A Day on the River, Part 1: The Village

​January 1, 2020, upriver from Manaus, Brazil — On my first world cruise, 2 years ago, I decided that I needed to find more excursions that took me away from the ship in the port and into the ‘countryside’ to see how the local people live. This was one of those days. If I’d ever studied anthropology, I might be less fascinated by all these details, but I didn’t, so I am.

But before I set off...

Know the line, ‘If you got it, a truck brought it’? Well, not here. Outside of the city itself and its residential suburbs, there are no roads. Everything moves on the water: People move in everything from canoes and skiffs to ‘school boats’ and ‘river buses’ (the two- and three-tier ferry boats) to cruise ships. Cargo moves on everything from canoes to barges to tankers.

Speaking of barges... When we first docked in Manaus, the small side piers jutting out from our large pier acted as catch basins for all the flotsam, jetsam and other garbage that floats down the river. I wondered why someone didn’t invent a sort of vacuum cleaner to suck it all up since it was ‘neatly’ trapped by the piers. Somebody heard me, and these folks arrived...

I counted 11 workmen, but I was told there were also three divers working underwater. Ew. The barge corrals the debris against the pier then the backhoe scoops it up and deposits it on the barge. From there it goes off to recycling to salvage what’s salvageable, then to the incinerator.

​My New Year’s Day excursion was in two parts: First was a visit to an indigenous village located about 75 minutes upriver from Manaus. Our boat was clean, fast, and noisy.

Today the Amazon’s beaches, like this one, draw Brazilian tourists from around the country. Those wanting a native experience check into ‘jungle hotels’ where they can learn survival techniques. Some of our Vikings did the Jungle Survival Trek excursion. We haven’t seen them since. Just kidding. There are still cannibal tribes in the Amazon, or so we were told.

Our guide, Paul, told us we didn’t have to worry about mosquitos on the Rio Negro. (Of course, I was wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirt and socks in 85 degrees, and was swooning from bug repellent.) The water is too acid for mosquitos to breed. Tourists think they will see colorful birds and wild animals along the shore. But without mosquitoes to eat, there are few birds. Without birds to eat, there are few wild animals. The jaguar, puma, ocelot and black panther are deep in the rainforest.

The river boasts both gray and pink dolphins, and 2500 or 3000 species of fish (depending on your guide’s arithmetic). The Amazon cod can weigh up to 440 pounds. All the fish are edible — except the tiny, deadly needlefish. That’s what Paul called it. I think it’s the same as this little bastard — https://www.damninteresting.com/the-terrifying-toothpick-fish/ — the terrifying Toothpick Fish.

In the village: This is the Indigenous Cultural Center for a number of tribes including the two that welcomed us, the Dessana and the Tuyuka. They came here originally from the northern border area abutting Venezuela. There are 28 ethnic groups in this region.

Inside the largest hut, Paul translated as their chief welcomed us. Paul explained that the tribe had dressed up for us: normally they don’t wear any clothing. Except sometimes you might see someone (we didn’t) wearing no clothing but with a cord around his neck — holding his cell phone!

The feathers covering the women’s breasts were actually very long earrings.

We watched several dances, and several native instruments were played. These horn players need huge lung capacity.

Assorted souvenirs were for sale in the hut, all made from natural materials, including fish teeth.

These upside-down items might be large rattles. See the faces? Remember their upside-down-ness. ​

​These carved canoes and paddles represent the tribes’ boats.

After exiting through the gift shop, I wandered around the small village.

The doors are numbered — their addresses?

A communal kitchen.

Beehives. We saw chickens and roosters as well.

​Paul told us several of the tribe’s rituals, including boys entering manhood by being ceremonially whipped, and girls entering womanhood by spending three months in a hut and having all their hair pulled out.

I thought I was looking at a strange shaped root, like mandrake. Merriam-Webster: a Mediterranean herb (Mandragora officinarum) of the nightshade family with large ovate leaves, greenish-yellow or purple flowers, and a large usually forked root resembling a human in form and formerly credited with magical properties. Look again...

Remember the upside-down rattles? When a member of the tribe dies, he or she is hung upside down from a tree in the forest. When the body has dried, it is buried in a casket with a fish hook, thread, hammock and other personal items (think of the tombs in Egypt), which is then burned. Those ashes are mixed with powdered drug leaves and smoked by blowing a mouthful of smoke into the next person’s nostrils. This same powdered drug is added to the porridge they are eating. Sounds like a 1960s Haight-Ashbury wake.

All the tribes want is ‘to live in harmony with their environment.’ But they cannot live free of government. Brazil’s Federation for the Protection of Indians is attempting to document all tribe members in 2020, with social security cards, vaccination records, insurance papers, etc.... all the trappings of modern civilization.

The children may go to school. Small government boats — painted school bus yellow — collect children (age 4 and up) from the villages and take them downriver to schools. They spend 8 hours in school, then are taken back upriver. I asked how long they stay in school: Paul said the girls stay until they get married or pregnant. Which might be as young as 11. When their babies reach school age, they’re sent to their grandparents’ to live, and the young girls ‘start all over again.’

There was no one to ask, but I wondered if these might be medicinal herbs. Or recreational drugs. There is leprosy in the Amazon region.

​Next stop: A half hour back downstream in our boat, to a rubber plantation. See A Day on the Amazon: Part 2. #