Down the Amazon:
A Travel Novel
Authored by
John Hall
Levedar Publishing
Portland, Oregon, USA
Down the Amazon is a work of fiction. Any associations drawn between
existing persons and places, and those introduced in this story, are purely
coincidental.
Title: Down the Amazon©Copyright, Hall, John Battaile, 11
February 2015.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be direct to permissions,
Levedar Publishing, email: [email protected]
This book has been registered with the Library of Congress.
Hall, John Battaile
Down the Amazon/John Battaile Hall
p. cm
ISBN 978-0-9904916-0-6 Print Version ISBN
978-0-9904916-1-3 E-book
Thanks to:
Jonathan Stark for editing • thestarkeditor @gmail.com
Don Spears for layout/design • [email protected]
ii
Forward
S
ome years back and when I found the time and extra money, I took up
traveling to the continent of South America. And integral to my jour-
neys throughout this grand continent, I encountered the society and culture
of Brasil. But I have to confess that it took me quite a few years of paying
short term visits before I felt as if I knew my way around Brasil well enough
to start exploring its Amazon River. Deep-seated fears of this river, its extensive backwaters, and its massive basin running from west to east across the
continent helped me to conjure up excuses that delayed my arrival. When I
finally got my fears under control, I boarded a night flight from São Paulo to
Manaus, a city that with time I began to think of and refer to as the “Rome
of the Tropics,” or Roma tropical in Portuguêse.
And upon my arrival in Manaus I became completely overwhelmed
with what the Brasilians refer to as their very own Rio Mar—the River
Sea-which is noted to carry a volume of water proximate the combined
flow of the eight other grand rivers in our world. This suggests that the
Amazon River accounts for a sizeable portion of the freshwater river flow
on our planet. What I quickly learned is that when the Brasilians refer to
their “Rio Mar,” they mean it.
As emphasized in the first chapters of this travel novel, the Amazon’s
majesty and power balks account, overwhelming my attempts to describe it.
So, the question becomes: how am I—and how are you as my readers—to
deal with the sublime character of this natural marvel?
Do we rely upon our scientific and rational self that comes as heritage
from the Enlightenment? Or, do we rely upon that part of our self that is
cultivated in the tradition of the Romantics, and would prefer to understand
the Amazon’s sublime splendor by bringing out the poet or painter within us?
This is the dilemma I faced in my river travel, and my struggle to interpret
the Amazon’s sublime character serves as the focus of the following pages.
For many members of the Anglo-American linguistic community,
iii
which is also my heritage, doubts are cast upon the Portuguese colonial
empire and its postcolonial legacies. As I orient myself to write about remanents of what the history books refer to as Império colonial português, a
general question that skeptics pose to me goes like this: “Did the Portuguese
colonial world even exist?” And if so, “was it ever important enough to write
about or even to consider?” My answer is “yes” to these questions. Indeed it
did exist, and indeed its post-colonial legacies are worthy of our attention.
I explain and attribute this lack of appreciation and understanding on
the part of those members of the Anglo-American community to the linguistic barriers we face. Realistically, one has to learn and, ideally, master
the Portuguese language for exploring the places on our earth where its
culture took root. And as that understanding proves integral to this book,
words and phrases in common usage in Brasilian-Portuguese are steadily
introduced here for the reader to consider.
For this book I take my inspiration from Bruce Chatwin, the author
whom I credit for revitalizing the travel novel. Chatwin offers many things
with his writings, but what I have endeavored to borrow and then incorporate into my storytelling is Chatwin’s appreciation for the character. And, so,
through my encounters with extraordinarily curious characters I endeavor to
tell the story of place as we can find it out in the vast Amazon valley. This is
what Chatwin has taught me, and I have sought to carry on, following what I
interpret as his lead and proven literary tradition.
I realize and also accept that we live in a postcolonial world and
most anything that someone of my cultural background writes these years
could readily be deconstructed and then judged as incorrect, inappropriate,
and even offensive. Offering “something to offend everyone” has not been
my ostensible goal with this travel novel. But it has proved difficult to
conceal my station in this world, especially my gender and my enchantment
with Brasil’s warm-hearted brunettes, or as the Brasilians term: as morenas.
And in par- ticular there is Laura, a lovely morena, who over the long term
has rendered
iv
me as an emotional basket case. Others who also know Brasil have likely
encountered what I have; that is, members of a population in a country who
are sensitive, filled with love, and with many driven by their passions and
also revved up by their libidos, rendering them in stark contrast to many
North Americans whose primal drives have been sublimated and twisted
toward the acquisition of wealth and which tends to take form as
meaningless and crass materialism. Traveling in Brasil includes being
pulled into the collective passions that drive the individu- als of this society
forward. I am pleased to note that I enjoyed integrating myself, as best I
could, into their warm and lively culture.
