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AMAZON EXPEDITION DAY 7

Somewhere Along the Javary River : July 9, 2017

It was about 4:30am and nearly light when I was naturally awakened by the crickets and millions of insects inhabiting the area in and around our tents, including many baby frogs, geckos and toads. We were truly living deep in the rain forest sharing this untouched environment with the natural fauna, and I felt comfortable and in my element. I started the day recording the sounds of the rain forest, while I nodded off and left it for an hour to get more rest. I captured audio perfect for a massage room CD.

After a breakfast of fish and cornflakes, Sergio showed Kane how to make fire and a bbq from the local trees and went fishing with the rods made the day before. We tried our luck nearby the camp and were lucky enough to catch the mighty flesh eating piranha, which fought hard. The natives smoked the teeth wielding fish for 30mins over the fire and served it up beautifully presented on a palm leaf with jungle spaghetti, tomato and lime.

We left the camp late in the afternoon to film Macaws nesting high up in a palm forest about 90 mins away. The 45 minute trek from the river was tricky, in boggy mosquito infested marshland. While we saw several anaconda tracks, we didn’t run in to one sadly. The palm setting resembled a scene from Jurassic Park captured perfectly in the photos below and the Macaws flew so close to us using the dead trees to nest and share with their partners.

As the sun was disappearing, it was the perfect opportunity and conditions to fly the drone. The light was perfect. Our native guides assured me there were no eagles in the area so I sent my drone up slowly over the tree line and filmed the large parrots in their natural environment. The sounds of the screeching cockatoo-like birds were incredible and what was to happen next was mind blowing.

Hundreds of Blue-Yellow Macaws and many other tropical parrots flew past the drone, swooping and circling it like prey. It was incredible to capture these colourful birds close-up, flying over the canopy, as the sun set in the Amazon. We all laughed like children, amazed and in disbelief at how good the show was. I carefully landed the drone back on the makeshift viewing platform and the Matses natives guided us back through the anaconda and tarantula inhabited jungle in the dark to the canoe where we returned to the camp where another feast of freshly smoked amazon fish awaited us.

Nothing could surpass that afternoon and still being full of adrenaline, we set off after dinner to find Caiman (fresh water alligator). We had seen their eyes staring each night on the riverbanks but we wanted to capture and film one for the documentary. Sergio, with a hole in his knee from the arrow accident, was of course up to the task and this was something quite normal for him. After two gentle hours floating downstream and several failed attempts, we finally approached an unsuspecting reptile and Sergio leaned over the bow of the boat and snatched one from the shallow water with his bare hands. Kane held it for the camera, which will make a nice segment for the film and being a juvenile Caiman, we released it back into the river. It was Full Moon that night, which lit up the river and guided us nicely back to camp to end a pretty remarkable day in the Amazon.

AMAZON EXPEDITION DAY 6 : DONT FORGET THE CHICKENS

Buen Peru Village July 8, 2017

I woke to a superb sunrise again by the river, and again to the sounds of the roosters. Mornings were a good opportunity for time lapse video and I recorded some nice sounds of the forest. I wandered the area for hours on my own capturing moments with no consideration for time or schedule. I started to forget what day it was and with no internet, I was no longer a hostage to social media or email. It was a nice feeling and one we should all discover at some stage in our busy lives. If only I could share it with my family.

It was time to leave the village for a remote camp deeper into the jungle, called Colpa II. The people have been so friendly here, but we may return to stock up with supplies. It was going to be a 5 hour boat ride upstream but after 30 minutes we started turning back to the Village. Dennis forgot the chickens which the kids gave us for our journey. After returning to pick up our dinner, we carried them alive in the back of the boat for the entire trip where our feathered friends were ‘taken care of’ at camp.

Again , the river didn’t disappoint. If there was ever 5 hours of enjoyable travel, this was it. Everywhere one looked, there was wildlife and huge rain forest trees; pink dolphins; thousands of butterflies flying above the water and on the boat; birds like Kingfishers, big birds like eagle, vulture, macaw and the famous toucan. The macaw often fly over in pairs and you can first hear them feeding in the trees before they take off overhead. We even saw a family of Capybara which is a large herbivorous animal and the largest rodent in the world, partly related to a guinea pig. The drone footage shows this river is so little yet such an important habitat for the wildlife. It is also the source of life for the native people.

Once we arrived, it was time to set up camp and our guides Amarndo, Sergio and Hernan showed us how to make a shelter from the trees. Just using their machetes, they cleared an area for 4 tents from dense jungle in 15minutes - incredible. We used the larger trees for poles & crossbar, tied them together with vine and the smaller trees for side pegs and the stringy rope like bark tied the tarp to the pegs. Genius. And finally we cut down palm leaves for the base, to keep the tents off the damp rain forest mulch. The natives normally use palm leaves for the roof, but we were fortunate enough to have a tarp.

Sergio later showed Kane how to make a fishing rod from the trees and by partly burning it and cleaning the bark, it gives it a nice bend with perfect strength.

