Our trip started in the city of Manaus, Brazil, the “capital”
of the Amazon where progress and new technology directly
confront and mix with the jungle. You can see a tent near the
docks selling cellular phones together with the most varied fruits
and herbs. People carrying huge wooden boxes loaded with fish,
fruits, salt, farinha, stereo sets, up and down the almost vertical
stairs to the docks. Nearby a salesman offers the most famous watches,
like Rolex, but for half the regular price, all of this happening
under a hot sun and the high humidity coming from the jungle. It’s
a tropical chaos.
We load our baggage into the boat that will be our home for the
next 10 days and depart the docks, leaving the chaos in our trail
and entering the oppressive serenity of the jungle. We’ll go up
the Rio Negro, then up the Rio Unini, to finally arrive at our
destination, a small tributary of the Rio Unini, a trip that will
take 3 days. We sleep in hammocks as the landscape goes by, at
times I can’t see the other margin of the river. The distance
between the margins of the Rio Negro at some places is of 25 miles.
It’s almost an inland sea of freshwater.
Originally published c. 2003 on Fly Anglers Online.