With time and deeper contacts, I have learned that Brasilians should be
appreciated as an especially sensitive people who are closely connected to
their family members and friends. Consequently, I have struggled with the
likelihood that what I am exploring within these pages might offend some
of those Brasilians whom I hold as dear. However, my closest Brasilian
friends strongly encouraged me to complete this book project. They emphasized: “João, our Brasil truly needs concerned observers who are interested
in the past, present, and future of our society, as well as the splendid natural
environment you found out there in our bacia do Amazonas.” I agree and I
also think that every society needs well-intentioned outsiders looking in
and contributing to literature on topics that average citizens would tend to
fail to think of as deserving of consideration.
With this travel novel I would like to feel that I can freely practice the
art of storytelling and writing without constraint and restriction. So as my
reader, please allow me to convey stories based upon my contacts with the
characters I encountered. This is the medium I have chosen to detail much
of what I think needs to be conveyed and learned of this Rio Mar, its vast
backwaters, and its massive basin. My sense is that, in the stories spun and
v
presented in this book, we are dealing with the greatest place left on our
shared Planeta Terra.
The people who inhabit the Amazon River valley also inhabit this book.
Short chapters are devoted to describing those whom I met and the places
that played a role in shaping them, as well as their influencing me and my understanding of their world and also of our world. Since you—as my reader—
could not join me in the actual journey, please consider traveling with me
vicariously, and through reading my narratives and dialogues presented in
this travel novel: Down the Amazon.
John Hall, 11 February 2015, Portland, Oregon
vi
~68~
A
fter eating and conversing under the awning up on the top deck, we
went below and took yet another swing in our respective hammocks
among the hundreds of others. We were now sharing in the tradition of the
Amazonian nap, the soneca. Temperatures were highest this time of day, and
the direct sunlight up on the top deck proved too brutal for us to withstand.
In our efforts to cope, we hid out downstairs in our hammocks, benefiting
from the steady speed of our riverboat and the rush of cool air.
In the quiet associated with our soneca I took to thinking about chaos
theory. I knew that it dealt with processes challenging the confines of
simplistic, rational thinking and making simple, linear connections between
variables. The adage I recalled: If a butterfly near Beijing flaps its wings,
might this flapping action also cause a violent storm over England? This is
how chaos theory was framed for me back when I read some of the works
of author Edward Lorenz and digested what he posed as the “butterfly
effect.”
Some years had passed since I had thought about it, but I knew that
chaos theory considers seemingly disparate possibilities, and then considers
the possible eventualities. Though there is suggested a sensitive dependency
on initial conditions, with chaos theory connections tend to be nonlinear, and
eventualities wholly unpredictable and so emerge as suprises. After all, I
mused, something had to have started the great force that turned into
Hurricane Katrina. Possibly a sea gull diving from the sky in the Bermuda
Triangle stirred up some winds that just kept on going, growing into
something really big that eventually clobbered New Orleans and caused so
much havoc for its residents.
What I was starting to accept was that chaos theory provides us with
Down the AmAzon 207
about the only way to understand the past, present, and future of the
Amazon. Later on that day Jonas sought to convince me of this as we
moved back up to our now preferred spot, taking seats in the plastic chairs
we had claimed as our own on the top deck, where we could watch as what
had been a brutal equatorial radiance was reduced from lion to lamb by the
earth’s rotation and the sun’s sliding toward the western horizon. Jonas and
I observed the sun offering its final rays under a layer of clouds. As the
rays struck them, what had been white clouds on the horizon promptly
becamesoaked in color, refracting reds, oranges, and yellow pastels. The
ending of an Amazonian day provides reason to celebrate. One cannot help
but feel a special awe for the effects of our planet’s rotation and the
accompanyinglight show, as this expression of Nature is created through
the combination of elements, like a master painter continuously mixing
colors on a palette.
I had mentioned to Jonas what Joaquim had told me about his
grandfather earning his living as a seringueiro, working his two estradas
and harvesting the goma elastica out in the floresta and way, way up on
tributaries that eventually found their way to the Solimões and later the
grand Amazon River. Learning that I had some background knowledge,
Jonas grew interested, noting, ‘You clearly have some foundation for
understanding the past, present, and future of this Amazon River valley.
How much else do you know?’
‘Not much,’ I admitted. I was eager for another discussion, so I added,
‘I’d love to hear your take on it.’
Jonas nodded. ‘So, let us start from the beginning, and I will show you
how chaos theory can be applied.
‘It was back near the mid-nineteenth century that Mr. Charles Goodyear
developed a process for treating latex so that it would meld into canvas and
remain supple while also providing a high degree of durability. It was a small
act taking place in a private laboratory back in the eastern seaboard of your
country, far away from the jungles through which our Amazon courses.’
Jonas paused and looked off across the river while carefully preparing
his next point. I waited patiently, but with excitement growing from my
anticipation, sensing that once we started down this hill of thought, Jonas
didn’t have the brakes to stop. So I gleefully strapped myself in for the ride
as he made a painfully dry swallow and continued.
