Day 149 - Amazon River & Rio Madeira

Our first day on the river was very eventful, to say the least! If this is an indication of the days ahead, we are in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Waking up this morning, we were moving downriver at full speed. The two barges were tied together in line and pushed by the tugboat. The ride was fairly quiet; we hardly heard the engine noise. The barges were made of heavy steel and loaded to the max. They seemed very stable and didn't sway much at all.

It was interesting to observe the colors of the waters mixing at the point where the Rio Negro merged into the Amazon. It looked like coffee with cream!

Around noontime, we docked in Sol Nascente, a small fishing village, where the cook stocked up on dried, salted fish. Shortly after that, we turned left and headed upstream into the Rio Madeira. We will follow this river to our destination, the town of Humaitá. From there, we should hopefully be able to continue by road to Brasilia's capital.

Toward the evening, as we were playing cards, a strong wind gust lifted off the tarp covering the concrete bags. Within seconds a massive cloud of concrete dust pushed toward us, and we quickly jumped into our vans for safety. After the storm, the crew fixed the tarps and broken ropes.

Hours later, when it was already dark, we heard the tugboat's warning horn blaring, and seconds later, we partially rammed a boat that was moving downstream. The other boat apparently wasn't paying attention and saw us only at the last moment. Fortunately, it could maneuver quickly enough to avoid a full collision. Our barge only had a dent in the steel at the front end. The other boat probably wasn't so lucky - we heard wooden boards cracking and angry shouts.

This could have been a disaster!

And then something funny happened. We were already tucked in bed when we heard flapping noises on the deck. When I investigated what was going on, I had to laugh so hard. A school of flying fish had jumped on board. I collected a total of 15 fish in a bucket. It will be a good lunch for tomorrow. I thought it must be a gift from God because we had fished all afternoon the previous day and didn't catch anything.

Earlier in the afternoon, we observed a group of River Dolphins following our convoy for a while. We didn't know that Dolphins exist in these waters. They do and are called Bufeo.Read more