Campus Party is considered to be the world’s biggest event of technological innovation and network electronic entertainment. It is an annual meeting, that happens since 1997 in Spain, and that, during seven days, gathers thousands of participants from many different countries, with their own computers, whose aim is to share curiosities, Exchange experiences and perform all kinds of activities related to technology, digital culture and network entertainment. This is the second time this event is held at São Paulo, with thousands of Young people camped at this kind of technological fair.

And it was there that, on January 21st we launched TV Navegar, a web TV that broadens the range of action of the Navegar Amazônia project, performing live transmissions, directly from the Amazon to the world.

Por Antonio Ximenes

Solimões River, Amazonas, Uatumã, Juruá and the Amazon skies. It was an expedition of light, through the Jorge Bodansky and his crew’s eyes. From September 13th to October 2nd 2008, the Navegar Amazônia OSCIP navigated the fluvial arteries of the planet’s biggest drainage basin. On board of the Sebastião Borges boat, on a Grand Caravan wings, on motor-boats and through tracks in the middle of the forest, five men and two women offered the inhabitants from four conservatory unities (Mamirauá, Catuá-Ipixuna, Uatumã e Uacari) the opportunity to register their everyday life using video and photography workshops.

Aiucá, at the Solimões River margins; Bela Conquista, a branch of the same water course, at the RDS Catuá-Ipixuna; Maracarana, at the Uatumã River, that disembogues in the Amazon River; and Bauana, at the channel Juruá: these were the locations that received the narrator of light, at the planet’s biggest tropical forest. What we will get to know from now on are the fragments of this human adventure, that, even on the 21st century did not withhold registering the scenes of centenarian practices of the traditional population that lives in the farthest secluded corners of a “Brasil-Caboclo”, which insists in resisting abandon, forgetfulness and the lack of tenderness of a country that finds very difficult to look in the eyes of this “green-people”. They face diseases, the long distances when they navigate, wild beasts, the absence of public policies and they never lose the smile on their faces. With those smiles, they show invariably, the few teeth they have got left.

During the expedition, the rebelliousness of those who know they own the forest, could be seen very clearly on the cameras lenses. Whoever observes carefully the characters of this saga will notice a crossing light emanating form a people that rules Nature’s mysteries, and who knows the dimension of their importance, in a moment when humanity is paying a high price for the environmental aggression.

The riverside people and the caboclos know that if nothing is done at the present, now, immediately, all of those things that constitute on biodiversity, culture, fauna, flora and even civilization, can turn into a sad chapter of destruction in the History of mankind. “We have done what we could, but the problems we face are bigger than our resources. The country cannot stay so far away from us and the forest”. With these words, the Bela Conquista community leader Zagaia sums up the drama of the forest and river people.

The struggle to refrain the advances of destruction is very arduous. On the horizon, we can see smoke, in the rivers the fishes are vanishing, men and women are fading with malaria, the lack of basic sanitary conditions, the absence of doctors, few schools, not enough transportation, rudimentary living facilities, and the continuous extinction of several species. And in the middle of the “green sea”, wisely resisting, is the caboclo, the main character of this Navegar Amazônia expedition, during nineteen days of surprises and fascination.

RDS UACARI, IN THE MIDDLE JURUÁ, CITY OF CARAUARI

After the comfortable Sebastião Borges, where life is easier than at the communities that were visited – the boat had a great infrastructure, which included a daily home made bread, air conditioned cabins and work room, balanced meals, refreshing showers and a very solicit crew – Bodanzky’s crew left the Uatumã river channel. It was a seven-hour boat ride from the Maracarana community to the improvised Morena port, at Presidente Figueiredo city. Commander Almir, caring for his passengers, determined that the boat crew should handle the luggage disembarking. Very quickly, hammocks, video cameras, cameras, tripods, computers, were all on top of a steep bank, where an eleven-seat van was waiting for the “gang”. “Seu” Wilson, the driver, settled the baggage in the tight trunk, and, as everyone was getting ready to go, Beto Lacerda, Navegar Amazônia’s executive, remembered that there were a few beer cans in the boat’s fridge. “Let’s get that ammunition”, said Beto, making everyone laugh. Beto is well-know for his good humor. Having put the beer in the van, we ran to continue our expedition. Ahead of us there was 36 km of hard soil roads and 12 wooden bridges. After many roles, mud and bumps we got to the hydroelectric power plant Balbina. We left the Uatumã river waters three hours and forty-five minutes later, and arrived at Manaus. Exhausted but happy, the crew members settled at Hotel Talissa.

