Amazing Amazon

Friday, November 4th
Amazing Amazon
Day 11
M/S Regatta
Cruising the Amazon River
Mostly Sunny
Air Temperature: 87 Degrees
River Temperature: 88 Degrees

We have had two relaxing days at sea, catching up on our sleep and our reading. In addition to pertinent parts of four guidebooks, we have prepared for this leg of the journey with works of fiction and nonfiction. "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett is a New York Times bestselling novel about a team of medical researchers from Minnesota who venture into the deepest reaches of the Amazon in search of a tree that could be the source of everlasting fertility. "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard is a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year that chronicles Theodore Roosevelt's dangerous and challenging descent of an uncharted tributary of the Amazon in 1914 and 1915. The better book of the two, this work of history is a fast and fascinating read, thoughtful and well-researched, an inside look at the self-made mind and body behind the legend of Teddy Roosevelt. "After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the Western Hemisphere forever. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide." Together, these two books paint a vivid, visceral, romantic, and terrifying picture of life and adventure in the most lush and foreboding natural environment on Earth. They have entertained and informed our own journey.

Today, we began our ascent of the Amazon River.

Very early this morning, we made the turn from the Atlantic Ocean into the Amazon. The water is brown, the air is dank and hot, and the insects have already formed a welcoming party. Just before noon, Regatta marked another transition as she crossed the equator from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern. In a brand new cruisefaring rendition of a grand old seafaring tradition, we have been presented with certificates commemorating the crossing of this imaginary line.

The Amazons, fierce women warriors of Greek mythology, were a legend long before "discovery" of South America. So dedicated to their pursuit, they removed their right breasts to better allow them to draw their bows and aim their arrows. Their name is derived from the Greek word "a-mazos," which means "no breast." As Francisco de Orellana led the first recorded descent of the great river by a European in 1542, in search of the lost city of gold, El Dorado, he encountered warring indigenous tribes with bare-breasted women "doing as much fighting as ten Indian men." And thus, in their honor, the river was christened "The Amazon."

"Amazing Amazon" is not our term, it is the theme of the cruise. Is it justified?

The Amazon River Basin is the world's largest network of freshwater rivers and lakes, draining an area of 2,720,000 square miles comprising 40% of the landmass of South America, everything East of the Andes, which form the Continental Divide. The Amazon is the second longest river in the world, just 60 miles short of the Nile. The Amazon is, indisputably, and by far, the largest river in the world by volume, with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined. This volume accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow. The Amazon rushes into the Atlantic Ocean at 11,000,000 cubic feet per second, enough to provide New York City with a one-year supply of water in just two hours. The mouth of the river forms an estuary 150 miles wide, encompassing an island the size of Switzerland, and it empties into the Atlantic with such force that the plume of fresh water extends 250 miles into the ocean. In the wet season, from December through June, the banks of the river can't contain it. Ranging from a mile wide to more than 6 miles wide in the dry season, the river can rise as much as 45 feet and swell to 30 miles wide in the height of the rainy season, flooding the surrounding forests. The várzea (flooded forests) of the Amazon represent the largest such habitat in the world. When the river is low, it covers 42,000 square miles. By the time the Amazon reaches its highest point of the year, it will have swallowed a total of 140,000 square miles of land.

Pretty Amazing!!!

All of this water is rife with life. More than 2,100 species of fish have been identified in the Amazon Basin. The smartest dolphin in the world can be found here, the Amazon River Dolphin, locally known as Boto, and to visitors as the Pink River Dolphin. Boto is born gray, and matures pink. It is also the largest species of river dolphin, reaching 8.5 feet in length. Boto is a mythical creature to the Indios. Dolphin by day, he morphs into a man in the dark and emerges from the river to seduce the women of the village. The Amazonian Manatee, or Seacow, is just as lovable and even bigger. The Giant Otter of the Amazon is the largest member of his family too. Anaconda Snakes slither through the water with just nostrils above the surface, up to nine feet of snake, as thick as a tree trunk, nostrils to tail. Worse still is the notorious Piranha, a carnivorous fish that swims in voracious packs and attacks everything and everyone it can with razor-sharp teeth. There are as many as 60 species of piranha, but only a few are known to attack humans. Most feared is the Pygocentrus nattereri, the Red-Bellied Piranha. In the Amazon, it's eat or be eaten, and they are good eating.

Another true story, this one courtesy of "The River of Doubt," not from Teddy Roosevelt's expedition, but a previous one. "The rivers teemed with piranha, but they sliced through the men's fishing line and hooks with knife-blade teeth. So difficult were they to catch that, out of desperation, a lieutenant, a man named Pyrineus, finally threw dynamite into a pond above a waterfall. As he splashed through the water below, eagerly gathering his spoils, he made the mistake of holding a piranha in his mouth while his hands were busy scooping up the others. The fish had at first been stunned by the dynamite and so lay slack between his teeth, but as soon as it recovered, it attacked. Before Pyrineus had time to react, the piranha had taken a bite out of his tongue. He would have bled to death had the expedition's doctor not stanched the wound with moss."

And then, there is the Candirú. I won't even tell you the one about the Candirú. I will say this: Men, don't ever pee in the river. Don't even pee into the river.

The Amazon River is 4,000 miles long from the headwaters in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Of that, 3,000 miles is navigable by ocean-going vessels. Over the next week, we will travel 1,000 miles up the greatest river on Earth to Manaus, with stops at Santarem and Boca da Valeria on the way, and Parintins on the way back. Manaus is the hub of the region, the ending point for most major cruises of the Amazon, and the launching point for smaller expeditions up the river and into the jungle. It is the center of life on the Amazon and center mass of the South American continent. It is the furthest point on our journey and our ultimate destination.