‘Back in the mid-1840s, Mr. Charles Goodyear pioneered the key
advance in a process known as vulcanization. Goodyear discovered and
advanced vulcanization as an inventor. As a creative thinker and skilled
chemist, Goodyear understood that to make raw latex useful he needed
to manipulate the levels of sulfur atoms and integrate these into the raw
o 208 Down the AmAzon
material. Mr. Goodyear transformed himself into a promising inventor, and
focused ever so earnestly on what it is that inventors seek to do. And that
is to make advances in methods, processes, and materials. What remains
important for us to consider João is that Goodyear’s advances in his method
of vulcanization led toward increases in the range of possible uses for raw
latex. And, naturally, this increased demand for the milky sap, the goma
elastica.
‘Now, the goma is drawn from the rubber tree named by that old Swede
Carl Linnaeus (through his tradition of taxonomy) as Hevea brasiliensis.
These trees grow natively in the wilds of our Amazon basin, and need to be
appreciated as integral members of our jungle’s flora. Our indígenas knew
the qualities of the goma elastica long before Pedro Teixeira made his
expeditions up-and-downriver during the 1600s. So keep in mind that latex
had been harvested long, long before Goodyear’s reliance on the burgeoning
science of chemistry. Our indígenas fashioned balls, formed teams, and
competed seriously in sports. But up until Goodyear’s advances, the range of
uses for raw latex remained limited and so our Amazon basin remained
largely ignored and so ever wild.
‘Now, we can start to integrate chaos theory, because a seemingly
unrelated development took place in the world that would wield great effect
on Brasil, much as the proverbial flapping of a butterfly’s wings over China
could bring about major effects, like a violent storm over Britain. What I
am referring to is the commercialization of the dynamo, what is also known
as the generator, during the 1880s. Its seemingly independent development
actually initiated changes that would be felt far, far away, all the way up to
the farthest reaches of the Amazon basin, all of the way to Acre, where the
Hevea brasiliensis grows profusely.’
Again a quick break while Jonas considered the next point. Jonas had
started to let out more and more of the scientist that had been reservedly
hidden inside himself—but always at the ready for when a lecture would
be appreciated, as I had learned during his long-winded but fascinating
bean narrative. When he got going with teaching me about Brasilians and
their beans, I had let Jonas continue thinking and talking, fearing that an
interruption might derail what I hoped would be the first of his “riverboat
lecture series.” I sought not to spoil what seemed to be developing smoothly
into my main source of entertainment and education for the next forty-eight
hours.
‘Keep in mind the dynamo was introduced to the world at one of the
Grand Expositions taking place in Paris. And it changed the world forever.
People dropped what they were doing to work on it. And much like James
Down the AmAzon 209
Watt’s improvements to Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine, advances in the
dynamo laid the second cornerstone in the foundation for the modern era.
‘By spinning a shaft laden with winds of copper wire inside of a
magnetic field, electricity could be generated at will, so long as a reliable
means could be found for spinning the dynamo’s shaft. This is where the
contributions of others enter in. Spinning the dynamo’s shaft and generating
electricity withthe power derived from a steam engine is step one. Watt
helped with this.
For commercialization, the transmission of electricity became the
challenging second step. In the early phases electric cables ran as bare copper
wires. But there were hazards associated with bare wires. So concerted efforts
were made to cover the wire cables in order to reduce the chances of the
current shorting out, and also to reduce the prospects of people getting
shocked and even electrocuted.
‘Canvas was tried, but proved inferior according to numerous criteria. The
challenge was to create a casing for electrical cables that remained supple so
that the wires could be bent. But the coverings also had to remain durable—
so that the cables could hang in place without constant replacement. And
finally, the wire casings also had to serve as an insulator so as to prevent
o 210 Down the AmAzon
shorts, shocks, and electrocutions. These were the challenges. Charles
Goodyear’s vulcanized latex fulfilled all of the necessary criteria. Seemingly
by coincidence, Goodyear’s advances for hardening latex with sulfur
compounds, invented decades earlier, suddenly provided the foundation for
the electric revolution.’
~69~
‘About five years prior to the grand 1890 Paris Exposition and over in
southern Germany, one Karl Benz mounted his improved, benzene
powered engine on a carriage and thereby offered an important innovation
toward creating a powered horseless carriage. This, of course, paved the way
for the automobile industry and big names like Henry Ford. Where does
Goodyear fit in? Well, latex had been used for years in various forms, and
was even used on the wheels of horse-drawn coaches to reduce vibrations
associ- ated with wooden spokes, as these wheels were directly meeting
cobblestones, ruts, and potholes found in streets and roads.’
On that note, Jonas cracked open a can of beer with a gunshot pop.
‘Even in Goodyear’s heyday,’ he said, ‘rubber was typically left solid and
wrapped around rims so that the rubber would meet the road and smooth
out the ride. But this solid rubber really didn’t soften the ride that much,
as the vulcanization process can also render raw latex downright hard.
