from... to be honest though Jee, Elisandro and Ing all drank from it I think they are adapted to the water and  I think it highly likely would have  lead to some kind of problem for me which I was quite happy to avoid. The next day we spent  in the jungle hiking around, first finding worms for fishing, this process was one which as I saw myself doing it I thought ok now this is a bit crazy but there I was hands and kneeds in the swamp pulling back the earth/sand/ mud to reveal quickly moving worms that we grabbed and put in  a bucket to be used later. I realized at this point that any number of animals, snakes etc could be and were likely quite close to us. We found the remenants of a crab that was probably killed by a snake. In our camp we  found two snakes and while fishing Jee  caught a fish that before he could get it in the doughout was swallowed by a poisonous snake which he then killed and we then had snake meat.  I had the opportunity to hike alone for a while in the jungle, walking slowly listening to everything around me which was quite amazing, but probably the most amazing thing the last night in  the jungle I decided to stay up all night and listen to the  jungle noises So I found a rock out cropping that  was marginally safer than other places sat as still as I could and listened to the incredible chorus of the jungle. As night fell the jungle came to life  there were sounds and noises all around me.  The water was filled with splashes and animals in and around it. the frogs and insects were all around so much that it was  as if there was a constantly moving flow of life above below behind and infront of me. And quite softly but audibly I heard something I have never heard before when I did I asked Aiko and Elisandro if they heard it also it was something like a womans voice singing a soft melody. They both heard it as well. It was like a siren´s song.  Perhaps 3 tones the first short moving up to the second for a longer time then down two steps for a shorter time and repeating. This song went on repeating like this for hours. In the middle of the night and in the day other indiginous peoples passed through our camp either walking or up or down the river. The jungle was a busy place filled with life and activity of all sorts.  I swam in the river in the day time but at night I cast my flashlights into the river and saw an amazing amount of fish, snakes? eel? I was told some of the noises I heard were river otter but I didn´t see any. The river otter are called Giant River otter here and they are about 2 meters long and very smart animals.  In the middle of the night Jee decided to go out on the rive to check some places where he had set fish traps,  Aiko convinced him to take her along. This was an amazing experience for me and one that i will long remember. I do have many pictures but that will have to wait until I am in a place where I can upload them. This internet point cannot allow me to do so.

I was hoping and thought I had reservations for a flight from Sao Gabriel today but it looks like that isn´t happening. The next flight I am told Tuesday is completely booked also so my current plan is to take a boat on Tuesday morning to Manaus and try to get a flight from there to Rio De Janiero. The Boat ride from here to Manaus  on the fast boat would be 24 hours on a slow boat would be 3-4 days. Because I want to get to Rio as quickly as possible I will hopefully get a fast boat.  But for today and tomorrow I will spend here in this very pleasent town with my kind friends who are helping me and putting me up as well as putting up with me until then.