greener than paradise

Paving the rainforest is a quote I´ve stumbled on a couple times here and there last in Geoff Dyers ¨Yoga for people not bothered to do it¨. Geoff quotes it from a car sticker, which he finds rad. And, so do I. I find the humor spot on and damn funny a status the quote has kept in my book until last week when I started to consider it as a solution like alternative.

Before getting started telling how it all came damn I need you to ask yourself some questions. Do you really know the rainforest? So, you care for it, what I asked was if you know it? I have gotten my shared part of it and the lesson taught has left me with some doubts.

Spending time in villages like Boim is a great way to get to know it, our to get to know the tamed parts of it. The parts where humans are the most dangerous predator and where you can find priests having pumas as pets.  Entering the very forest is a whole different story and the creation of a another relationship for each one entering as it leaves no one untouched.

The rain falls fat and sticky as our tractor works it way through the mud. Our driver, Daniel, only stops for fallen trees and laughs when we pick up speed which equals us on the cart getting branches whipped twice as hard onto us. After clearing the road for the 7th time, stops lasting everything between 2 – 40 minutes, my initial freight for anything that moves seems cured. We´re back bouncing on the cart shared with turtles, dogs, spiders – at the size of a turtle building webs big enough to be threats for the dogs – and the ants. Damn ants. The road is messy and our tractor makes a small leap in the air before Daniel hit the brakes and stops in front of what seems to be the frontier of the jungle – but happens to be just a part of the jungle fallen onto the road. Off we go.

Me, Bill and Ralph are cutting branches on the tractor side of the fallen trees when Baxinho screams to Johan ¨Snake, snake¨. Curious and freightened we run into a safe distance from the supposed snake; which in our case happens to be closing in quite some. Down falls a curled package, Baxinho and Paulinho, armed with a stick and a machete takes turn in hitting it, a surucucu, until enough blood is shed.

Sitting on the cart under these circumstances experiencing untouched rainforest for several hours enlightens with the insight of my relation to it. The rainforest contains so powerful diversity that the contrasts is not measured in colours but in mortality; a venomous snake can have the same colours as a beautiful butterfly. You can never relax but/and you´re always amazed.  Experiencing it is like having an intense crush.

The tree procedure repeats, without snakes, a dozen of times as the rain increases. Finally after six hours in bump-mania we reach our destination; a small farm owned by a old couple 50 kilometres from the civilisation.

We stuff our bellies with the days only meal served by the woman. Creme on açai, farinha, muruçi, bananas and carne do sol does it for us. The meat has been dried in the sun, salted and finally grilled. It tastes wildness. Before sandman comes by our hammocks we go down to a Igarapé, a small creek, to look for alligators. Paulinho calls on them by making a noice similar to the ones coming out when forcing a vomit. Armed with flashlights standing on waterlevel should be recieved by me as quite a nasty gig; but instead I feel a good sensation being there surrounded by darkness and too much to mention. (Un)fortunatly no alligator seems to be around and we head back for a nights rest in the walless hut.

I wake up 6:00 am to find Paulinho and Daniel having coffee and tapioca bread. They´re about to head out to pick a fruit called pupucha, pronounced poponya, and I decide to go with them.

Picking pupucha is hard, they grove on 10-15 m long palm trees. But, unlike coco trees, the tree trunk is not climbable as it´s covered with thorns. Instead the pickers bring long rods made out of bamboo sticks tied together used to push down the fruits with. The method is quite a sight and Paulinho summons the appereance when yelling ¨Drunk cock!!¨.

Daniel, Baxinho and another man have brought hunting dogs and guns in case something eadible comes in our way. From distance we hear the dogs bark and Daniel starts communicating with them by barking back, he tells me that they´ve picked up a trail. Suddenly the barks stops. ¨Damn¨ Daniel seems frustrated and starts calling the dogs unanswered. 20 minutes and still unanswered he concludes that the onça, a puma, must have taken them. Satisfied with the filled sacks of pupucha and the cupuaçu, we´re to have as additional breakfast, we head back to the farm. ¨Woof¨Daniels dogs are to be seen the farm. Daniel greets them.

I have a big cup of cupuaçu with farinha before jumping up on the tractor. This time located above one of the tractor wheels.

The bumby road feels even bumpier the day after with our bodies aching from the bruises caught in the rain. We´re all bothered by it but I can´t help loosen my grip for a second and enjoy the surrounding atmosphere. Warm rays flashes through the tree tops setting off an incredible scenery similar to the one created by a disco ball. Intense spots of colors are to be seen and uphill I instantly dream away.

The amazon is no place for daydreaming, a snake has fallen down to the cart and panic spreads. Daniel yells ¨Screamin doesn´t kill it¨ and Baxinho raises his machete giving the snake quite a treatment before chucking it to the vultures. This is to happen one more time and Paulinho concludes:

¨Everybody loves the sun, especially the snakes. That is why we get to see so many of them today.¨

As I tighten my grip the skin peels of as a banana and there´s no shortcuts here; every pool of water run over by us is a small hell. The bounces are recieved as electric shots and the only good part about running over them are when water finds its way onto our legs, cooling us off. Asfalt would definatly do the magic.

This is experience is just like a crush, all impressions are so intense that there´s no place for either objectivity nor real conciousness. Bad is hell and good is heaven. Every other second paving the rainforest seems to me as an upcoming achievement and in the next being discarded as complete ludacris.

It is said that to love is to suffer and I´m in love.