Setup in the Amazon (June/July 2011)

Ok so the Amazon conjures up images of anacondas, piranhas, jungles, big rivers and big bugs; all true!!

Morning Mist

We were on our way to set up 11 tents in a remote part of the Amazon and after arriving in Sao Paulo for a few days (an incredibly huge city with insane traffic) before we were to head by air to Manaus and finally Têfe and the last leg on an hour long helicopter ride to the base camp in the forest.

Amazon Forest

All went well in São Paulo, meeting the folks, shopping for tools, great food and good ales. When time for us to depart, we headed to the airport with great expectations on the long crazy ride through the city center to the airport. Sao Paulo has more helicopters in the air than "one can shake a stick at" and heli-pads on almost every high rise building, this roof top service I assume has evolved because of the traffic jams and the size of the city. On the plane to Manaus (4 hour flight) we were treated to a late night snack of a dry chilled hot dog with no condiments but the beer was good.

We arrived in Manaus at around midnight with one of our client's team member and caught a taxi to a hotel and crashed for the night. Manaus is the last major city before one venture's into the Amazon. We awoke to the news that all the plans had unraveled and that the decks for the tents were not only incomplete but they had not even started on them and that we would have to wait in Manaus for further news. There were so many different stories being told to us about the situation that it was difficult to fathom the actual truth of our situation making it most frustrating – What a mess!! We also met two other members of the team trying to arrange the logistics, one of them also an engineer

Base Camp

We could not really do much in Manaus as we were constantly on call should the decks be ready and we would need to pack and go so it was short walks and visits to the restaurants in a nearby mall. The mall had a fascinating restaurant with wall to wall wine and liquor bottles all the way to the ceiling, a small deli, bar and huge menu all in Portuguese - The food and beer was however very good.

Manaus is not small by any means with a population close to 2 million folks with a lot of industry going on. Manaus is at the confluence of the Amazon River (locally known as the Solimões) and the Rio Negro and about 4000km from the capital city of Brazilia. The Rio Negro has clear dark colored water and the Amazon is brown in color and loaded with silt. We ventured out on a tour to visit the confluence of the Amazon and the Rio Negro which was a most fascinating experience because each body of water has a different temperature and density that when they confluence they do not mix for the first +- 10km below the confluence when the densities and temperatures even out. We also got to see the giant water lily (Victoria amazonica) which is quite amazing to see with its huge spine studded leaves.

The major rivers of the Amazon are highways in their own right with almost all freight moving along these water ways and the Amazon is navigable for 3,600 kilometers (2,200 mi) from the ocean as far as Iquitos, Peru. For this reason one can find so many floating gas stations in the rivers to supply the numerous kinds of water craft, many of these gas stations even taking credit cards.

After more than a week we got word that the first tent deck was finally under construction and that we were needed to check on the construction and start the setup of tents so the next morning we headed the Manaus Regional Airport and caught a twin turbo prop plane for the hour flight to Têfe where we waited for the Bell 412 Helicopter to ferry us for another hour long flight over the forests to the base camp where we were to work. Now the base camp is much like a prison in that it is remote and only accessible by air or river and totally controlled by the "camp commandant" as to who can come or go. Everyone is also required to wear iridescent orange overalls, hard hats and steel toe boots. No alcohol is allowed and every person on arrival has their bags all searched by security and then stabbed in the finger for a blood test for malaria. All accommodation was minute, somewhat dirty and on a group of house boats tethered together against the river bank at the camp. Though we were visiting at a time that the level of insects was supposedly low, the mosquitoes sure made their presence well known and felt even with the constant use of the 100% Maxi Deet insect repellent. One interesting insect in abundance were the huge Rhino beetles who were mostly mating with each other on every available surface they could find above ground level.

Getting back to our arrival and checking in through all the procedures we went to look at the deck and found it in its very infancy and would take at least another few days to complete so we decided to return to Manaus the next day instead of staying in the camp with all the clay mud and mosquitoes with nothing to do. Also we discovered that the tents were lying on pallets in the mud near the dock and even though covered in tarps had already gotten wet – all requested that the tents be moved to a dry storage warehouse fell on deaf ears unfortunately. Because of the delays and a deadline they had to meet it was decided by the powers that be, that we were to only setup 3 of the 11 tents we were supposed to set up (1 Kambaku and 2 Serengeti Tents) and not in the forest location originally planned upon.

Setup

The next day found us back in Manaus waiting again for the completion of the decks and to our surprise the next morning we got a call to pack and get back to the airport ASAP as they had worked through the night and were already busy on the 2nd deck. We threw our gear back together and high-tailed it in a taxi back to the airport. On arrival in Têfe we cleared 'security' and waited for a few hours for the helicopter in the heat of the day when we were approached by a guy who gestured that we must come with him and that the helicopter would only be available the next morning (he could not speak English). In the pickup, we headed into the town of Têfe that we had yet to see from the ground and found ourselves being checked into a small hotel which was comfortable even with its one speed (cold) shower with again time to kill. We were pleasantly surprised to Têfe a quaint friendly town with a population of about 80,000. We walked the streets of downtown along with all the mange ridden dogs that own the night and later sat down at a sidewalk grill and ate a steak dinner.

Steak Dinner

The next morning (we had at this point been in Brazil for 10 days) it was back to the local airport and back in the helicopter for the hour long ferry ride to the base camp and security search before we could inspect the decks. To their credit and even though we were back a day later than planned, they had made great progress on the decks but the problem was that the tents were still in the mud at the port and not ready waiting for us and we had discovered that none of our tools had arrived and they were supposedly still on a barge on their way from Manaus. So we waited another 3 hours before the Kambaku Tent arrived. On opening the tent as suspected water had breached the interior and somehow some mud had also stained the exposed part of the rolled up fabrics.

Kambaku Tent Progressing

Needless to say we sprung into action and started the setup, we had 3 days to set up 3 tents when a Kambaku normally takes 3 days to setup one Kambaku tent. As a result we worked past midnight for the duration to try and make it work and to give them credit, we had no translator at all but we got along great with the workers who never muttered a word of discontent about having to work such long hours into the wee hours of the morning and only getting a few hours sleep before going at it again. The tents played ball with us and everything fell into place perfectly that when the guys who stayed back in São Paulo arrived on the second day to help with the electricity, plumbing and the interiors, we were working over each other to get things done and tensions as a result started to rise in our effort to meet the deadline. 

Kambaku and Serengeti Tents

The days were sure hot and steamy and the early mornings were cool and beautiful with mist shrouding the river and surrounding forest before burning off and steaming up again ensuring the return of the regular afternoon rain storms. It was also so beautiful to see the Pink River Dolphins of the Amazon who were ever present in the river in front of the camp with the grey variety as well as in the Rio Negro when we were previously there.

The end of the story is we got done what was asked of us but were not able to complete the entire 11 tent setup and in the beautiful location originally selected - tentatively on schedule for October. We were done with the entire setup within minutes of the 3 helicopters arrival at the base camp with potential investors who were to be hosted in the 3 tents, we had accomplished the impossible and the tents looked absolutely stunning and the CEO and his visitors seemed most impressed with our first Exclusive Tents in the Amazon.

Amazon Sunset

We finally boarded water plane at the base camp on this last day and flew into Têfe and onto Manaus and Sao Paolo before boarding the plane back to the States.

Paul Zway