Stephen Altizer
West Virginia University College of Law, 2L
Monday, July 28, 2008

Caymans, Piranhas, Anacondas on the First Day

A view of the Amazon River and the Rio Negro from the airplane as it descends into Manaus

We’re Here! Though there was some doubt we would make it when during the flight from Miami to Panama City we hit turbulence that would make even the most fearless flier shriek. There were rumors that certain well-traveled professors were white-knuckled and just hoping to land safely.

All near-death experiences aside, we arrived in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon, Monday evening. During the bus ride to the hotel, I noticed that from block to block, all buildings, walls, and stands were brightly colored. The entire city is decorated in festive colors. Colors and graffiti that I would associate with slums, Brazilians proudly display everywhere as part of their culture. It is a culture of vibrant people, of people that appreciate beautiful colors as decorations where we find those same colors offensive. Our hotel was no different. My room was a bright neon lime color that served as both decoration and a nightlight. I think these colors are just a sign that we are going to have a lively time.

We were lucky enough to experience some of the best Brazilian food the night we arrived. At Bufalo, a Brazilian Steakhouse, which are known as Churrascarias, we were inundated with fine cuts of beef, lamb, and pork. These steakhouses are all you can eat. Dinner, for a very respectable price, includes delectable appetizers of grilled cheese, bread, plantains in a sugary glaze, a salad and vegetable bar, and the most-tender portions of meat. The great part is that the servers carry two foot long skewers of this meat to your table and carve you off pieces to enjoy. The food was so abundant that I was not able to start eating my filet mignon before I was being offered a delicious rack of lamb. The servers seemed to enjoy serving us more than we enjoyed eating. We eventually succumbed to the parade of meats and made our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Tuesday marked the beginning of our journey on the riverboat churning up and down the Rio Negro, one of the large tributaries to the Amazon River. The walk from the hotel to the pier, while a sight as twenty-one people rolled their luggage through the narrow streets, opened our eyes to the world of street vendors selling everything from universal remotes to local crafts. The walk quickly taught us that Brazilians cars do not yield to pedestrians. The pier sits next to the Manaus market. The market is alive with fishermen and fruit and vegetable growers working to make a living. Fresh fish, beef, pork, coconuts, bananas still attached to the tree branch, can all be found at this market, brought in that very morning. Our first stop along the riverboat tour was the mouth of the Rio Negro where it meets the Amazon. The black waters of the Rio Negro interlock with the clear waters of the Amazon and looks like fingers of each river are just poking into the other so you can always tell where one river ends and the other begins. As we headed back up the Rio Negro, we encountered two pink dolphins swimming along side the boat. The Rio Negro is home to some 800 species of fish, gray and pink dolphins being just two. We docked at the entrance of a lake area adjoining the Rio Negro and trekked our way into the jungle along a small wooden bridge. Our guides pointed to the discolorations of the trees going about five feet high and explained that the water had receded to that point as is normal during the season. At the end of the bridge was a tepid lake covered in lily pads, each pad about three feet wide and the largest in the world. Next to one of those lily pads was a cayman, kin to the alligator, and probably the most dangerous animal in terms of attacks on humans in the Amazon. Its razor sharp teeth seemed to give it a sly grin as if it knew it was a feared predator.

The next excursion pitted one group against the other as we fished for piranha from small canoes. The trip to our fishing spot gave us a chance to see a variety of indigenous birds. It was a fierce competition between the boats and each fisherman against the flesh eating fish. Most everyone caught a piranha, and everyone got a chance to see how vicious the bites from the fish can be as our guide held a leaf to its mouth and we watched it pull out chunks. Someone commented that it was a like a live hole-punch. After the fishing expedition we meandered through the jungle waters to another local dock, just missing a hard but short rainforest rain. Once on the dock, the caretakers introduced us to three-toed sloths, caymans (with their mouths closed with twine), pirachue (the largest sweetwater fish in the world), and an eight-foot anaconda by bringing the right up to us and letting us hold the animals. The group took turns taking pictures with the world’s largest constrictor wrapped around his or her neck.

Stephen Altizer with the anaconda

As dark began to fall around 6:00pm, we engaged in our first lecture. The theme of our discussion centered around the deforestation of the Amazon and what as lawyers can we possibly do to try and strike a balance between local and global interests in this jungle. Deforestation is very real. Illegal timber operations take over land from inattentive land owners at an alarming rate. Even those land owners who care for their land face death if they try to stop these operations. Land is also clear cut to legally raise cattle, soybeans, and other agricultural products largely for export. The problem is how do we, as outsiders, tell a country and its people that it cannot use its greatest resources to make money, to make a living? Preservation of the rainforest is important, but it comes at the expense of Brazilians who are trying to make an honest living. The illegal operations are difficult to police because of the size of the Amazon, and are not deterred by efforts to preserve the Amazon. Being in the middle of the Amazon, it is hard to believe that anyone would ever want to destroy such a beautiful place. But you have to take a step back and try to see it from the eyes of people that call this place home. Most are just trying to make a living, and maybe do not see the rainforest with as much reverence as us because it is something they have always known. There is no easy solution to balancing these interests. It should make for great discussions in future lectures.

Snakes, caymans, piranhas on the first day, I cannot wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow. Off to my hammock to sleep on the riverboat. This is going to be a great time!