The dark side of the Amazon
- 9 Mar 08, 09:26 AM
Posted from: Tabatinga
I鈥檝e never blogged before. It won鈥檛 be easy following some of the most wonderful writing you will have read so far. I prefer to be quiet behind my camera and film stuff 鈥 like quiet and shy people do 鈥 and leave the writing to those who are gifted at it.
We landed two nights ago at the tiny jungle airport of Tabatinga. The usual shambles with a billion tons of equipment piled onto a miserable carousel designed for a handbag. Big sweaty customs men with guns immediately pay no attention at all.
The echoes of past Amazonian expedition sweat and jungle sounds suffocate the senses as we tumble outside and into the arms of Bruce Parry and our lovely fixer Marco. A short exhilarating lorry drive to the hotel and many caipirinhas over introductions with Bruce.
The new team for film four
This is the first time I鈥檝e met him and I鈥檓 still amazed at the extraordinary journey he has already had through Peru with so many adventures - most of them dangerous. I鈥檝e long been a fan of Bruce and his approach to presenting. His humble yet inspirational manner seems to allow amazing access to people not of our culture 鈥 as he engages so willingly with theirs.
Lovely to find the expectation matches the actual. This is also the first time I鈥檝e met Zubin the sound recordist. Hilariously, he is the absolute image of Freddie Mercury. I keep expecting him to sing, 鈥渢oo much love can kill you鈥 and suppose he鈥檒l be on to, 鈥淚 want to break free鈥 by the end of the next few months with me.
Matt the director of course I know, and it鈥檚 wonderful to see him back filming after his evacuation from Lima in such fine form. He is such a lucky man 鈥 surrounded by an amazing team in Peru who managed to get him to safety just in time.
Marina our AP is excited and tired from her recce. I met her when she joined us on the short flight from Tefe to Tabatinga. The people who have to research these stories amaze me. Always on their own 鈥 they have already walked the course, found the stories, and built the bridges with the people we are soon to film. Wonderful people - without whom people like me would have nothing to do. They are the Scouts for my Heavy Artillery.
I like Tabatinga and the fact that no-one knows the border between Columbia and Brazil runs through it, but for the clue of the pile of motorcycle helmets for hire - one of the countries requires bikers to wear them but I can鈥檛 remember which. The shops were full of South American laid-back colour 鈥 and Spangalese was spoken everywhere as we all make our way to the river taxi and the start of what promises to be an epic journey.
This is my seventh filming expedition to the Amazon. It is without question my most favourite place on the planet. So many reasons to love its benign bounty. I find it so very spiritual and enormously wise. Every single inch just infused with a breathtaking richness and variety of natural life just waiting to be explored. I am lucky to be here again to learn more of its unique importance to the planet and be a part of bringing this message home through Bruce and the people we meet.
Bruce tied his hammock on the deck of the river taxi 鈥 and was immediately lost in a myriad of colour and bouncing bundles of humanity as we departed this lovely little idiosyncratic town - into the humid Amazonian night and a chorus of its howler monkeys. The sheer size and colour of the sunsets fill the heart as Marina tells us of the stories to come.
Illegal cocaine paste found on the passenger boat
I share my tiny cabin with a million cases and a huge moth. I need to find a name for him. At 1.30 am (a rude awakening) the river police raided the taxi for smugglers of cocaine from Peru and Columbia. They were successful 鈥 and I remember sitting in a shed while a Brazilian drugs enforcement officer cut open a briefcase on his desk. Under a single blue-green light bulb sat three handcuffed men.
鈥淗opeless and dismal,鈥 I remember thinking as I filmed a cockroach climbing the netting behind their heads, and the officer casually announced 鈥15 years鈥. Their eyes were as dark and empty as the future before them. The officer shrugged. The three played the game of smuggling roulette 鈥 a common game round here - and they lost.
A sheet of corrugated iron banged somewhere as we went back on board. I think of the new side of the Amazon I鈥檝e not encountered before -its dark side 鈥 and I know there鈥檚 more to come. I wondered what those men鈥檚 names were. What of their families? That night I read John O鈥橠onohue鈥檚 Anam Cara, a book of Celtic wisdom. I鈥檒l always have Anam Cara.
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