Caxiuanã National Forest

I’m trying my best to minimise the risks to myself and my guide. I’m making decisions every day to calculate the best route, at the same time considering the risks and escape options should anything go wrong. But a times, we just have to rely on good luck or God! to make any progress. My new guide Paulo and myself have just walked (and swum the rivers, in my case) for eleven days to reach Baia Do Caxiuanã. The route I had planned seemed to work, apart from a massive lago (lake) we came across that I thought was campo (natural open ground) on the map. A big detour was required, with the last 10km being the best part because higher ground and a long track led us to the Baia.

Paulo has worked in the forest for over 35 years doing various jobs, most recently working for an Italian guy collecting Brazil nuts (Castanha do Pará as they are known in Brazil). He had to carry 60 Kilograms at a time in a basket strapped to his back and forehead, through the forest to a boat. He also had the job of hand cutting pathways for months on end for different companies to access parts of the forest. So he is the ideal guide to accompany me, and he also has a vast knowledge of the names of different species of trees, fruit, insects and animals.

Last week, as we were cutting our path through the forest, we came across a father and son with shotguns, accompanied by three excited dogs. They were frantically digging holes in the ground with their machetes, sticks, and bare hands. They chatted to us and explained why they were digging and I asked if I could film them. It turned out they had trapped an Agouti in its burrow and were trying to extract it. After two plus hours they finally caught the animal and swiftly killed it with a sharp blow to the head. They had walked five kilometres from their community and spent their entire day hunting and capturing the animal.

They invited us back to their house on the Rio Pacajai to eat with them and rest. I made my excuses to avoid eating the Agouti. They had no food or money, only farinha to feed a family of five. So the extra meat was needed. I’ve realised that some of people in this area eat every type of animal they can find- Sloths, monkeys, Agouti, Caiman, Armadillo, tortoise – you name it, they eat it. We encountered a large Tortoise at one point and I took a few photos. When I had finished, Paulo promptly picked up the animal and put it in his backpack “to eat later” he said.

I guess it’s second nature for people to extract animals to eat here. As we walked I hinted that we have enough to eat and don’t need to kill the animal and that I think it’s an endangered species. He kept quiet, but an hour or so later we came across some fruit, and Paulo turned to me and said “Tortoises love to eat this’. He unpacked the animal and carefully left it behind to eat the fruit.

We also encountered a gigantic Kapok tree that my guide reckoned was over 300 years old. We both stood amazed, looking up at the tree. I was thinking ‘wow, what an amazing tree’, and then Paulo said “that would build at least 40-50 houses.” I hope the tree reaches it’s natural end, but I doubt it.

The area we are about to cross is Caxiuanã National Forest, It’s a government protected area and is monitored by an international scientific research station on the north end of the bay I think. It is also the second oldest national forest in Brazil, and only a handful of families live around the bay so the protected forest on the west side is still pretty much intact, togehter with the wildlife that lives there, so it should be interesting to traverse. We have again been warned about Jaguars ( Onça ) but I think the risk is minimal. It is extremely rare to hear of one attacking a human.

Next blog then from Porto De Moz at the mouth of the mighty Xingu river.

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Header photo: This young Sloth was adopted by a family after its mother was killed for food by a hunter.

View from Portel: One of the bodies of water i had to swim across.

Paulo skillfully and swiftly opens pod of Brazil nuts for the children to eat at a community we encountered

Most families seem to have a pet Macaw

Analdo plays with the young Sloth. It’s now living at his family house because the mother was killed for food by a hunter two weeks ago.

On the hunt: Father and son digging to capture an animal to feed a family.

Brewing a morning coffee before we set off walking again.

Boy in the community showing off his climbing skills.

The Tortoise we encountered lives another day, after I told my guide that we had enough food and didn’t need it.

A resident at the community offered to show us a track that ran for 9 Kilometres, and then walked the first five with us. The open area in the photo is natural and hasn’t been deforested. At times we encountered open patches of ground the locals call campo. He later captured a wild boar while walking with us.

Me looking up at the giant Kapok tree we found, my guide took this photo but didn’t capture the full width – it is much wider to the right of the image, in fact the same again and more.