Reaching out my hand, Dr. Onders took it and pulled me onto the boat, "Welcome aboard!" It was a dingy little thing, about twenty feet long. Most of the supplies had been loaded in the fore, while a deeply tanned local stood at the helm. The captain gave me a grim stare, but then broke out into a smile. The river rushed by below us; extremely wide, very muddy, and with a pace that made me double check the straps of my life jacket. Going along the bank on each side of the river were similarly rustic ferries and boats of all kinds.
I had already been traveling nonstop for over forty hours now. It started with a ride to the airport, then a connecting flight. Then a flight down to Mexico. Then a multi-hour layover. Then another flight down to Bogota, and then my last flight down to Manaus. Finally, after using what little portuguese I knew, I was able to make my way to the docks, where I was able to find the professor.
Manaus lies at the meeting point of the western Amazon River and the Rio Negro. With a population of nearly 1.8 million people it's the last 'real civilization' you would have on the river before you head upstream. However, it wasn't at my destination just yet.
At the age of 21, I was the youngest doctoral student at the university. I was in Brazil to help Dr. Onders with her research studying exotic botany, and hopefully get a start on my thesis. Her lab looked at all aspects of plant biology: evolutionary adaptation, physiology, genetics, and even more exotic things such as chemical communication, and motility. She had become famous by going where other academics wouldn't dare to go. Previously, she had spent months in the Cambodian rainforest, and nearly a year going all around the central African highlands. This time her research was focusing on the western portion of the Amazon Rainforest, and she had a grant supporting her for over a year down in South America. Earlier in the Spring, she and the lab's post-doc had traveled down with all the equipment they would need to do their research, setting up camp and getting everything ready.
It wasn't like I hadn't worked in challenging environments before. During my undergrad I had helped do some research one summer high up in the Canadian Rockies doing surveys of alpine flora. Bears, extreme weather, and malnutrition being the worst of it. However this was going to be my most challenging excursion I had ever completed. For most of the past year I had been preparing for this with language training, wilderness survival training, fifteen mile hikes almost every other day. I even had to get three full rounds of shots to boost my immune system and prepare for various potential diseases. I don't think my body had ever been in such good shape before.
The next two weeks involved the three of us heading steadily upstream on our little boat. The further we went, the bustling little port cities on the river became sleepy little towns. Soon enough, we were more or less on our own on the river. Occasionally we would pass by a local in a canoe, but they would keep their distance. I tried my best to keep track of our progress on my little map that I had, but after the eighth little tributary we turned up, I was lost. There wasn't any record of where we were on paper.
Looking at me puzzling over my map, Dr. Onders smiled at me, "Don't worry Sarah! Jo knows where we are going. Don't you Jonathan!" Our captain looked over and gave a sage nod. "Besides, we have our GPS to really guide us." I looked over at the little screen with its bright liquid crystal display. It was our lifeline to the outside world.
Dr. Onders had been searching for rare plants off and on in the western amazon for decades now, but this was the first chance she has had to truly take her time. It started as rumors told to her by colleagues at various conferences, some jungle liana, capable of unheard of motility. She had a couple leads in the area that seemed promising. After making contact with some local professors, they got her in touch with some locals in the area. Supposedly some of the rumors were true. In years after unusually high rainfall, in certain areas of the rainforest, there were almost explosive levels of growth that would happen. With that information, and grant in hand, the good doctor had waited for a year with especially heavy rainfall. Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was climate change, but last year was the year, so she was planning on spending the next four months or so looking for this fabled plant.
The trip up the river was mostly boredom, slowly chugging against the current, checking, then rechecking the supplies and equipment we brought in. It was mostly unnecessary since all the key equipment had already been brought up the first trip upriver by Dr. Onders and one of the postgraduate students from the lab. The two of them had done all the truly hard work of finding the base camp site and setting it up.
Otherwise I just occupied my time by drawing in one of the sketch pads I brought, and working on my portuguese with Jo. He was mostly taciturn, and a little gruff when his boat acted up, but overall was friendly. He had been working on the river all his life and "planned to continue as long as the river would let him."
As much as I tried, I hadn't been ready for the jungle. Each day was incredibly muggy and most evenings were interrupted by a downpour of some sort, more than once the threat of lightning stopped our progress. Even if I had some shelter from the rain, I just sort of gave up truly being dry for the next couple months after I had sweated through my shirt for the fifth day in a row.
Everything was so green as far as the eye could see. There was an almost painfully intense verdancy to everything. Unlike what you saw back home, these plants were just always growing. Constant warm temperatures and consistent rainfall meant everything was thriving and competing for resources. Dr. Onders and I spent hours talking about the different species we saw, too many to name, many likely without a formal name.
Finally we got to our destination. The base camp was located above a beach line where our tributary and a smaller creek met. I could see from the boat, in a small clearing were two temporary buildings that had been sent up. Walking down the beach towards us was Andre, the other member of our lab team. He had remained at camp while Dr. Onders came to get me and the supplies I was bringing.
"Hello there!" he gave us a big wave. A large man with a scruffy beard, he looked tired. I could imagine he was absolutely exhausted after being out here for nearly two months. We had our emergency beacon in case something went wrong, but I could imagine how on edge it could make you. It was dangerous out here. In the states if you got lost, you could expect a search party to come looking, maybe a helivac. Out here, if you turn on your emergency beacon, you might get some help in a day if everything goes your way.
"Andre! Glad to see you survived out here. Did you run into any trouble?" Dr. Onder asked.
"Surprisingly, no. I was even able to complete the sample survey for sector delta."
"Excellent, excellent! Let's get everything unloaded and we can get you on your way home.