This sort of rubber also tended to crack and break with wear and tear. So
Ford changed it slightly. As he stepped up production of his Model A and
then his Model T—what remains known as his “Tin Lizzy”—he started to
rely
on tires fabricated of strong cord woven together into the shape of a tire and
then systematically dipped into latex vats, latex treated with Goodyear’s
novel vulcanization formula.’
Jonas held up his left index-finger, the lower three fingers still wrapped
around the beer can. ‘So we have vulcanization over here.’Then he held up his
right index finger, making a mark suggesting that something else comes into
play.
‘Just a few decades earlier a Scottish veterinarian and inventor by the
name of John Boyd Dunlop added the principle of introducing air inside of
a tire as a way to help smooth out the ride for when his son rode his
tricycle.’ Jonas then brought his index fingers together, and without missing
a beat, continued with his lecture. ‘So Dunlop’s advance meets vulcanization
and, BAM, we have something resembling modern pneumatic tires, at least
Down the AmAzon 211
for an initial phase. The next advance was that the tire was given form by
introducing a tube into the tire casing. The Austrian Philip Strauss is credited
with this one in about 1911. Then vulcanized tires with tubes inside were
filled with air, and this forced air gave tires their pressure and better shock
absorbing capability. These advances from Strauss became the standard
for a few decades until we finally moved back toward the tubeless tires for
automobiles and trucks in the decades after the second world war.
Jonas paused and took an extended swallow from his beer. ‘Do you
remember seeing the date etched into the high facade of the Manaus Opera
House, what we call our Teatro Amazonas?’
I recalled it: ‘1896.’
‘Can you now connect the dots that I am introducing?’
I replied, ‘Keep going, I’m listening to you carefully.’
‘For suppleness combined with the durability found in vulcanized
rubber, we have to thank Charles Goodyear. For the creative interpretations
of his invention and especially its application and the early advances in
the pneumatic tire, we have to thank John Dunlop and André Michelin.
And then we have to thank Karl Benz for inventing the petrol-powered
automobile and Henry Ford for popularizing its use in the mass production
of cars. See how our thanks have to be given to so many inventors and
innovators from so many different places in the world? But, keep in mind
that none of these inventors ever visited the Amazon basin. Well, maybe Ford
visited.
‘Let’s leave the age of motoring aside for now. Okay; so then towards
the end of the nineteenth century, people sought to replace gas lighting with
electricity. As you might suspect gas lighting proved inherently dangerous,
for it was known to start fires in homes. Whole city districts accidentally
went up in flames. Clearly there was a need for safer lighting. And to
achieve this end, the American inventor Thomas Edison worked diligently to
make the essential breakthroughs in incandescent lighting. The dynamo had
been around for quite some time by this point. It was during the 1890s that
steam driven dynamos had been put to work generating electricity for
commercial use, giving rise to the need for transmission along these copper
wires I mentioned.
‘Now, João, don’t forget: these copper wires, they all needed rubber
covers, no? Now think of this: after the light bulb was invented and then set
up
for mass production, suddenly the need for electricity extended beyond the
factories to most every home. And these developments brought with them a
sudden as well as a profound increase in world demand for latex, causing
its price to rise sharply. And the smell of big money inspired those running
the
o 212 Down the AmAzon
Brasilian government at that time to sell off or even award concessions
where our Hevea brasiliensis grows thick, for this wild species served as the
practical source for the goma elastica needed for vulcanized rubber at this
time.
‘João, an appreciation for chaos theory offers us some insights here.
Keep in mind that Charles Goodyear’s advances in vulcanization in his lab
offered processes for raw latex that provided the impetus for modernization
through electrification and improved transportation with tires. These
developments taking place primarily in your North America, but also in
northwestern Europe, led to an escalating demand for latex that could only
be filled by increasing the harvesting of raw latex from the trees growing in
our Amazon basin. So merchants established firms and many, many people
seeking fortunes moved to Manaus and Belém. And, oh, how the money
flowed! The latex took on the name “white gold” because it is a sap the runs
the samecolor as cow’s milk, and it was harvested painstakingly in vast
quantities from wild trees growing in the Amazon basin. This meant a rising
demand for labor that attracted rubber cutters by the thousands. Seringueiros
now had opportunities to earn incomes that allowed them to enjoy some
stability, which meant more people here in the Amazon basin.
‘João, chaos theory opens us up to the idea that the flapping of a
butterfly’s wings over Beijing could indeed initiate cumulative forces that
end up causing a severe storm over England and Britain. Look, Charles
Goodyear’s knowledge of chemistry initiated profound causal effects. Then,
Goodyear’s advances were combined to support Dunlop’s advances in airfilled pneumatic tires for bicycles. Then Michelin applied Dunlop’s advances
to automobiles tires. And just a few years after Michelin got his production
going, Philip Strauss introduced an air-filled inner tube that could be stuffed
inside of an automobile tire. This transformed the 20th century into the age of
motoring.
