Pure Jungle II is the title of this last post dedicated to Pablo Rodríguez's trip through the Amazon. Here he describes his final experience, unfortunately an unknown bacterium prevented him from finishing his adventure. Here he describes how it was.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog wrote that the jungle is "a nature that annihilates the complainers and the strong with equal ferocity." I say that is true. He also wrote that "here the birds do not sing, they scream in pain in an unfinished landscape abandoned by God in a fit of rage." And that is true again. We went to the jungle to cross it entirely. Sailing through three different countries, on several tributary rivers, visiting small communities and in various types of boats. Many hours sailing, talking, reading, writing, and contemplating nature. We were here for the largest river in the world. In the tropics. A very crazy place. A myth.
Navigation is always exciting. Boats navigate precariously over a riverbed that changes in depth, pilots know the river even in the morning mist, with the constant danger of storms and under the shelter of the banks on the darkest nights. But the real danger is not wild animals, river floods, or feared pirates. Here people live surrounded by malaria, dengue, dysentery, and a catalog of very punk tropical diseases and a heat that fatigues even the soul of Amazonians.
For me, talking about the Amazon is now a little difficult because we were not very lucky at the end of the trip. We could not reach the Atlantic Ocean and bathe in its waters. It would have been magical. Nor could we navigate the stretch from Santarém do Pará to Belém do Pará. It is true that we had nothing planned and that we resolved everything day by day. And that in the Amazon there is no time and you can only do what the river allows you to do. You get used to living without a destination, without health, and you smile every time the pink dolphin jumps. The river is an illusory paradise.
Text and images by Pablo Rodríguez.