Experience in the Amazon River

Yet another day I survived in the amazon river!

It was on wenesday that I received a call from my friend who lives in Terra Santa (about one day and night travel from Santarém by boat) to take 6 computers for a local community centre which he just opened. I brought the computers (ofcourse my friend sent the money) and on Friday night I started my journey to Terra Santa. The boat was too full. There was no place to tie my humbak (net where we sleep in amazon). I arranged a place over the boat engine and arranged my humbak. There were around 85 people inthe boat with lot of construction materials for the villages. The boat passes through the amazon river (the biggest river inthe world), and many other small and big rivers. It was a wonderful to see alegators on the bank of the river. Their eyes look like small bol of fire when the head light of the boat lights. I enjoy travelling and most of the time I sit on the deck of the boat drinking a beer and enjoying the stars on the sky. It seems everything is fine. All of a sudden, I heard a big sound coming from the boat and soon the light of the boat went off. The engines stopped and the crying of children broke the silence of the night. I soon went down the stairs to enquire what happened and found out that the boat had struck with a tree which was floating under the current of the river.

The wind was strong and the boat just ran out of control in the river. After an hour or two, the boat struck on the sand bed and stopped. After sometime they captain with some of the crew were able to start the boat again to continue our journey.

There are many villages where the boat stops to carry more passangers and things. We reached our destination on another day by night. I was really tired. My friend Luiz was waiting for me and carried the computers out of the boat.

The Terra Santa (holy land in english) is a small village with 25 thousand people. The people live with fishing and small farming. The main cultivation is tapioca (Kappa) from which they make a fried powder. They eat it with fish. The village has no eletricity and no cars. Absolutely, away from any modern facilities. The only television is our community project. We had a generator to produce energy to run a small health centre. Our plan was to teach the younger people to use computer sothat they can go to city for a job. The malaria and all other kind of sickness are common and the pople die without any medical help.

Luiz and I went to the community centre and I started to arrange the computers. I had to leave monday for a meeting back to city of Santarém.

On monday by noon I arranged my things to return back to Santarem. The boat was full asusual. There were women with children, pregnant women, and many other passengers. The boat started its journey by two O clock. It seems everyting was fine. By four, the boat was crossing the river to get the other bank (40km width!). Slowly the weather start changing. The sky started becoming dark. The waves started more than 2 meters! The boat looks like a paper boat in the sea. The waves becoming more and more strong and the water started to enter inthe boat. The cook was preparing our food. Suddently, a big wave hit the boat and the water started entering the boat. Eventhou, the captain was a very experienced man, he could not controle the boat. All of a sudden the boat made climbed a big wave and it seemed that the boat had fallen in deep hole. The water tank was broken and the life jakects were not enough for everybody. I tried to put the life jakects on ladies and old people. I was with out any life jackects and also the crew members. I was trying to calm the people (even though I knew the danger). The food got thrown out eveywhere in the boat. We could here only the cries of the people from the boat. The sky was dark. The boat had no radio system to send messages for help. The agony lasted for 4 hours. We could not stop the boat near the bank because it could get broken down hitting the stone on the bank. By midnight, we were able to approach a village. By this time the wind was more calm. We lost most of our luggages. I was tired and with hungry. There were ladies who had gone unconscious. I tried to help them all.

On next day by evening, we reached Santarém. One more day I lived in Amazon.