Early the next morning
I had to follow the call of the nature, walking a stretch away from the camp,
positioning myself on the bush line, I rose my eyes towards the sky and
discovered Cassiopeia and my beloved Orion (from European perspective upside
down) and in that very moment a decent falling star made its way right through
Orion... I was just shivering and in love, respect and grateful for that moment.
That perfect moment had a very deep meaning to me in just one second it condensed
much more than could be described by words...
We left the camp
around 7:30 in the morning to push our way back towards Kendjam. And pushing
was literally the case. As the river level was dropping fast during the last
days some of the sections where tight and shallow demanding us to walk besides
the boat. Or in my case to help Ramiro and the two Kayapós in our boat to push
the boat back upstream through the rapids and low sections. As the Kayapó had
no sturdy shoes and even lost their sandals they had a hard time to pull and
push the boat. We had the one or other tight situation with the boat more dominating
us than we the boat. Thus it was my turn to help and bring in some energy,
sometimes pushing or pulling the boat faster than the Kayapó could follow and a
couple of times even fast than Ramiro. That was the physical work out I was
waiting since a week.
Looking back I am
sorry that I was upset in that moment about the Kayapó as they were more than
once more interested to look for turtle eggs, following the call of the nature
or just not showing a sign to catch up to the boat. My upset mood was wrong.
What is time to them? There was no need or even logic reason for them to push
as hard and without shoes they were slightly handicapped. Right in that moment
I did not understand it. But there is no right for us to force them to accept
our way of thinking.
I am sorry for that.
After a long boat ride or boat push we reached Kendjam, the way back up to the village took us close to 4,5 hours. A good preparation for the flight in the small airplane of 3,5 hours.
At Kendjam we were
received by the village chefs and guided to the central house to tell them how
much we liked it to have been guests in their garden. As only Breno could thank
them with less language barriers in Portuguese it was his honor to express our thank
and awe of their nature and culture.
For Chief Pykatire and
the whole tribe it was of high importance that we took good care of the Iriri River,
its fish and the nature and would did not do any harm.
As the Kayapó slowly
adopt the meaning of money - 'sad leaves' as they call it - they were more or
less eager to sell some of their crafted hunting clubs and artisan bracelets
and necklaces. I could not resist buying some more of these characteristic and
beautifully crafted bracelets.
As there is a school house and several satellite dishes and even a pay phone in the village the regular contact with the world outside of their community is obvious. It will change their live and eventually year by year their habits and trades will change.
As even in that remote
village soccer in general and Bayern München are well known and part of their
culture as well, I received a special Kayapó nick name: "Florian sete a
uno" that means "Florian seven to one" based on the legendary match
in Belo Horizonte where Germany won seven to one against Brazil in the world soccer
half finals 2014 (Germany later on won the Championship).
Eventually the engine
sound of the approaching plane became louder and louder. The twin engine plane
touched down and spit out the next group of four American fishermen. As the globally
traveling fishing community is small there were some contacts or well-known
faces and hellos.
Bye bye to Kendjam! Thank
you so much for these unique impressions!
We entered the plane
and had a bumpy take off over Kendjam, the characteristic Granit monolith two
kilometers away from the village and set course to Nuovo Progresso. A village that
cannot be described, hot dry in the middle of nowhere. It is supposed to be
more or less kind of capital of jungle destruction, mining business and
agriculture. We refueled there and loaded a copilot. Copilot and pilot where
flying the next two hours blindfold as the front window was covered with a
sunshield and where talking constantly about topics that were strictly located under
that line where fishermen usually wear their belt...
Touch down in Manaus. Welcome
by Rodrigo and Marcellus from Untamed. Hotel, shower and nice welcome dinner
with some good Malbec and meat in Manaus. Thank you Rodrigo and Marcellus for
that lovely reception and evening! And thank you for the whole venture!
That was Kendjam with
Untamed, exploration season 2015! A great, a marvelous experience!
If you are a seasoned
traveling fly fisherman, able to cast a popper more or less precisely a whole
day, thrilled by new experiences and variety of jungle fish and are not shy of
sand between your toes: that is for you, secure your slot right now! Contact me for further assistance, guidance and reference.
My main love will be
more with New Zealand trout, I love the visual aspect of sight fishing in
absolute clear cold water and the slightly lower temperatures their so much,
that I would choose NZ if I had to. But that is me and only my personal highly
subjective opinion of a NZ-addicted fly fisher hunted by water…
