I have been travelling to the Amazon Forest for many years now and it was a dream of mine to do a solo expedition in remote areas of the Brazilian jungle. After years of work, training and preparation I thought I was finally ready. It all started in the Cucui area (border of Brazil and Venezuela), the Rio Negro would take me down to the Amazon River and this 1400 km adventure would also take care of my pride very fast. I saw the trust in myself disappear and soon I realized how lucky I was to finish each day. I left the comfortable life of my home in the US after a long 2 years of preparation. Most of my training was based on long distance Kayaking and orientation with more than basic maps (actually there is no detailed commercial maps of the Brazilian Amazon available). I am no expert kayaker and even if I did some long-distance trips on canoe, I know now that I barely qualify for this kind of paddling, at least on paper. My past two travels around the world were done on motorcycle, 4x4 and sail boat, but kayaking for that long of a distance would be a challenge.
From day one I started with a serious problem; the Amazon River is in a huge flood this year. Actually, the water level was at a height not seen for over 100 years and when you translate that in numbers, this means that the river was actually 30 meters above its normal level. A normal guy would have waited another year but after being confined for almost two years there was no way to delay my departure.
After a long 20 hours flight I arrived in Manaus Brazil, anxious to see if my kayak was intact and ready to start my trip. All went well at the airport and after a quick check of all my gears and a rapid set up of my kayak in my hotel room I started to organize myself for the next leg of the trip, a 3 hours flight in a small plane from Manaus to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira, from where I would launch.
This small village is nested close to the border of Venezuela and 80 percent of its population is from indigen tribes from all over the Amazon. I only stayed 2 days there. The first day for shopping basic food like rice, pasta, coffee (I would fish every day for protein), and also to buy basic gears such as a machete and a tarp.The following day for information about the river navigation and dangers. I actually met some military men who accepted to take me for a fee aboard their small boat for a quick try out on the river up to Cucui (the place where I wanted to started my trip. At the first major rapid, we almost lost their boat and I had to jump for my first swim in heavy current. I should have known right there that the situation would be difficult or just by translating the name of the city, Sao Gabriel da Cachoiera, Cachoiera meaning waterfall in Portuguese: I would go through many of them going down on my way to Manaus.
I originally was set to finish in Macapa and then continue to French Guyana but after being arrested 3 times by the fluvial police, followed and shot at by bandits and the closure of the border with Guyana due to Covid I had to stop in Parintins. 1400 km is not bad I guess but I will have to go back there again. This was my first long distance expedition using a kayak and without any doubt I would take again my Neris Expedition Kayak, to be honest with you I think that many times the kayak saved me when I was fighting for my life in the violent rapids of the Rio Negro.
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