Angamos Community : July 6, 2017
Leaving the Angamos Community provided some early morning entertainment for our Matses guides and local villagers as I launched my drone into the air for it’s first Amazonian flight. Angamos is situated on the banks of the Javary River, flowing off the Amazon River, and acts as the border of Peru and Brazil. My first shot of the area involved flying over the river to the Brazilian riverbank, but I didn’t want it to be shot down so I flew it back quickly and filmed aerials of the town, which the children were amazed by. I got some great shots with the DJI Mavic Pro, showing the relativity of the town to the river and also the amount of concrete used to create this jungle paradise. The vultures were showing an interest in the drone, and I didn’t want them to invite their friends the eagles who are known to attack flying cameras; so I landed it on the village heli pad and departed for Buen Peru, where we were to stay for 2 nights.
Angamos Matses Community. Brazil to left of river
Our aluminium boat was 15ft long x 3ft wide with a stick frame holding up a sheet of black plastic that blew off as a storm hit, 1 hour into the journey up stream. It was a downpour like no other, gale force wind and rain coming at us sideways. Welcome to the jungle! Amarndo and his wife Alyssya travelled in a second boat giving a ride to a friend with a sick baby. We barely got our shit sorted when Amarndo’s boat stopped dead as the engine cut out; we later found out it had been tampered with. So an extra 3 adults and a sick baby climbed into our boat and we set off again. I was set up in a position to film anything that moved and this was my routine each and every time we travelled by boat.
I never got sick of the birdlife and river landscapes and the occasional spurt of water from a pink dolphin turned heads. It was again surreal, motoring slowly along rivers so ancient and with such a healthy ecosystem. Swooping birds like kingfishers and eagles soared above while blue and yellow Macaws screeched and gorged on the trees of the forest canopy for food much like our cockatoos in Australia. Everywhere you looked butterflies were dancing in swarms above the riverbanks and inspecting our gear on the boat, as if to catch a ride. I was intent on filming the toucan in full flight, we had seen a few, but I had to settle for the many pairs of colourful macaws flying above like airforce squadrons taking off on the sound of the boat’s engine. We were truly immersed in the Amazon, canoeing upstream like many pioneers of the last century, like Fawcett our contemporary.
I captured a Matses family on a canoe who seemed wary of being filmed by outsiders as they hid their faces as they motored past. The people are still very cautious after years of fighting and civil war between the government and native tribes and mining companies.
Local Matses family in canoe
Toilet break
The journey from Angamos to Buen Peru Village took nearly 12 hours, the equivalent of flying half way around the world, and yet we did it sitting in this old stinking boat, full of people during a gale force storm. It was well after dark when we finally arrived in the village. After unloading our boat we made our way into a traditional house with a fire and enjoyed a meal of fish and cordial, our staple diet for the expedition. Sore and tired, it was good to finally close the eyes and drift off to the images of the river landscapes and sounds of the surrounding rainforest.