Around ten-thirty AM the next morning, right after breakfast, the expedition seven members, accompanied by Laura and Ricardo from the Isobar agency, and Otaviano, a journalist from Bradesco, o Banco do Planeta, visited the headquarters of the Fundação Amazonas Sustentável, at Parque Dez, a neighborhood in Manaus. Rested and excited, everyone went to lunch at Palazzolo restaurant. Rump steak and Tambaqui fish are predominant on the menu. After the meal, the group divided, and Laura, Ricardo and Otaviano stayed in the city for a little longer before returning to São Paulo. Bodanszky and his crew accompanied the journalist Ximenes to the International Airport Eduardo Gomes, and after that, they left to Carauari.

At the runway, a Grand Caravan, where the experienced pilot “Manequim” waited for us to embark. At three-thirty PM, after an hour and a half delay due to the shipping of equipments to the Bauana community, at the RDS of Uacari, the pilot shouted: “Guys, I can’t hold on any longer. We’re taking off. We are risking not being able to land at Carauari Airport”. Landings at that airport can only occur from four to six-thirty PM. The runway is close during all other hours, due to the presence of black vultures.

Manequim worked for many years in the Roraima garimpo . From those times of wealth, all that is left is small lump of gold, the size of a one Real coin. He carries it on a cord around his neck. “It gives me luck and brings me good memories”, says the pilot.

On board, there were a total of 11 people. Incorporating the team were also Doctor Luiz Leite and nurse technician Ivone Fonseca da Costa. Jorge Bodanzky, who, besides being a filmmaker and a sailboat pilot, is also an amateur airplane pilot, installed himself at the co-pilot’s seat. Instead of handling the control lever, he had his camera in hand. “I have a pilot’s license”, he said, excited about the trip. In the back seats, the photographer Jorge Vismara and cinematographer and Jorge Pennington also held their work tools.

Through the windows we can see winding rivers, the splendorous forest, heavy clouds and a sunny sky burning blue. “It’s a green carpet”, said Vismara, pointing his Canon to the forest. Pennington registers everything with his camera. In the back of the aircraft, the doctor told stories about the removal of patients during high risks situations. The actress Vicky Justiniano and Beto Lacerda listened carefully the adventures of the health professional, who has made the medical air caring his main activity. Ralph, the video workshop coordinator photographed the view. Alice Bodanzky felt good and was also taking pictures. Ximenes, the journalist, observed everyone and thought about his kids (Jordi, Francisco, Maria Clara, Antonio Miguel e Mariana). “How I wish they were here, looking at the forest”.

As he watched the clouds, Manequim announced that there was rain coming. In the forest, rain is always a reason to worry, especially if you are inside a small airplane at about 3.200 meters high. Suddenly, a gust of wind passed, changing everyone’s faces. But Manequim’s ability was so great that the passengers calmed down. Jorge Bodanzky, Alice, Vismara, Ralph and Pennington filmed and photographed. Vicky e Beto observed the scene. The doctor and the nurse, who are used to the abrupt changes in the Amazon skies, were lively chatting. The journalist, silently prayed, which you can never overdo in times like these.

Fifteen minutes later the weather was clear again and a peaceful feeling involved the Grand Caravan, cruising straight ahead Carauari. Ecstasy, that is the word. Ecstasy, that was the general feeling inside the airplane. We landed at six forty-five PM, just five minutes after the permitted schedule. Very quickly, Manequim got the entire luggage out of the plane and announced that he was leaving to Tabatinga, where he would pick up a patient to be transported to Manaus. That was the reason why the doctor and his inseparable assistant were on board. “Have a nice shoot!” Manequim yelled, saying farewell to the crew. Ten minutes later, Bodanzky and his “gang” were getting into the trunk of a very potent pickup truck, heading towards Hotel Tatiana.

Installed in little air-conditioned apartments, the “image expeditionaries” had no idea they would still have to navigate for eight hours up the Juruá river, the high sun on their heads, up to the Bauna igarapé, at the Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável de Uacari (Uacari Sustainable Development Reservation), where the video and photography workshops would take place. But that is another part of this trip, which we will tell you, slowly but surely, like those who navigate a hand made canoe. Follow us. You are Navegar Amazônia’s special guest.

 Watch Beto Lacerda’s (Navegar) and Simon Paquin’s (EcoMaris) testimonials.

