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• Jul 17, 2024
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One of the Best Definitions I’ve Ever Heard to Describe Tediousness

“Tediousness is the time space between two fishing trips”

An angler from childhood, I had my mother deeply worried and trying to stop me from adventuring into the always-present waters of the Amazon River, canals, or lagoons—not always friendly environments for a young boy.

But a boy unaware of danger and risks doesn’t worry; he makes fun. So ever since, I’ve been having fun, fishing all available time in childhood, weekends, and school vacations. I now consider myself an experienced angler. I have used most types of spinning, casting rods & reels, live baits, although I prefer working artificial lures, and hooked most Amazon game fish, freshwater as well as saltwater fish found in coastal waters.

Graduated in 1984, and after obtaining a degree as a Systems Analyst, I got my first job at 18.

After working for about nine years in an aluminum processing plant in the Amazon, I set up my own business in 1992, selling computer hardware as well as developing software. Early in 1998, during a business convention in São Paulo, due to my past experience of fishing the Amazon, I got involved in planning and organizing a fishing trip for a group of colleagues and friends. More followed, and the pleasure and success obtained in organizing these events were decisive in giving my life a turnover. Later that same year, I sold off my business and founded Pescamazon. Since then, I have been working the Brazilian market, until recently when I decided to go worldwide with my experience and fishing locations.

Born in 1959, happily married to Patricia Lage and father of Leandro, Marcio, and Pedro, I am fulfilled with my work and very proud of being born in the Amazon.

Today, there are very few moments of tediousness in my life.

The Amazon Basin

Geography and Geology

The River Amazon is by far the largest river in the world. About 20% of all the freshwater flowing into the oceans of the world enters via the River Amazon, which has an average flow of 200,000 cubic meters per second at its mouth. This is more than ten times the flow of the Mississippi. Even given the heavy rainfall that can occur within the Amazon basin (average rainfall varies between 1500 and 3000 mm per year over the majority of the catchments), such a flow still requires a huge catchment area. The Amazon drains an area of more than 7 million square kilometers and includes Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The Amazon can be considered as a collecting channel for a series of large rivers.

The largest of these tributaries is the Rio Negro. Other major tributaries have their origin in the high Andes and these give the river its essential character because they contribute much of the sediment and nutrients present in the lower Amazon River. The depth of the River Amazon downstream of its confluence with the Rio Negro averages 25-30 meters in the vicinity of Tefe, Brazil.

For much of its course through the Amazon basin, it flows through low-lying land and thus is able to meander across a wide floodplain, forming a great mosaic of lakes, ponds, and channels—the template from which the aquatic diversity of the region is formed.

The Amazon is essentially a giant river valley bordered to the north and south by the Guiana and Brazilian shields, respectively, which comprise hard Precambrian rock. The total area of the Amazon Basin is 7.5 million square kilometers, of which about 80% is rainforest. During the Paleozoic, the Basin was a huge marine inlet into which many tributaries flowed.

Until the Andes began to form at the end of the Miocene, this inlet opened into the Pacific Ocean, and thus some elements of the Amazonian fauna are related to marine fish from the Pacific rather than the Atlantic Ocean. During the Quaternary, water levels within the Amazon basin changed with the sea level. When the sea level was high, huge lakes formed in the valley into which large amounts of sediment flowed.

During periods of low sea water level, the rivers cut through the sediments forming river valleys. The modern sediments of the Amazon valley were formed during this period. These sedimentary deposits are up to 300 meters thick and are called the Barrier formation. Because these sediments have been heavily leached, they hold low levels of nutrients and easily soluble cations such as calcium, and thus water flowing from the sedimentary deposits in the basin always has a low conductivity.

History

The first European to visit the Amazon was Vicente Yanez Pinzon, who sailed up the river in 1500. The River Amazon was first ascended from its source in the Andes to its mouth by the party led by Don Francisco de Orellana in 1541-42. This journey was forced on the Spaniards who had traveled ahead of the main body to seek provisions. However, they traveled downstream to a point where they did not have the resources to make their way back up the Andes to Peru. After reaching the mouth, they made the journey back to Spain via Trinidad. Orellana later returned to the Amazon, but the expedition was a disaster, and he drowned when his ship capsized in the mouth of the Amazon. The first scientist to travel the entire length of the river was Ch. M. de La Condamine.

Intensive biological study of the region commenced in the 19th century. First, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by the French botanist Aimé Bonpland, mapped the connection between the Amazon and Orinoco systems through the Casiquiare River. The British natural historians Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Wallace followed in these studies mid-century. Bates spent the years from 1848 to 1859 along the Amazon, collecting thousands of species of animals. Much of his time was spent in Tefe, then called Ega. He wrote a book, The Naturalist on the River Amazons, which is one of the best accounts of the ecology ever written. Wallace was less successful than Bates and lost all his samples in a shipwreck. However, he moved on to Asia, where he had the idea of evolution, which he later co-presented with Charles Darwin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt took a great interest in the region and led an expedition to explore what became the Roosevelt River. Between 1910 and 1924, expeditions sponsored by Harvard University undertook much work. Today, Brazilian scientists undertake research supported by visitors from many countries. The major research institutions are Museum Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém and INPA in Manaus.

While there has been considerable habitat degradation over this century, the Amazon still remains the greatest green wilderness in the world and attracts many biologists and ecologists to its riches.

Major Cities

The two great Brazilian cities of the Amazon are Belém at the mouth and Manaus upstream at the confluence of the Rio Negro with the River Amazon. Belém is a long-established town that was given city status in 1655. It is a trading city that grew rapidly during the rubber boom years, and although rubber is no longer important, it still is a trading center for Amazonian products such as Brazil nuts and wood. It is also a center for Amazonian studies, and the Museum Paraense Emílio Goeldi should be visited by all those interested in the Amazonian flora and fauna.

Manaus is also a port for ocean-going ships, although it is 1,450 km from the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the state of Amazonas and an important manufacturing center. The city has recently undergone rapid expansion, partially due to economic assistance from the Brazilian federal government, which gave the city valuable tax concessions. From 1890 to 1920, the rubber boom brought great wealth to the city, and many fine buildings were erected, including the famous opera house. The city then went into decline until the 1960s when the present boom commenced. The city has grown rapidly, and the once graceful old city has now been almost destroyed or abandoned. Modern life in the city now follows the normal suburban pattern of trips to shopping arcades on the outskirts rather than visits to the old town center. The rapid growth of this city has drawn people from the forest and has resulted in a partial de-population of some Amazonian areas, which in some cases now have populations lower than when the Spaniards first arrived. Along the edge of the Rio Negro, the city has fine sandy beaches during the low-water season. Manaus has a large airport, which is the main entry point for Amazonian tourists. Anyone interested in wildlife should visit INPA, which has a small zoo set in a small forested park.