The expedition team has successfully completed the Rio Roosevelt Centennial Expedition. The Brazilian team members are all back home. Dave is on his way and will arrive back in Minnesota tomorrow. Paul is enjoying a few more days in Brazil with his wife, Susan. Thanks for following the adventure! You can find the press release about the completion of the expedition by clicking here. We will post more photos from the expedition here in the upcoming week.
The last four days have been a whirlwind. We have traveled over 1,000 km by bus and car from one end of the Rio Roosevelt to the other. Luckily our Brazilian companions make the travel logistics look easy. They quickly talked a couple of half empty trucks into transporting our canoes down the Tran-Amazon “Highway” and then we all climbed on the first bus headed west. The bus, which we quickly nicknamed the magic bus was headed to the big city for some much needed repair. We ended up having the whole bus to ourselves and convinced the young driver to drive us an extra 200 km to Porto Velho for about $100. The only hitch was that the driver filled the bus floor to ceiling with crates of empty bottles for the final 200 km. He only left 8 seats at the front free for us and we had to cram the isle between our seats with all of our stuff.
We picked up our vehicles and canoe trailer in Porto Velho and spent a morning looking for historic photos and artifacts from the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition. We found a small museum with a collection of photographs and documents from the expedition, but the curator of the collection was on vacation. Paul and I plan to return to the museum in about 10 days to see the collection.
Last night we were back in Pimenta Bueno at the Hotel Piritiba, where we stayed for several nights before starting our paddle. Luckily this time we have been granted permission by the Cinta Larga to paddle the upper section of the Rio Roosevelt. Our Brazilian teammates worked hard last night and again this morning to try and find someone who would drive us 100 km from Pimenta Bueno to the Baleiza Fazenda (Fazenda means farm in Portugese). In the end they drove us to the headwaters. It took us hours over rough roads to reach the water. After taking a few photos we said goodbye and they drove away, leaving Paul and me alone. It would have been very difficult for us to find a ride to this remote put in without their help. They have a 3,000 km drive to get back to their families. It was really generous of them to drive us all the way to the river.
Like Roosevelt did one 100 years ago, we will camp here before beginning our descent. Looking downstream from this spot I can picture Roosevelt’s canoe disappearing around the first bend into the unknown. Tomorrow we will do the same. We plan to spend about a week paddling the first 130 km of the river to the main Cinta Larga village. Marcello, the Cinta Larga chief who gave us permission to paddle the river, lives in that village. We are really looking forward to meeting Marcello and other members of his community and learning more about the Cinta Larga. We will also be searching for some of Roosevelt’s campsites and documenting the rapids that gave the expedition team so much trouble at the beginning of their journey. Let the adventure continue!
It turns out there is a little lodge at the mouth of the Rio roosevelt. After showers and cold beer I think we feel about as refreshed as Roosevelt did we he saw the rest of his original party camped here 100 years ago. It has been a pleasure following in Roosevelt’s footsteps. Paul and I still have 2 weeks in Brazil.
We plan to work our way back to the headwaters of the river. We are going to try to contact the Cinta Large again to gain access to the beginning of the river. We really want to meet the Cinta Larga and paddle the first part of the river. We look forward to sharing the rest of the adventure with you.
The dull roar of powerful rapids have been a constant reminder of the power of the Rio Roosevelt over the past 3 days. We have been camping in the forest and spending more time walking forest trails rather than our normal rythm of paddling all day. We spent two days walking back and forth on forest trails scouting the river and walking to a farm 10 km from the beginning of the rapids to gain more information about the rapids.
We decided that the safest options was to portage our 5 canoes and mountain of equipment 3 km along good trails to the base of the first rapids. Paul and I spent 5 hours hauling 4 of the canoes and several packs to the beach below the rapids last night during the relative cool night air. We crashed in our hammocks for a few hours and then the whole group began portaging the rest of the supples at dawn. By 9:30 Eurico dropped the last pack on the beach and Hercilio prepared a big feast. Our next portage lay only a kilometer away and we needed to regain our strength.
The swift current quickly swept us to the next rapids. We snaked along the shore wading next to the canoes and using ropes to carefully maneuver the canoes past the surging rapids. Twice we have to unload the canoes and carry all of our equipment and canoes over the rocks. After several hours of hard, wet work we launched the canoes at the base of the rapids. Smaller rapids were scattered over the next 5 km. We wove through islands and plunged over ledges and through crashing waves. – After a long day we stopped on a small beach just above Sumauma, the largest of the rapids. Sumauma is our last major obstacle before we reach the mouth of the Rio Roosevelt. One hundred years ago Roosevelt’s crew spent a day and a half navigating this final stretch of rapids. With any luck we will also be past the last rapids by lunch time tomorrow and we will reach the mouth of the Rio Roosevelt tomorrow afternoon.
Today we paddled around a bend in the Rio Branco and the Rio Roosevelt came into view. Everyone howled with joy. After over a week of stops and starts and even flying over the Rio Roosevelt we were finally descending the river that President Theodore Roosevelt’s party explored 100 years ago. One of our goals is to see how the river has changed over the last 100 years. Is it still the wild and remote place that Roosevelt encountered?
