Sue's Travels: Guajara and Aquiqui

On the Amazon – Guajara and Aquiqui – 22 April 2010

After breakfast, we headed into the zodiac for the mornings adventure in the flooded forest. In the distance, I could see high land. I was informed that it is the Guiana Shield, which is 500 million years old. The rivers that come from that direction are mostly clear in that they carry little to no sediment unlike the rivers that come from the west. The rivers that come from the north tend to be black in that they contain significant amounts of tannin and are relatively acidic.
The first things I saw were the pink dolphins. I didn’t get a great look at them as they didn’t jump all the way out of the water. I tried to get a picture, but unfortunately my timing was off. The water buffalo were out of their corrals feeding on the vegetation. I was able to see more birds. Perhaps my eyes are more in tune with the environment so that I’m able to distinguish the birds from the trees. We saw an iguana in a tree, where it was warming up for the day. We also saw a three toed sloth hanging in a tree. It apparently had just woken up and was starting to move. It was really a very pleasant trip.
At 10:30AM, Ed, the trip historian, gave a lecture entitled “Introduction to the Amazon”. He is extremely knowledgeable about this part of the world. He pointed out that the waters that flow down the Amazon actually come from the Atlantic Ocean, which struck me as strange because the head waters of the Amazon are quite close to the Pacific. He showed a lot of maps indicating the principal rivers and how they flow together to form the Amazon. He indicated that Brazilians that are of mixed Indian and Portuguese ancestry are called Caboclo. The native Indians only comprise .4% of the Brazilian population. There are terms used to describe people of different racial mixtures.
White Rivers, which are actually coffee colored, are loaded with silt and have a neutral PH. Black Rivers, which are quite dark in color, have a low Ph (acidic) and are low in nutrients, which suggest that they won’t support as much life as the so called White Rivers. Clear Rivers are transparent to some degree.
After the afternoon tea, I went out for the zodiac ride. Unfortunately my batteries died and I didn’t have fresh ones with me. My big disappointment was that I didn’t get any pictures of the pink dolphins. There are pink dolphins, which are called Botos, and grey dolphins here in the Amazon. The grey dolphins are the smallest of all the dolphins. We did see howler monkeys and a few squirrel monkeys. I tried to get pictures, but I suspect that the monkeys faded into the background.
After we got back on the ship, I took a quick shower and dressed. I did make it to the recap session. After which I headed down to dinner.