15 May 2007
The Amacayacu National Parc: 19-4-2007
La Condamine had a list with indian words in the language of several of the tribes he thought he would meet. He remarks that the words “mama” and “papa” in the Omagua-language have the same meaning as in european languages. Now, "the indigenes" of the tribes we met, the Jagua, Tucuma, Cocama, all spoke spanish. La Condamine was guided by people sent by the missions he passed. Thanks to my colleague Antoine Cleef, we were guided by his friend Alejandro Jaramillo and his chauffeur Jose Rodriguez; they seemed to know everybody in both Leticia and Tabatinga. Jeronimo was our spanish translator!
The Common woolly monkey
On April 19, Alejandro brought us in a small boat to the Amacayacu National Parc. There we met Dr. Sara Bennett, an american biologist, who is living already for some 15 years with her monkeys and other animals, treating them as human babies (...). We stayed for the night in the indian village Puerto Nariño, in hotel "Casa Selva”, 80 km west of Leticia. Policemen showed us a captured anaconda of about 10 m. The snake was not hungry, because the hen, given for food, was sitting on top of the curled-up snake, seemingly unaware of the future danger.
La Condamine observed dolphins ("le dauphin d'eau douce") and lamantins. We saw about 10 dolphins, sometimes clearly showing their pink color, and many kingfishers (Ringed kingfisher, Ceryle torquata). In the evening we saw the bright stars La Condamine used for his position measurements and always Orion. He also measured the flow rate of the river and the depth. He found the river to be 28 “brasses” deep which conforms to about 45 m (1 brasse = 5 pieds; 1 pied + 0.32 m). According to Archimedes, the captain of our little boat, the depth of the Amazon near Leticia was 42 m and the flow rate 8 km/h. Downstream his boat would reach a velocity of 45 km/h!
One thing La Condamine will not have seen is the transport of tree-trunks from the rainforest. This was the first one we saw; until Manaus we didn't see any others.
The Common woolly monkeyOn April 19, Alejandro brought us in a small boat to the Amacayacu National Parc. There we met Dr. Sara Bennett, an american biologist, who is living already for some 15 years with her monkeys and other animals, treating them as human babies (...). We stayed for the night in the indian village Puerto Nariño, in hotel "Casa Selva”, 80 km west of Leticia. Policemen showed us a captured anaconda of about 10 m. The snake was not hungry, because the hen, given for food, was sitting on top of the curled-up snake, seemingly unaware of the future danger.
La Condamine observed dolphins ("le dauphin d'eau douce") and lamantins. We saw about 10 dolphins, sometimes clearly showing their pink color, and many kingfishers (Ringed kingfisher, Ceryle torquata). In the evening we saw the bright stars La Condamine used for his position measurements and always Orion. He also measured the flow rate of the river and the depth. He found the river to be 28 “brasses” deep which conforms to about 45 m (1 brasse = 5 pieds; 1 pied + 0.32 m). According to Archimedes, the captain of our little boat, the depth of the Amazon near Leticia was 42 m and the flow rate 8 km/h. Downstream his boat would reach a velocity of 45 km/h!
One thing La Condamine will not have seen is the transport of tree-trunks from the rainforest. This was the first one we saw; until Manaus we didn't see any others.
Colombian jungle experience: Tanimboca reservation – 18-4-2007
On our way to Tanimboca we passed a site where “terra preta” had been found. I even looked with the microscope at samples from this site (obtained from Juan Carlos Berrio, University of Leicester, UK) ! But what could I do here now? The site was a 100 m from the road into the jungle and the others were waiting in the car at a temperature well above 30 degrees..... With admiration for those who had discovered this site I joined the others. For the rest of the trip I forgot about terra preta, about which I had been reading a lot. After all, La Condamine didn’t know what it was. It was he who remarked that places where Orellana had found large populations of indians, were now deserted.
At Tanimboca, 8 km NW of Leticia, we were hoisted up to a platform some 35 m high, overviewing the canopy. Then we had to slide to another tree with a pulley. I now admired the indian instructors who skilfully played with our lives (I still weighed 93 kg!). At this time of the day few animals defied the heat, but it was a great experience anyway, especially the canoe trip through a black-water creek, where we saw the Mariposa diurna and where we heard for the first time the call of the "piha", heard so often in the jungle of Surinam.
Flight to Leticia on17 April 2007
On April 17 the four of us (Hilbert, his son Hilbert-Jan, Boudewijn and myself) departed for Leticia. From the airplane we had a beautiful view on the rivers and forests below us. We saw the large Rio Caqueta paralleled by the much smaller and stronger meandering Rio Canuinari. From the shadows the clouds casted on the forest surface it was clear that the mid-day sun was standing in the north! Nearing Leticia we saw signs of deforestation.
Visit to the Embajada Real de los Paises Bajos on 16 April 2007
Octavio Martinez, the chauffeur of the then ambassador Frits Regtdoorzee Greup, still recognized me over the telephone! He came immediately to the Embajada to fetch us. The present-day ambassador, Frans van Haren, was not interested to hear some history about his house “Klein Soestdijk”, where we stayed 32 and 29 years ago (perhaps because the house was now surrounded by a bullet-free wall and could not be seen from the street anymore...). Octavio took us to his house in the north of Bogotá (BoliviaX), filled with dutch souvenirs and served us colombian drinks and fruits. What a warm reception!
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