‘These contributions, when taken together, provided us Brasilians with
what is known as the Amazonian Rubber Boom. The famous Teatro located
in the center of Manaus is certainly emblematic of how chaos theory
works, suggesting that a small and seemingly disconnected act, like
Goodyear’s vulcanization process, could lead to the construction of a grand
opera house thousands of kilometes away in Manaus and half a century
later.
‘Relying upon the powers of his insights and abilities at his laboratory
in the United States, Charles Goodyear flapped a butterfly’s wing that then
generated cumulative effects, with the outcomes magnified a million, a billion,
no, a trillion fold. Effects felt throughout the Amazon basin, all of the way to
Acre and the farthest reaches of where rubber trees grow—driving companies
to form, and rubber cutters to brave harsh exposure to the tropical elements.
Down the AmAzon 213
See, I am clearly of the opinion that the Amazon’s integrity, as well as its
fate, can only be understood by creatively applying chaos theory.
‘And you know what makes it all strange? Another butterfly’s wing
added slight imperfections into the system, and these flaps initiated effects
that proved devastating. Let me tell you about this flapping.’
Jonas took another long and drawn out swig from his beer can, and
then licked and wet his lips with a slip of his pink tongue. ‘A man named
Henry Wickham helped to turn our Amazonian rubber boom into a rubber
bust. It was wily Wickham who smuggled seeds out of the Amazon basin.
He smuggled, in fact, some eighty thousand seeds of our valuable Hevea
brasiliensis and transported these to England, where he turned the seeds
o 214 Down the AmAzon
over to Kew Gardens. Wickham’s poached seeds were sprouted in Kew’s
greenhouses and then redistributed to favorable locations controlled by the
British Empire, especially in Malasia, Burma, and some other parts of
subtropical Asia, and also in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately for us in
Brasil the spreading of blight had prevented the expansion of plantation
production of the Hevea. Not so in tropical, Asia for the same blight failed
to pose a major threat in that environment. So it was Wickham’s smuggling
of seeds out of the Amazon basin to England that gave rise to alternate
locations for production—and the start of production of the goma elastica
on a massive scale on well organized and managed plantations. Once the
British got going, the French took rubber production to promising locations
in Indochina. We might summarize by noting that Wickham produced one
particularly bad flap of a butterfly’s wings, and a torrential storm ensued
over our Amazon basin.’
~70~
J
onas stood briefly and stretched his long frame before settling back into
his chair with a creak of plastic. He cleared the phlegm that had collected
in his throat and then he continued his lecture: ‘Chaos theory tells us that, as
time moves forward, initial events spiral exponentially and can grow out of
control. Wickham may have introduced the first bad flap, but others followed.
Next came a man named B. F. Goodrich—Goodrich should not be confused
with Mr. Goodyear, as indeed the inventiveness of one is considered good and
the other doubtful for us here in our bacia amazônica.
‘First let us go back to Wickham and some of the effects of his smuggling
efforts. As a great center for botanical research, Kew was in a fine position
to distribute Wickham’s poached seeds to the far corners of the British
Empire. The principals involved sought to gain control over production and
to reduce costs associated with supplying latex to meet industry’s growing
demand. So colonial empires, with their distant lands and tropical climates,
were relied upon in an effort to shift production from the willy-nilly approach
of harvesting from wild trees by independent seringueiros. The movement was
to adopt a controlled, industrial approach taking the form of plantation
production. In the warm areas of the British and French empires in Asia
and Africa, the rubber trees were conveniently lined up and then worked
as if integrated into a larger machine process. This shift toward plantation
production of our Hevea brasiliensis served to challenge the direction of the
cumulative effects once derived from Goodyear’s advances in vulcanization.
Down the AmAzon 215
Then another North American entered in.
‘In 1937 Mr. Goodrich invented the first synthetic rubber tires. These
were tires made of something he termed Chemigum—a substance he
patented. Goodrich’s breakthrough reversed most everything that Goodyear’s
vulcanization had initiated in the Amazon basin. Goodrich’s flapping wing
caused not a storm over England, but a crash in demand for Brasilian latex.
This crash was compounded by increases in the production of latex coming
from plantations in tropical Asia. So we in the Amazon basin quickly lost
demand for the output of our goma elastic and our bolts of smoked borracha.
‘Goodrich was not even the first. His climax was inspired by an entirely
other set of disparate events, as a group of scientists located in Russia had
made advances with rubber polymers synthesized from butadiene. The
famous Russian inventor Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev set the stage for largescale production of synthetic rubber well before World War I. But Goodrich
took the processes further along by creating a synthetic rubber that could also
be used for car and truck tires, a synthetic rubber bearing most of the qualities
of vulcanized latex. And most importantly, Goodrich introduced a synthetic
rubber that could be created by engineers running factories. Our seringueiros
out working their estradas, toting their rifles and terçados through the
floresta—members of this hard working community were no longer needed.
o 216 Down the AmAzon
‘With a falling demand for natural latex, prices plummeted so low
that the need for rubber cutters withered on the vine, generating a mass
unemployment that has plagued our Amazon basin ever since.
