Natural Abundance of the Amazon

Allison Minton
West Virginia University College of Law, 3L
Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dusk on the Rio Negro. One of our guides, Aguinaldo (“Auggie”), paddles our small wooden canoe through one of many river channels snaking through the flooded forest. When we are quiet, we can hear exotic bird calls and can see blue morpho butterflies. The dark water is so still that it perfectly mirrors the trees above and we cannot tell where the water ends and where the sky begins.

Our guide Auginaldo (Auggie), at home in the rainforest, teaches of the medicinal value of many of the trees and plants in the Amazon

At one point, one of the two canoes ferrying us through the flooded forest becomes tangled in jungle vines hanging from the canopy of trees, high above our heads. Our other guide, Anandi (“AN-an-jee”) calmly steps out of the canoe, into the black waters and onto a submerged log. He untangles the canoe. I am amazed at how easily, how comfortably, he moves in this environment.

Throughout this trip, I have been repeatedly reminded of how integrated our guides are with their environment. They are more comfortable in the Amazon then we are in our own backyards. Not only do our guides know all the twists and turns of the labyrinthine back channels of the flooded forest, they also know what fruits provide life-saving water, where to look for animals, and what jungle plants cure malaria, help with diabetes, and terminate unwanted pregnancies. And one time, on a jungle trek, Anandi said he could smell a viper. All we could smell was the buckets of deet we slathered on ourselves to protect us from the jungle bugs.

Striking out in a covered canoe to explore the flooded forest

I have realized that we look at the natural world so differently from our gracious hosts. While our guides thrive in the natural abundance of the Amazon, we seek protection from the heat, the bugs, and the sun. Yet somehow, this difference comforts me: despite globalization, despite the awesome power of the world economy to distribute the same sneakers and t-shirts to ports all around the globe, the world is still a remarkably varied and vast place.

We are definitely, wonderfully, out of place in this world.