Amazon River

Another wee travel blog from my recent trip to Brasil. We are fortunate enough to know a lot of local people in the area we stayed and we managed to organise a boat trip down part of the Amazon river.

My wife’s family originate from a town on the river called Abaetetuba. You can see it on a map here. This town is quite out in the countryside. the countryside here consists of dense forest as far as you can see. The town is a traditional fishing town and is passed by many travelling deeper into the forest. The harbour and market are a true spectacle. Fish, meat, amazing fruits all fresh off the boats and for sale so cheaply.

We met up with our long time friend Fr. Jim who managed to borrow the local parish boat for the day. We spent all day on the river seeing the wildlife and visiting people.

The Abaetetuba harbour and market.

Everyone needs a boat here to get around. Roads are scarce and poorly maintained.

I would love to know what the plans for this massive stereo were!

We met one of my wife’s gran’s oldest friends on an island that partially used to belong to her grandad.

These are traditional prawn traps used by local fisherman. The prawns swim in the hole and cant get back out.

These are Acai berries straight from the source. You’ve maybe heard of them as a new health food in the UK. Its rumoured they are also used in Viagra!

Inside a typical river house.

Public transport is a wee bit different here!

Lots of people live here as they can live on the land for free, build their own houses and try to live off the river.

The kids have a completely different life here than Im used to seeing in Scotland. Some would say they are living in poverty but a lot of them seem happy.

The people we met were very friendly, it was a great experience.

This fella had just picked all of these berries in the morning before we arrived. He was proud of his work.

Powering the stereo the amazon way.

This looks good right? Well it tasted fantastic with a beer. To find out what it was click here

The communities are all very Christian. Either Catholic or evangelist. This was a painting done on an old turtle shell (which I have no doubt provided them a meal once upon a time)

No idea what this was, hope it wasnt spiders!

Some common houses you see on the river. That isnt a sattelite dish, its a booster for better reception. I started off thinking they all had sky sports!

We found a wee party going on so we felt we had to go in for a beer.

They had their own entertainment.

We were introduced to this wee fella. He’d had his wings clipped so couldn’t fly which was a shame.

The north of Brasil doesnt have daylight savings time and the sun rises and falls at the same time each day. It starts getting dark around 6pm. On our way back to the harbour we had to cross a large bay in the darkness. The water was also very choppy. Thankfully the camera was packed away at this point. We sat on the roof and held on tight as the waves shook the boat in the pitch black. We’d had a few beers by this point and thought it was fun. The people being sea sick down below and praying mightve changed our attitude a little! Thankfully the captain was very experienced and got us all home safely so I could write this blog!

Again, thanks for taking the time to read this. Please let me know what you think.

Mark