‘So as I said, João, one needs to understand chaos theory and apply this
approach to explain societal and economic forces at work affecting the past,
present, and future of this grand river basin we are traveling through on the
Leão de Judá, out from Santarém and on down the Amazon towards our
final destination of Belém.’
~71~
J
onas’ last words slammed the cork back onto a fine riverboat lecture. I
felt as if I were recapping a bottle of Talisker Scotch, holding its contents
for a future occasion. If you’ve never had this Scotch, I highly recommend
it. Talisker is made from barley malt imbued with the smoke of turf cut by
skilled hands from ancient bogs. And after distilling, this fine Scotch is aged
in sherry barrels for the discerning drinker to savor—as I had just savored
Jonas’ scientific narrative. I felt our time together aboard the Leão de Judá
had not only proved informative, but also enjoyable. I also felt as if I had
fully absorbed Jonas’s knowledge on chaos theory. Now I wanted to ponder
it.
I rolled back as far as the legs of my plastic garden chair would allow,
fully confident that another shot of Talisker-based conversation would be
poured soon, and so ever neat. As I leaned back Jonas reached into his shirt
pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I was surprised. Considering his
overall healthy appearance I did not suspect Jonas to be a smoker. Staring at
the pack, Jonas breathed a sigh of resignation. I thought that his knowledge
and enthusiasm for chaos theory and its application to this Amazon basin—
that he seemed to love so dearly—had gotten the best of him. Fumbling with
his forefinger, he produced a cigarette that seemed short by at least one
filter’s length. Both the top and bottom ends were crimped. Seems awfully
thin to me, I thought, at least by comparison to the standard industrial
thicknesses for which cigarettes are known worldwide.
Jonas then produced a plastic lighter of a green hue that curiously
matched the floresta rolling by before our eyes. Lodging one of the crimped
ends between his full lips he lit up, assisting the whole process of ignition
with a long draw of air sucked deep into his lungs.
With the draw I noticed that Jonas’ cheeks began to glow bright red. He
had drawn in so much smoke. Then, he lowered his forearm and pulled the
Down the AmAzon 217
curious cigarette away, keeping the smoke stored deep in his lungs for safekeeping. The ash his drawing had generated was speedily transported away
to the west, offering us the tail end of a light as the still hot coal rode the
stream of wind out into the direction of the setting sun. Jonas offered me the
cigarette. I took it and raised the crimped end that was freshly moistened by
Jonas’ lips. I followed his lead, taking in a long drag.
With this inhalation I quickly remarked that the dullness of the growing
darkness vanished as clarity sprung up in its place. Feeling myself in better
form, I took to focusing my eyes off into the distance and on to the tall trees
lining the south bank of our River Sea. I heard the droning sound of our
riverboat’s diesel more clearly and, orienting my ears toward the sound, I
realized that I could now make out all sixteen plugs individually firing away
in rapid succession. As I focused my hearing, I noticed their rate of firing
slowing down. My straining ears began to detect a pattern, as if a talented
and familiar percussion section had boarded with us back in Santarém and
was warming up for an evening concert.
Over this percussion base I took to humming the melody of a song I had
been known to sing when feeling blue: “Jelly, Jelly,” with its refrain of “A
Downright Rotten Low Down Dirty Shame.” After Jonas’ lecturing this
song title and tune seemed appropriate. Jonas then popped the top on
another can of Brahma gelada, startling me out of song. He took a long and
drawn out sip and passed the can over to me. I sensed we were delving
deeper into a manly communion based upon opening ideas in conversation,
then fearlessly sharing—first through smoke and now in drink—all of the
microbes that swim in minute quantities in men’s saliva.
As we rolled downriver aboard the Leão de Judá, the pistons of the
diesel played through a full range of Allman Brothers’ tunes, all those that I
could recall from my earlier years. It turned out that Jonas also knew these
tunes and joined me by humming in harmony. It proved a grand concert.
When one tune was about finished, the next one started without pause. With
this ambience I felt my head freeing itself from the rigidity associated with
sharing close quarters with a few hundred coboclos and coboclas; males and
females—infants to grannies—lined up in rows of four, cramped side by side
in hammocks hip-to-hip. We knew they were rocking in their hammocks two
decks down below us; stoically enduring their cramped suffering and
awaiting the relief that our arrival in Belém was supposed to bring. There we
could all untie the cords that bound the looped ends of our hammocks to the
metal pipes running perpendicular to slim I-beams, with pockmarks created
by corrosion that had been filled by layers and layers of white enamel paint,
that I observed, had been smeared on in contractual haste.
As Jonas stared over the starboard I noticed his eyes following the
irregular treescape of the floresta lining the Amazon’s bank, with the
occasional giant tree towering as a Behemoth high above those less blessed
with stature and age.
‘João,’ Jonas intoned quietly with a voice burdened by deep reflection.
‘We are at the end of the world here. This Amazon basin is often noted as the
end of the world—that is fim do mundo in Portuguêse.’
