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Kayaking the Amazon
[ Jun 27, 2007 12:29:36 ] Let me give you some information about myself: My name is A.J. Rivera, I am Mexican American by birth, in culture, and in nationality. I can tell you of many nice people: fishermen that have given me fish, families that have opened their homes to me, native farmers who have shared their planted sandbars, or of empty beaches full of nesting shore birds, terns, and nighthawks.
It is something else, difficult, if not impossible for me to tell you why a fifty-four year old, obese, accountant would embark on a 3,500 mile kayak journey. It is a lifetime of passion that has culminated on this adventure. The years of preparation and research preclude it from being a manic episode - some who know me would argue that point.
One minute I'm on a computer in an office in Jacksonville, Florida, the air-conditioning cool and comfortable under the tinted windows of the building and the bright florescent bulbs make it impossible to tell if the wind is blowing, or the clouds drifting. The next minute I find myself in Rio Ucayali, watching the clouds pass in the reflection of the muddy river. Carried by the wind, my laughter mixes with the screaming parakeets and the honking of horned screamers.
Many times I have laughed at myself and asked, "How did I get here?" Occasionally a kingfisher will answer with a rattle of a laughter. It all seems so absurd, but so real, invigorating, and above all alive.
I put in at Puerto Ocopa, Junin east of Lima. The first one-hundred miles ran fast. The river was very turbulent and treacherous for a sea kayak. In the past eleven hundred miles, the river has widened and slowed down, making it perfect for a touring sea kayak.
The rotomolded Polyethylene Current Design, seventeen foot kayak is well suited for the abuse handed out by the river. The unique design, and the strong blue color, guarantees to bring out a hundred and one questions from the locals who are impressed by the 'canoa de platico', that to them reassembles an airplane.
There is no comparison between sitting in an office, and sitting in a kayak that is drifting slowly and is being carried gently by the Amazon River's current towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Did you know that Pink Dolphins are quite territorial? A pod of dolphins protested to the intrusion of a blue kayak into their feeding zone. They first let me know of there objection by rushing the kayak from the rear, and blowing out louder than normal. Bubbles surfaced under the kayak, a sign, a warning. Twice, the splash of a 'dofino' broke surface next to the cockpit startling me, and a tail of water in my face was beyond belief. "Gray dolphins are playful, but red ones are vicious. They will upset your conoa," so I recall a fisherwoman's words of caution.
Who knows, maybe by the time I reach Belem, in Brazil, while I watch the sunrise over the Atlantic, I will know why I decided to forsake everything for a journey.
