Arrival at Rio Mariè - Realm of Cichla Temensis Rex

Breno and I took the second plane for the flight from Manaus in northwesterly direction towards Saint Gabriel de Cochuella. The plane was a two engine with six seats. We shared the space only with the pilot, some Russian luggage and a 150kg generator that I was supposed to hold with my feet during takeoff and landing and possible turbulences. The Russian group was on their direct way towards the mother ship Untamed Amazon with the jet engine powered float plane. It is good for two pilots and 8 passengers. From Saint Gabriel we would fly the last 40 minutes to the ship with the float plane as well. The newly introduced float-plane access made the long boat transfer of the first season obsolete. 

 

At take-off in Manaus it had a sweating 40°C, no need for any warm clothes. Our small plane took off and gained altitude up to around 7.000 feet. After a while that was kind of chilly and I started to freeze badly in my shirt and shorts. Luckily I had a thin IceBreaker with me. So the cold was not so bad. After flying some time - which in my opinion was close to several hours - my bladder did send some signals that a soon relief would be highly welcomed. It was more than that, it was more like an emergency call from a soon to burst holding device. Asking about the remaining flight time the answer was kind of shocking: One hour and ten more minutes remaining flight time! I probably would not stand that and would cause some spillage. Thus my brain started to find an appropriate work-around. I had bottles on hand, but their opening was much too small to do the procedure without a mess. And as I had no knife I could not cut one in half to produce a funnel. Doing it directly into the ice chest? No way. But I had juice tetra packs that would provide as a funnel as they could be modified by ripping them. And there was the important missing link: I had tape in my back pack I had access to. With and accordingly prepared juice tetra pack, a 0,33l bottle, some tape and a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering I produced my device for relief. The last problem was to do it seated and concealed from the pilot and Breno because if they would get notice of my maneuver, they would immediately have started to laugh so much that the plane would be in great danger. With all tricks available I managed the procedure and the bottle was full to the neck within seconds containing some characteristic colored fluid.

The last hour of the flight went smoothly circumnavigating some big clouds, passing the erratic and impressive granite mountains near Saint Gabriel and touch down at the air strip in Saint Gabriel. After that the running joke was: “Did I mention that I peed on the plane?”

Saint Gabriel is a very basic and remote airport with probably less than five plane movements a day. Reloading to the much bigger jet turbine powered floatplane (including the payload of 150kg generator) and we were on our last 40 minutes flight towards Untamed Amazon. Very smooth touch down on Rio Negro and taxiing to Untamed Amazon – the impressive boat was reality! No fake! I already knew it from the ship yard a year before. In August 2015 before the exploratory trip with Breno to Kendjam (see according blog posts for that adventure) we visited the ship yard. Back then the construction was in its last steps and we saw the plans of the finished ship. But now I could see it in reality, beautiful and impressive at the same time: Untamed Amazon.

 

 

  

  

  

  

 

 

  

We reached the landing stage on the stern of Untamed Amazon and set step on our home for the next week. Breno and I made home base in the right front cabin, lacking one of the huge panorama windows that are typical for the six main guest rooms, but cooler and les noisy at night. In addition we had our own porch, as we could step outside and had direct access to the small platform at the bow of the ship. As the solar power plant on the ship’s roof, supposed to charge the batteries in its hull during day and powering the ship during night, did not yet work, the generator would have to run 24/7. Making the whole ship sounding with a background noise, not to bad but not exactly silent. In the basement where the ship crew had their rooms it was definitely kind of noisy. Besides that minor and soon to be solved issue, the guest rooms are just perfect.

 

 

  

 

The ship crew is a special topic for itself. To do them justice I will start with them. First and foremost there are two persons that are the good soul of the ship: Manuela a truly wonderful, charming, friendly, beautiful and heart breaking hostess. A hostess every lodge owner or camp manager could only dare to have! She is an avid fly fisher as well. And there is Leandro the chef/ cook that made and exceptional good job, avid fisherman as well; he managed to surprise us every single day. Main course and desert were always a delight, wine and alcohol were plenty and good as well. Besides his task behind the fire, Leandro is the boat manager and in charge of keeping the mood on this vessel at an acceptable level. A task that at times is far from easy.

Besides these two crew members there is Maria Paula the very friendly assistant hostess and the guide team of five avid guides (Agustin, Everton, Marcos, Nico, Pablo (head guide)). During the day on the 20-foot skiffs (very well made, perfect boats! Equipped with bow mounted Minn Kota motors to maneuver and drift the boat silently while fishing) the guides are supported by a local “boatman” as an assistant local guide that knows the river and the fish very well. Untamed Amazon is piloted by Orleans who does an exceptional job as well. One evening Breno and I were lucky to follow a difficult landing maneuver during a pitch black night directly from the bridge. Imagine a totally dark bridge, outside nothing but stars, every now and then a bright light beam was turned on to scan the surrounding and the distance to the banks, the ship moving upstream with around 9 km/h, only few words on the otherwise silent bridge. Decelerating and approaching the beach determined for night-anchorage, very carefully, meter by meter, with that big vessel in the middle of Rio Negro, very gentle contact to the beach and there we were at our spot for the night to come. I was in awe of Orleans.

Next day (post) fishing will start.... stay tuned and share if you like it.

 

   

The Falling Star

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.

Later on Rodrigo told us that Chief Pykatire Kayapó said to him while setting up the whole idea of Kendjam Fly Fishing some years ago, that the Kayapó would allow the white man to visit their Garden, but not to sleep in their huts.

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…

All good things have to come to an end… but there are other galaxies with unexplored rivers!

The last day of the fishing week started. We fished our way back up to the main camp. Catching fish as usual. But usual was not usually as we had two half days with very slow action. It turned out - thanks to Steff's watch with barometric pressure graph - that in both cases the air pressure dropped massively. There was no weather change involved, just pressure change made the fish behave differently. I never believed in such influence but that coincidence was striking as both boats observed it.

We all packed our belongings for an early next morning start back to Kendjam. That night the Kayapó Djokrô approached Breno to teach him some more English phrases. Djokrô is the son of the village chief Pykatire. A family that might indeed have the mindset to foster development and make wise decisions. Djokrô was the most interested, approachable and open minded Kayapó of the mates that guided us. Thus this evening we explained him the basic principles of steering a boat while fly fishing such as the constant distance to the bank, holding the boat at good spots and the clock scheme to give the crazy tourists hints where to cast. Breno recoded the phrases in English and Portuguese on Djokrô’s smart phone (!), he was highly motivated to increase his knowledge. At the same time he sold us a couple of more Kayapó bead-bracelets. 

Are we supposed to influence their strong culture in such a strong way as we already started? Should we deny it and leave them and wait till their land is destroyed by exploration? Wouldn't be a sustainable form of tourism the best way to those people, this unique nature and thus to protect it? Wouldn't their culture change anyway during the next years with smart phones already in the village?

I sat long into the next day under this marvelous sky full of myriads of distant stars, the Milky Way and millions of other galaxies, some of these galaxies with planets such as our blue ball… Do these worlds have such a fun think called fly fishing as well? Could you imagine tour planet without the gift of fly fishing? 

I sat outside on the big sand bank our camp was located on, thinking about such crazy questions, gazing at the stars and the Milky Way and thinking of that magnificent experience we all had here sharing the Iriri River, the garden and source of food of the Kayapó. We shared their land and home for a week of many impressions that were burned deep in our memories ready to be remembered in such moments of grey dull mood that make us want to escape to pristine flowing water…  

Writing these lines I was just slightly missing a glass of red or a cigar...

... to be continued with the last part.