Jonas paused and then continued his reflections. ‘We are at the end of
the world, João. This is a complex river basin, on a complex continent, within
a complex world, within a complex solar system, galaxy, universe of
galaxies, and universes among the universes. But no matter how small, we
are part of
that whole. The condition of the Amazon basin reflects the state of our world,
João. And this watery giant we are riding down is constantly threatened by
forces generated from the outside.’
I reflected back upon my start in São Paulo and the freedom with which
Shannon managed her reddish mane; the freckles that rendered her facial
skin as pied as a face could be, but also as lovely as lovely could be; the
bumps of her cheekbones rising quietly out on the plains of her face; how
Down the AmAzon 219
she quivered and then snapped her femurs whenever Marcelo walked by,
our garçom with his elongated jaw and velvety beard that seemed to
suggest exactly seven days of growth. Shannon and her “three giants,” and
especially
this third giant that Jonas sought to convince me was so threatened by forces
far beyond the flow of its waters.
Pulling back from my reflection on Shannon, I turned to Jonas. ‘So, tell
me. Tell me more, who threatens to slay our green giant?’
o 220 Down the AmAzon
~72~
P
lacing his full lips over the crimped end of his cigarette, Jonas proceeded
with taking another drag. As he drew, a glistening fireball raced back
along the paper in the direction of his mouth, only to be slowed as he backed
off from his rate of inhaling. Though his cigarette was shortened by about
double its diameter, I couldn’t detect any smoke generated from his drawing for he had sucked in all of the gray vapors and particulate. Jonas passed
the stick back in my direction. Like mine, his eyes were focused off in the
distance. He was also enjoying the play of tree heights along the south bank.
I felt that Jonas was now returning from the deep—his deep. He began to
speak in a steady voice, tempered and calmed.
‘Efforts to make industrial civilization more sustainable also generate
cumulative effects that are felt in our Amazon basin, and with profound
implications for our remaining floresta here. João, the burning of fossil fuels
is considered unsustainable by most meteorologists and earth scientists. The
papers that I read suggest that we are taxing the environment of our planet
earth at 120 percent of its ability to absorb our baloney. You know, fossil
fuels such as coal and oil were created on this earth from vegetable matter,
from plants of fabulous sizes that grew millions of years ago. Digging for
coal and drilling for oil and gas, and using these up at a high speeds means
that future generations won’t have access to hydrocarbons as an energy
source—even with the development of fracking. If we take Dr. Brundtland’s
definition of sustainability seriously, our current levels of reliance on
hydrocarbons drawn from the bowels of our earth imply that future
generations, even the next generation, will have to find other energy sources
or enter the Dark Ages again.
‘To get around this, the sustainability do-gooders would like to increase
the portion of energy generated by renewables. If we follow Dr. Brundtland’s
reasoning on sustainability, then the likely way forward is for us to increase
production of ethanol.
‘We produce ethanol here in Brasil, you know? We are the world’s
largest producer, in fact. Our tropical and subtropical geographic zones offer
us warm temperatures. Warm temps combine with intense sunlight causing
sugarcane and soja beans to grow fabulously. And these serve as feedstock
for ethanol production.
‘So now, João, imagine a session of the European Parliament, with a
vocal group of sustainability do-gooders. Imagine that a law is passed which
raises the content of ethanol that has to be included in benzene by, oh, say, ten
Down the AmAzon 221
percent. This is a likely level of increase.
‘Such a ruling would generate butterfly effects similar to Charles
Goodyear’s vulcanization. I mean that a ten percent increase of ethanol going
into Europe’s benzene would mean that millions of hectares of Amazonian
jungle would be sacrificed in short order—cleared so that sugarcane and
soy bean production could increase. In this manner, a seemingly innocuous
decision by do-gooders would generate cumulative effects. In short, this
flap of a butterfly’s wing over Brussels would bring a great storm over this
magnificent basin. These do-gooders would be acting on limited knowledge
of the environment, and yet adhering to the Brundtland Commission’s
definition of sustainable.’ With his enunciation I could clearly detect that
Jonas scoffed at this word as a loaded term with unconsidered implications
for his Amazon basin.
‘Especially these vast areas just to our south in Mato Grosso and Pará
would be torched. We could sit back in our seats enjoying our smoke,
watching like armchair quarterbacks are wont to do back in your country,
emotionally integrated into the plays. And meanwhile, men and women in
the greater world make real decisions that can prove devastating as butterfly
effects. These areas of the Amazon floresta that we have seen as we chug by,
these would shrink right before our very eyes, turned into fields of
sugarcane and soybeans. The best we could do, like armchair quarterbacks
pissed off
by a bad play, would be to change the channel and try to find another game
offering a better set of plays. But this form of activity would not change the
bad play we tuned out. We would all end up victims. I gather that you know
that we rely upon the term lungs of the world to describe our Amazon
basin? Unfortunately, these lungs can also become cancerous, João.’