Yesterday we encountered rubber tappers, just as Roosevelt did in 1914. We have encountered a few farms in the region, but large tracks of land remain wild and undeveloped. In fact, we recently learned that anthropologists discovered an uncontacted tribe living near the Rio Branco several months ago. The Brazilian government is setting up a reserve similar to the Cinta Larga reserve so that the uncontacted tribe will remain undisturbed and can continue to live as they have for centuries. Those people were probably living in this region when Roosevelt traveled through.
The Rio Roosevelt is a grand river, with rocky islands and numerous rapids. This afternoon we navigated 3 rapids. All of the rapids were small enough that we were able to descend them safely in our canoes and did not have to portage. We are camped at the base of the last rapids. I am listening to the dull rumble of the rapids and watching the sun dip below the horizon as I write this. I can see President Roosevelt sitting in this place writing in his journal.
We awoke in the remote Brazilian town of Pimento Bueno this morning to an odd twist of fate. We anticipated that our entry point to the fabled Rio Roosevelt would be determined at a meeting in a tribal Cinta Larga village a few dozen miles away. But instead it was determined by tragic events in the nation’s capitol, Brazilia, a few thousands miles away.
Yesterday, hundreds of Amazonian Indians had gathered there to protest the government’s lavish spending on Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament, rather than on health & education services for native peoples. Ugly confrontations erupted — involving teargas, guns and even bows & arrows. Sadly, casualties resulted.
Overnight the tension rippled to our village. Among the protestors were Cinta Larga chiefs, including our key contacts. This morning federal police here in Pimento Bueno advised us not to enter their lands, even if they granted us a meeting. And so “Plan B” was put into play.
We continued down the highway towards a Rio Roosevelt entry point beyond the Cinta Larga reserve. A country road took us deep into rural Brazil. We passed expansive ranchlands cut from the jungle, sleepy farm towns, horse carts & friendly folks keen to point us in the right direction. But hours into our odyssey the road steadily deteriorated as long stretches of steamy jungle became more frequent and we finally got all 3 vehicles mired in a deep muddy quagmire.
Fortunately, a lorry piled high with farm workers on their way back to the “fazenda” happened along. In the dark, they helped extract us from our dilemma and alerted us to a nearby farmstead where an alternate river access might be available.
That quagmire brought another odd twist of fate because tonight we hit the jackpot at the “Rio Branco Fazenda.” Farm hands at this 30,000-acre ranch greeted us — 8 mud-caked surprise guests — with a warm welcome, a hot meal, warm showers, and a bunkhouse. They also alerted us that easy access is available through their farm fields to the Rio Branco, a jungle river that will take us to the Roosevelt. So with a little luck sometime tomorrow we will reach water’s edge.
We are still waiting to meet with the Cinta Larga and get permission to paddle through their reserve. We have been communicating with them for several months, but have had trouble setting up a formal meeting with the chiefs to gain permission. We are hopeful that tomorrow will bring positive news and our waiting game will end.
Today we rented a small airplane for an hour and flew over the Rio Roosevelt. It was spectacular, wild, and as beautiful and challenging as I imagined. We got some good video footage. Here is a 1 minute video clip that Paul took with his iphone. I look forward to sharing more polished videos when we get off the river.
I also just wrote a blog post for the Wilderness Classroom, which includes some photos from our flight. Tomorrow is a big day, I hope we get permission to pass through the Cinta Larga’s land.
Paddles Up!
Dave
We are doing well and have about 400 miles left to drive to get to the Rio Roosevelt.
While driving, our group got separated and we are staying in hotels about 50 miles apart. My computer and communication supplies are in the other vehicle and so I can’t upload our usual Notes from the Trail. I’ll provide a more detailed update later today or Tuesday.
We are already seeing a bunch of animals, especially birds. We saw a flock of 10 to 15 Blue and Gold Macaws today.
During the Rio Roosevelt Expedition we will use our InReach to send short messages and our location on this map.
We went to Walmart and Sam’s Club today to buy our lunch supplies. Tonico is packing all of our dinners and Jack is packing all of our breakfasts. Each team member is in charge of their own lunches. Paul and I are packing our lunches together. We pushed the cart up and down the isles past flat screen TVs, blenders, beer, produce, and the million other things for sale at mega stores like Walmart. The packaging on the food looks a little different, but it was easy to find nuts, dried fruit, summer sausage, and cheese, which combined with our Cliff Bars will be our lunch each day on the Rio Roosevelt. The biggest surprise was a giant pile of Piranhas for sale for about $3.50 a pound! We were tempted to buy some, but decided to wait and catch our own in the Rio Roosevelt. DO you think they are farm raise or wild caught? Do Piranhas come with the Walmart low price guarantee?
In the morning 6 of our 8 member team will meet up for the first time and start packing. We have a ton of stuff to cram into two cars for the 2,400 KM drive to the River of Doubt. The drive will take us 2 and 1/2 days and we will probably leave Saturday morning. If all goes well we can start paddling on Tuesday!
