My trips through the Amazon
| During 1996, I made
two trips to the Amazon. The first trip was part of a Brazil trip with my parents, where
we visited Rio de Janeiro, Foss de Iguassu, Manaus, Belem, and Salvador. The best part of
the trip was a visit to Acajatuba jungle lodge north of Manaus. It was a small and
primitive lodge, but the atmosphere and the food was excellent and my father would have
liked to stay there for the whole summer. We got to the lodge by a 4 hour boat ride up
the Rio Negro. We spent it relaxing in hammocks, because the river was so wide that there
was not much to see anyway.
From the lodge we went on several small excursions by a smaller boat, which allowed us
to sail through flooded forest. It is amazingly beautiful to sail quietly through forest
with trees above, below, and around you. We didn't see many animals on this trip, though,
except for river dolphins, alligators, and birds. Because the black water is so acid,
there are not many insects in this area. It is also safe to swim in the water, despite the
presence of alligators and piranhas. |
 
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| The second trip was
with Diana Weinhold. We made an unusual trip over land from Venezuela to Manaus,
improvising as we got along. It was supposed to start as a cattle drive from Colombia to
Venezuela, but because of economic crisis in Venezuela, the price of cattle was unusually
low, so the cattle drive was cancelled. We did visit some cattle ranches, though, both
in Venezuela and in Colombia. Above is Lykke as a cowboy, and here is Diana as a
veterinarian helping the owner of the ranch with the treatment of hoof-and-mouth disease.
He is a very successfull business man, but he was clearly not an expert in cattle care so
the poor, sick animals suffered while we trying to make the medicine run smoothly out of
the bottle. The contrast to modern Danish cattle farming was staggering.
We rented a land-cruiser to take us across La Gran Sabana to the Brazilian border. In
the Venezuelan part of the Amazon we came across some illegal gold mining. Gold mining
looks awful because it completely destroys the forest and the top-soil, and just leaves a
big mud-whole. It also causes mercury poisoning of fish and fish-eaters because two grams
of mercury is released into the river system for every gram of gold extracted. |
 
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| We wanted to go most
of the way from Venezuela to Manaus by boat, but it was really difficult to find a ride.
We were told that the road between Boa Vista and Manaus was now so good that there was
little need for river traffic. The captain of this little boat promised that we could go
with him, though, and let us sleep on the boat in our hammocks until expected departure a
couple of days later. However, the captain disappeared, and after three days of waiting in
the village of the only intersection between the road and the river, we gave up and took
the bus because we had an appointment to keep in Manaus. We were told that the trip would
take 22 hours, but that turned out to be just as big a joke as the statement that the road
was good. Only trucks and buses were able to go through all that mud, and only with
some help from each other. After a few hours of driving, we had to stop because another
bus was blocking the road. It had problems with the engine, so we had to remove it from
the road and pick up all the passengers, which meant that we were two full busloads of
people in our bus for the rest of the trip. The passengers took the crowdedness very well,
and it actually turned out to be an advantage, because our 50 men were able to solve all
problems along the road. As for example this truck who had tipped over and blocked the
road with thousands of empty bottles of Cashasa. Thank god they were not full. Then we
would still be stuck there.
When we arrived, there were long lines of trucks on both sides of the accident, and
people were just waiting for enough people to accumulate to fix the problem.
This situation happened many times and when it happened at night, people were not in
the mood for fixing problems, so we all got out and slept on the road until sun rise.
After having visited the
amazing opera house in Manaus, we went on a two-day trip to the most luxurious
jungle-lodge in the Amazon (Ariau Jungle Tower Hotel). It was worth every cent, because
there were so many half-wild monkeys hanging around in the vicinity playing with the
tourists. The money people were willing to spend to stay at this place testifies to the
potential of eco-tourism in the Amazon. All the rooms were beautifully decorated by a
local woodcarving artist, the food was excellent, and some of the guides were extremely
popular as could be seen in the guest book. They had a special honey-moon apartment
(Tarzan's house) in a treetop with an excellent view over the area. I cannot imagine a
more perfect place to spend a honey-moon. |
 
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