With that frightening note Jonas took another long and slow drag from
his jungle grass stick while continuing to stare off over the starboard rail.
The floresta lining the right bank of the Amazon created a thick green line
that was composed of trees of various heights. Below the trees an earthy
embankment full of iron minerals displayed deep reds for us to enjoy. This
red line ran just above the silted waters carried out of Peru, waters that
dominated the clear black ones of the Rio Negro where the two grand rivers
meet just below Manaus. There at the grand confluence the black waters were
rendered caramel brown and the surface made shiny by the silts flowing
down the Solimões. All of it connected, all of it flowing past, all of it so
delicate and fragile.
o 222 Down the AmAzon
~73~
‘João,’ Jonas suddenly intoned, ‘were you paying attention as we boarded
our Leão back in Santarém? Adjacent to our wharf I suspect you noticed
the large storage facility, the facility for loading ocean liners bound for other world ports, the facility with GRÃO DE SOJA written in bold letters?’
Jonas held up one hand and drew a phantom map across the sky with
his right index finger and noted to me: ‘Santarém is set near the mouth of
the Rio Tapajós. This river flows up from the south. When tracing this river
southward, the Tapajós takes on other identities at the community of Barra
do São Manuel as the Tapajós forks there. The eastern part of the Tapajós is
known as the Rio São Manuel. The São Manuel flows out of the heart
of Mato Grosso. Mato Grosso, what translates as our Big Mat of Scrubland,
is being cleared as we converse, and at a rate that would make you choke.
Keep in mind that our Mato Grosso is world famous for its high yields of
soybeans.
‘Two rivers flow north out of Mato Grosso and into the Amazon. That
is, the Rio Juruena flows out of the eastern part of Mato Grosso, and the São
Manuel flows through the center of this state. This is where some of
Down the AmAzon 223
the great stretches of the Amazonian floresta are to be found, and this
area offers some of the finest and most productive places for producing
soybeans… and also for transporting them, that is, if we were to put a
highway there.’ Jonas said it casually, but I could not help but notice that he
flinched as he articulated the word highway.
‘Now, getting back to our leitmotif of that butterfly flapping its wings:
what if our butterfly got going and really took to flapping its wings, and
literally over China? From another angle, consider this, João: what if the
Chinese were to grow richer and richer, and then decided to eat more
and more? And for eating more and more they decided to purchase more
cooking oil for their woks? Who would supply this soy oil? Answer, João:
we Brasilians would. Think of this as another potential butterfly’s wing
about to flap.
‘If the Chinese were to demand more soy oil to slick their woks, then
world demand for soy oil would rise, and the world price for soy oil would
also rise subsequently. Soy ranchers, and especially those running the big
agribusinesses here in Brasil, would respond to the price incentives by
increasing their production of soybeans. Our forests, our sacred floresta
amazônica, would pay the price. This beautiful tree line you and I now see
would be transformed—and in short order—into neatly cut furrows with
soybeans growing in the mounds rising up in between.’
Taking only a short breath Jonas continued, ‘Beef works in about the
same way. What if millions of Chinese decide to eat more beef? The world
price of beef would rise, huh? Nossos pecuários, those cattlemen of ours,
with their spreads of big-ass cattle ranches, would find incentives to increase
the numbers in their herds. The herds would need additional lands for
grazing, and our floresta tropical would fall under greater and greater
pressures. That
is, more of our tropical floresta would be torched and rapidly transformed
into additional grazing lands from which profits could be extracted. How
much of an increase in Chinese demand for beef would cause the loss of one
million hectares of virgin floresta? There are scientists out there, buddies and
female colleagues of mine, who produce models that offer calculations—
grim calculations that would make you start to feel as ill as I feel right now.
‘Our Amazon region remains vulnerable, and especially to these sorts
of wing flaps of butterflies. Mr. Goodyear generated the first flap leading
towards the modern-industrial era. Wickham and Goodrich flapped their
butterfly wings, sending thousands of Amazonians into unemployment and
with many falling into destitution. The Members of Parliament working
in Brussels, or the average citizens of China, could introduce actions that
generate devastating effects here where we are now traveling. I was just
o 224 Down the AmAzon
high up the Rio Juruá in Cruzeiro do Sul with a scientist-friend of mine.
When she is not undertaking scientific research, Rafaela runs boats carrying
passengers and freight down the Juruá to Ipixuna. She researches the upperend of our basin
‘If some people or groups of people far removed flap their wings, then
our lovely Amazon basin suffers the hurricane.’
~74~
What I was learning on this journey down the Amazon is that Nature in
general, and rivers in particular, serve as reprieves from a world
known for its nastiness. Over the course of our downriver trip Jonas
described his travels up the tributaries of the Solimões, and in particular, the
Juruá, the Envira, and the Negro and its tributary, the Branco—and always I
had the feeling that he was describing things disappearing, or were already
gone. The rivers had run pure. But now I could see that these grand
watersheds and riv- ers were indeed threatened by powerful forces sent to the
Amazon basin from the far corners of our world.