Some Facts about the Amazon Basin and the Rio Negro Lodge
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- Enrico – Ready for a Morning’s Fishing
- The Jaguar’s Track
The Fishing Adventures: A Fine Morning on the River: It was early in the morning on the Rio Negro River. This day, the last fishing day of the trip, promises to be fine and clear, but hot. Most days are in February in this equatorial jungle section of Brazil. We have been fishing the area for the past week. The early morning air is very still and, combined with the early morning mists that are still rising from the water; the overall scene has a quiet, smoky quality. We have found the spot of entry into the jungle that we have been looking for - about 45 miles from the lodge. This morning’s trip had begun with the usual, exciting early morning rush in the Nitro boat, this time upriver, at speeds on the water that sometimes reached 45 mph. However, we are no longer in the main river channel and, for the past 15 minutes, or so, we have been going slower, making a winding path around small islands and through narrow channels, penetrating ever deeper into thickening jungle, before we reach this spot. Enrico, my Indian guide for the past week and newly found friend, slowly noses the Nitro bass fishing boat towards a large bare area on the shore line that fronts the dense, green jungle in back of it. At this time of year the river is low, exposing a continuous strip of sandy/silt, bare ground that rims every shoreline. This bare strip varies in width, from narrow to very wide, sometimes as much as 100’s of yards. The ground generally tilts upward from the waterline to the green edge of the jungle. In other times of the year, when the river is high, all of this bare ground is covered with water but we are now in the dry season. Enrico runs the boat straight onto this bare shore at a point where the beach is very wide; cuts the motor, and we both jump out and pull it forward another few feet, onto the shore. This morning I’m sporting a scruffy, week’s growth of beard and I’m dressed like a walking advertisement for the adventure travel clothing industry. I am wearing my “Travelsmith” bush clothes: vented light, composite fabric, long-sleeved shirt and light composite fabric, full- length pants that can be zippered off into shorts. On my head is the new “Amazon Adventures” baseball cap that I had been given at the lodge and, on my sockless feet, is a pair of “New Balance, All Terrain’s”. Sun glasses attached with a neckband and a small fanny pack that holds a two sandwich lunch, an apple, a stainless steel “Leatherman” utility tool, sun screen, bug repellent, and two 12 oz. plastic bottles of water complete my outfit for the day. I carry a small, “Olympus” weather proof, digital camera, along with a spare battery pack, in one of my shirt pockets and a small, pair of “Minolta” binoculars in the other. Enrico is wearing only a long sleeve T-shirt and a pair of shorts. His feet are bare. I’m envious. For the last 6 days, except for the bare feet, I had been similarly dressed and I had really gotten into the easy negligence of it. However, I do not possess Enrico’s immunity to the environmental excesses that equatorial jungle fishing exposes one to; namely, the severity of the sun exposure and the proliferation of mosquitoes that reside in some of the jungle areas we have been fishing. Over the past week the sun has slowly been toasting my body into a deep tan. It isn’t quite a burn yet, but I don’t want to push my luck. Also, this morning, at my request, we are going much deeper into the jungle than we had since the trip started and mosquitoes are sure to make their presence known. Influenced by such rationalizations, I finally donned the full cover-up bush outfit that I had been studiously ignoring since I arrived but had brought for just such an occasion.  Enrico – Ready for a Morning’s Fishing
Enrico jumps back into the boat and ties the lures for the day onto the lines of two fishing rods: my rod, with a 6 inch long, silver spoon type lure and a spare rod, with a 6 inch long, top working, “wood chopper” lure. He puts a spare, golden spoon lure and his clamp-type fish weighing scale into his pockets. He stows the little bit of remaining loose gear that we have into the boat’s built-in cabinets, grabs his machete and jumps out of the boat, handing me the two rods. Without a word and without looking back, he proceeds to walk across the bare, silt soil towards the jungle, which is about 100 yards away. I pick up the two rods and follow him. We are just about to enter the jungle when we hear two loud, short, coughing roars in the vegetation to the right and shortly ahead of us. Enrico holds up his hand and stops. He then points down to the ground and there, depressed in the sand, is the sharp, fresh impression of a large paw print. He says, “Jaguar”! Apparently the large cat had just passed this way. Perhaps, it had been watching when we beached the boat. Immediately, the hackles go up on the back of my neck, but Enrico just grins. He says the cat is not interested in us. There are many wild pigs in this area and they are the big cat’s main prey, probably the reason why it is in the area. It isn’t interested in us. Small solace! I keep going, following Enrico, but I still keep apprehensively looking around as we enter the jungle. Apparently, Enrico is right though for we never do see or hear any more signs of the Jaguar.  The Jaguar’s Track
The jungle undergrowth is quite thick in spots and there are repeated, intermittent areas where Enrico has to use the machete to hack a trail for us. Everywhere, underfoot, we walk on a thick matting of dead vegetation. Enrico stops again and points to the overhead canopy where the tree branches are waving back and forth. Then, I see them, too. It is a troupe of monkeys moving and swinging rapidly through the tree limbs. They are too far for me to identify by type with my naked eyes and, by the time I get the binoculars from my shirt pocket they are gone. Still, it is thrilling to see the natural wildlife like this, just going about their normal business! A short while later, he again stops and points overhead. This time I just get a glimpse of a very large bird before it disappears into the tree leaves. However, the glimpse is long enough for me to see a flash of bright red and blue colors. It is a wild Macaw and I see one for the first time in the wild. We proceed in this manner for, perhaps a quarter of a mile more with Enrico pointing out more of the native fauna as we come across it. We find several large, intricately patterned spider webs with strikingly beautiful, multi-colored, large spiders in residence, some small mole like animals hurrying across the path, and a short glimpse of a small snake. We come upon a trail, which is probably just a game trail because there is no other human habitation for miles, either along the river or in the jungle. This trail, Enrico says, will, eventually, lead us to a small lake, hidden deeply in the jungle. As we are walking, I begin to ruminate about the past week on the river. Download 5.67 Mb. Share with your friends:
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