Amazonia:
Last August a group of us were presented with a unique opportunity to visit the Amazon - Iquitos in Peru. Why visit the tropical rain forests of the Amazon basin you may well ask? Well, before they disappear maybe or just because the statistics are so mind boggling. More than 80% of these forests are still intact, in spite of localized heavy destruction and the justified fear of further losses. The Amazon River contributes almost one-fifth of the total annual freshwater discharged into the oceans of the world. It has a water flow five times that of the Congo and 12 times that of the Mississippi.
It discharges into the Atlantic within 24 hours as much water as the Thames carries past London in one year. Ocean-going freighters can travel 2,325 miles inland from the Atlantic to Iquitos, Peru, where they are nearer to the Pacific Ocean than the Atlantic. This makes the Amazon the longest navigable natural waterway in the world. As the force of the river pushes far out into the ocean, freshwater can be recorded more than 60 miles off the coast of South America.
Officially, the Amazon is 4,000 miles long, second only to the Nile at 4,100 miles long. A more realistic figure is probably 4,030 miles. It starts as a trickle at 19,685 ft in Peru's snow-capped Andes, less than 100 miles from the Pacific. It then gradually plunges in waterfalls through the cloud forest before collecting the water of 15,000 tributaries from seven countries, across 30o of longitude, draining an area almost the same size as the U.S.A.
Jungle from a prehistoric sea: Where did it all come from? Well about 200 million years ago, as part of Gondwanaland, the region of the Amazon basin was a giant inland sea. Around 100 million years ago South America broke off from Africa, and the eastern edge of the continent began to fold, forming a gigantic inland lake. Gradually the mountains in eastern Brazil were breached and the lake emptied, exposing an enormous uniformly flat basin below. Even today the difference in elevation between Iquitos and the mouth of the Amazon (a distance of 2,000 miles) is only 600 ft! About four-million-years ago the Andes Mountains thrust up and the present contours of the basin were formed.
Peruvian Amazon exploration: Our week-long adventure was headed by veteran explorer and naturalist H. Morgan Smith of the Explorer's Club who guided us along the river and through the jungle. Our trusty group of 25 neophytes met Morgan at Miami Airport festooned with cameras and various tropical accouterments, and stuffed full of shots and medicines to ward off malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, diphtheria, hepatitis and tetanus.
The once-weekly, non-stop flight to Iquitos in Peru normally takes four hours and 20-minutes, and is almost due south over the equator however heavy fog diverted us past Iquitos over the Andes to Lima, the capital city. Almost one-third of Peru's 22-million people now live in Lima, making most of the city overcrowded, polluted and noisy. What we saw of the town from the bus while traveling to and from the airport to the hotel looked like a cross between a bomb site and a garbage dump, surrounded by shanty towns. Lima's location in the center of Peru's desert coastline gives it a climate and environment that can only be described as dismal. Needless to say we vamoosed p.d.q. back over the mountains to Iquitos the next morning.
Into the Jungle: The trip from Iquitos airport to the jungle camp combined a bumpy bus ride and then a motor launch transfer up the river. After our long journey, flying to and fro across the Andes, and on little sleep, we were amazed and pleasantly surprised to find that the newly built camp sported a bar, a library and a very nice swimming pool! The accommodation was functional with a bed, flushing toilet and a (cool) shower. Each day was organized into various visits; to the rain forest, to explore the river Amazon proper (two miles wide even at this point), to trade with the local Indians in their village, and to the local school and clinic and so on. We found the relatively pure Indians living primitively on the river banks in large extended family groups in open, raised-wooden dwellings with leaf-thatched roofs. The local diet included much fish, also chicken, beans, manioc, palm hearts, bananas and plantains- pretty nutritious.
Several members of our group were experts who had come specifically to look at the plant and insect life and to speak to the local witch doctors about local medicinal concoctions.
Amazonia contains the world's largest closed tropical forest system. Species diversity is high and at least 20% of all existing angiosperms are found there. The age of some plant families is up to 120-million years. A recent study of the rain forest's upper canopy by the Smithsonian has increased the number of the world's estimated animal species by 30 million. Lowland Amazonia boasts over 1,000 species of birds.
Other weird and wonderful fauna included various marsupials, two-toed and three-toed sloths, anteaters and armadillos, 100 of the world's 1,000 species of bats, and 30 of America's 51 species of monkey and100 species of rodents. Jaguar, Puma and Tapir are among 30 different carnivore species found there. Caiman the deadly Bushmaster, and the giant Anaconda are included in the 550 species of reptiles. There are 300 different types of frogs, and among the 3,000 species of fish are the sometimes vicious Black Piranha. Several hundred-thousand species of insects can be found, even the ubiquitous ants and termites. We saw many birds and insects but most of the larger creatures stayed out of sight.
Iquitos: With a population of around 300,000 Iquitos is Peru's largest jungle city, linked to the outside world only by air and the Amazon River.
Founded in the 1750s as a Jesuit mission, fending off attacks by Indian tribes who didn't want to be “missionised”, the tiny settlement grew very slowly until, by the 1870s, it had some 1,500 inhabitants. Then came the great rubber boom of the 1880s and the population increased about 16-fold.
For 30 years, Iquitos was the scene of ostentatious wealth and abject poverty as the rubber barons became fabulously rich and the rubber tappers, mainly local Indians and poor mestizos (mixed white and Indian), suffered virtual enslavement from disease or harsh treatment. When a wily Brit named Henry Wickham smuggled some rubber-tree seeds out of Brazil and very successful plantations were seeded in Malaya, the bottom fell out of the rubber boom as suddenly as it had begun. After a period of decline the economy has recently recovered with the discovery of oil in the 1960s.
We found the town to be bustling and friendly in stark contrast to Lima. Our short stay at the Hotel Acosta was pleasant as was our host Senor Carlos Acosta and the down-town outdoor market was raucous, crowded and er ... spicy! A plethora of medicinal and culinary offerings were on sale: piles of dried frogs and fish, armadillo shells, piranha teeth and a great variety of tropical fruits. However, us gringos , under strict instructions, didn't sample the menagerie of fly-blown comestible exhibits.
Our last day in Peru was spent in Iquitos, first flying over the Amazon in a small Peruvian air force plane taking low level snaps of the jungle, then purchasing local trinkets at the market, and finally, relaxing at a local restaurant with exotic local fare and dancing to a live band.
Needless to say it was quite a culture shock to land back in Miami the following afternoon with its civilized air conditioning, smooth roads and potable water. O how wonderful to be back in the good 'ole U. S. of A. !! Hmm ... I wonder where we'll go next.......?