We hiked later in the afternoon for 2 hours to visit a clay mineral deposit where Tapir go to feed. Along the way Hernan heard some monkeys close by. It was incredible to have the opportunity to film a Red Faced Monkey, in the wild, and I managed to capture video of one male high in the trees, from a safe distance as to not scare them off, but still see them through my lens. We didn’t manage to spot Tapir that night, I think we scared them off with noise and being a large group of people wearing strong smelling DEET! But on the night walk back to camp, we found several frogs, interesting toads, a coral snake and a local possum like creature, just using our head torches. The natives can hear the animals clearly, they have such a strong connection to the jungle, much like our Aborigines and the outback.

It was our first night sleeping under the canopy of the jungle and that was what I had been looking forward to the most. Listening to the chorus of insects, birds, monkey and other mammals, in stereo is unforgettable. It didn’t disappoint and to top it off, I filmed the full moon rising through the palm trees in a sky full of stars. You could write a song about it.......not a bad day really!

AMAZON EXPEDITION DAY 5 : VILLAGE LIFE

Buen Peru Village, July 7, 2017

The Matses people live in primitive houses with thatched roofs on stilts. They don’t have bathrooms and kitchens, sofas and dining tables and they cook over an open fire that is inside. They sleep in hammocks! As we motored upstream the previous day for 12 hours, we passed 3 other small villages that don’t associate with outsiders. No arrows were fired at us!

They all live high on the river, probably to avoid flooding and also snakes. The Indians keep chickens and as the houses are on stilts they roam underneath to feed on scraps. It’s very simple and effective and meant we were woken up to the rooster at 4:30am wandering about under the tent. Every family has a dog and if one barks (normally at a predator) they all start squawking.

Our first day in a Matses village was about learning to grow crops in the Amazon. Armando and his family farm was a 30 minute trek through the jungle, meaning they have to carry their produce each time they harvest. I complain when I have to drive down to the supermarket. They grow banana, plantain, sweet potato and papaya in this field, which they rotate and only remove enough forest trees to sustain their crops. The men and women carry their harvest in a bag made of palm leaves that they place over their head and they prefer this method to the backpack.

I spent the rest of the day filming people around the village, kids playing volleyball and bow and arrows. This was a perfect opportunity to fly the drone again, the weather was perfect so I shot some aerials of the village and wowed the kids. They were totally amazed by this flying object which I was controlling from a little remote, most would not have even seen an aeroplane!

I captured some more great sunset time lapses and photos and it was approaching full moon which turned the dark forest into a glowing paradise.

AMAZON DAY 4: CONCRETE JUNGLE

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.

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.

AMAZON DAY 3 : WELCOME WARRIOR

Equitos to Angamos Matses Community : July 5, 2017

I was concerned we’d be forced to wait another day to fly into the remote community; the storms clouds were thick the next morning. However, by midday we got the green light and raced over to the Air Force base to make the 2 hour flight over the Amazon to the Matses community called Angamos.

It was incredible and surreal flying over the Amazon River and surrounding jungle in a light aircraft. I first saw this sight in 2014 from another perspective – from across the forest in Manaus, Brazil. The jungle looks never-ending and the vast muddy brown waters of the Amazon spill into the trees, eroding everything in its path. I filmed what I could through the dirty window of the plane.

We landed on a small strip of grass with the eyes of about 100 intrigued natives watching us. It turns out they were waiting for their rice and bottled soft drink to arrive from the city. We collected our equipment and as we raced to protect the gear with rain covers, the heavens opened and the typical Amazon monsoonal rain hit us hard, for the entire 30 minute hike to the community. I knew it would be humid but I wasn’t quite prepared for this.

Truth be told, my first impression of the Angamos Community was a little disappointing. I wasn’t expecting to see power lines and concrete roads arranged with stop signs and lanes for vehicles given the only vehicle in the village was a small 3 wheel bike with a tray, taking the children up and down for joy rides. It looked as though the local council had just hastily finished a construction project. This community had been slowly integrated with civilised Peru; the national anthem blares out from outdoor speakers, indoctrinating the children. The presence and power of the military is obvious as it keeps a close eye on the population of approximately 800.

Angamos Children

We met our guides for the expedition, including the chief of the tribe, Hernan who at first looked rather intimidating, despite his Premier League shirt. The chief's role is to make tribal decisions with assistance from leaders. I was told that the former chief was a famous warrior who killed many people and crushed skulls in tribal wars. Dennis, the grandson of the former skull-crusher, would be travelling with us - an expert hunter, highly proficient with the bow & arrow and able to catch large Anacondas with his bare hands. Armando, his father, was a community leader, expert on the land and spiritual chief. Sergio, another guide, was extremely knowledgeable with plant medicine, his father being a Shaman. Before the expedition, Sergio had had a bad accident when an arrow had pierced his knee and exited out the other side. He’d refused hospital treatment so he could complete the expedition with us. I had my concerns about his untreated injury given what lay ahead of us.

The local shop owners who run a monopoly in Angamos, and not surprisingly the wealthiest of the community, served up fish for dinner. Various family members watched a loud movie on a small TV in the shop. I slept on a mosquito net covered mattress in a small wooden shack with no lighting and had access to the last modern toilet I see for 2 weeks.