Amazon Day 1

11/8/21

It took a long time to get here, and a fair amount of planning and resources, but now that I’m here….so awesome. 

Left Chicago at 6AM November 7th (the original flight I had booked was canceled 24 hours before departure time. Had to cancel and rebook the day before I was supposed to leave. Stressful.)

Chicago -> Atlanta -> São Paulo -> Manaus -> float plane to the Jungle and Mapuera river. A lot of travel. 

Camp here is remarkable. The indigenous who are hosting us constructed it all in under 2 weeks. There is a wooden walkway and platforms on stilts that each hold one tent. Everything here is crafted by hand or chainsaw. Every board used was planed and cut using a chainsaw. Trees and roots are used to form and lash structure together. The ingenuity of the natives is truly amazing. 

After landing in the float plane on the river we took about a 40 minute boar ride up river to camp. The boats are long skinny aluminum boats with 15 to 40 horse tillers on the back. Three people to a boat. Two gringos and one tribe member running the tiller. 

After lunch we rigged up and headed out. I fished with Phil today. Slow fishing to start. 4-6 smaller piranhas and Phil caught one large bicuda. 

Throwing big streamers and popper on a 10wt. 

I hooked our guide twice today. Once in the arm and once in the back of the head. Luckily neither dug in...just a prick. 

Can be tough to fish two fly anglers in one boat. Because the guide sits in the stern to run the motor and steer the boat with a homemade paddle, there is not much room between the bow angler and the angler behind him in the middle of the boat. Not a whole lot of room to work long casts. 

First full day of fishing will be tomorrow. Beer and dinner tonight. 

Tomorrow, we fish.