Navegar Amazônia was there to register surfist Serginho Laus break his own record on staying on the world’s longest river wave crest. On board, the Canadian environmentalist Genevieve – EcoMaris’ spokesperson – having her eyes and ears pay attention to the force and grunt of the pororoca*, rolling at the Araguari margins; and her imagination and spirit align more and more with the dreams of Navegar’s coordinator Beto Lacerda. His dream is to take the riverside communities to a third margin: citizenship through art and digital inclusion. A dream that, at every new mile navigated, strengthens, as one of the most creative and important digital inclusion projects developed in Brazil. This project has already represented twice the country’s public informatics, in 2001 at Ottawa, Canada, and in 2002 at Havana, Cuba. In 2005, Navegar Amazônia was chosen by MINC (Ministry of Culture) as a Culture Location (Ponto de Cultura) and it is the only one that is a fluvial – itinerant Culture Location.

Genevieve was in Pará getting to know the work that three young forest engineers were beginning to develop at the Cupuaçu community, at the city of Barcarena. They were working with the native fruit açaí BRS, developed by Embrapa, which has, among others, the advantage of being planted on hard soil and having a 20% better production than the native açaí. It also can be produced semesterly, while the other can only be produced yearly. This promises change to the lives of eighty community families that, every six months, are forced to look for small gigs in Barcarena or Vila dos Cabanos, so as to insure survival. And navigating the internet, Gene (as Brazilians prefer to call her), found out about Navegar. Invited to come on board, she didn’t waste any time: she packed her bags and embarked on the project, following the example of so many art militants and citizenship promoters – Jorge Mautner, for instance – to sail the Amazon rivers and to get to know what happens on their margins.

The expedition was baptized “Waters Encounter” (Encontro das Águas).Waters from the muddy Amazon rivers with the waters from thousands of Canadian lakes. Waters that better transmit the energies: the ones that change the human spirit and consciousness, the combination of art and education. 

And water spirits sent a weak rain to bless the Paco Nunes (our boat) depart, its crew and the expeditionaries: seven Canadian high school students, preparing for College and three young Brazilian engineers from Pará. Ten young people, a group with an important differential: In the future, they will all be professionals who are prepared to generate a more conscious consumption of the planet’s limited resources and the need of searching for sustainable alternatives for society’s development. The young students would get to experience three things: The Bosque School (Escola Bosque) of Bailique at the State of Amapá; the açaí planting on hard soil, a project developed by the ICA group at the Cupuaçu community, in Barcarena at the State of Pará and the Ecotourism project, developed by the NGO Peabiru at the city of Curuçá, also in Pará. They would also get to know the work of art-education developed by photographer Miguel Chicaoca, at Belém city, through the Foto Ativa project.

First Stop: The community of Vila Progresso, at the Bailique archipelago.

At a ten hour boat trip away from Macapá, Vila Progresso is a community whose motto is balance. Balancing on the frail wooden bridges, which make the streets of the village; balancing survival with the preservation of the delicate archipelago ecosystem, which provides the food and raw material that is used as didactic material at the Bosque School.

The Bosque School of Bailique is, without a doubt, one of the widest ranged projects of education for the sustainable environment in Amapá. At the 900 student school, the master is Nature. From it, the children learn Math, Geography, Brazilian Portuguese (and the Amazon dialects) and foreign Languages, Biology, Chemistry, and the riverside traditions, such as the Quatá dance, which originated from the archipelago and imitates the elegant, festive way in which the Quatá Monkey woos his female.

The first encounter of the youngsters from Montreal, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with the physic and imaginary world of the children and young people of Bailique was at Bosque School’s courtyard. It was a lot of fun, and our young expeditionaries left taking with them their first lessons from the forest people: every movement of worldly change starts with knowledge and local actions.

Second Stop: Belém.

Near Belém, the boat’s motor failed and the Navegar Amazônia’s boat drifted on the Guajará Bay waves. This situation was faced with a great adventurous spirit from the young people on board and with the crew’s great expertise and professionalism.

When the expedition disembarked, they got to know a city that pricked towards the sky with its tall, modern buildings, clashing with the exuberant and antique buildings from the Amazon “belle époque”, which served as stage for a truly popular revolution: the Cabanagem. This early 17th century revolution, involving the riverside caboclos**  and headed by Eduardo Argelim, fought the Republic and wished for a popular government.

And Belém was there, welcoming, at four in the morning. It showed the colored of the voices at the Açaí street fair, with boats arriving to the islands, loaded with paneiros fruit, the so-called “blood of Amazon”, which sustains life for hundreds of riverside families, among them, the ones from the Cupuaçu community, our next stop.

 Third Stop: Cupuaçu Community

The Cupuaçu community starts at Arrozal and follows the margins of the Igarapé, (which named the location), until it arrives the vicinity of Vila dos Cabanos (Cabanos Village), where live approximately eighty families in small farms. The strongest part of the economy here is the açaí fruit, picked between September and December at the flooded fields.

At the community, the young people from ICA found a propitious soil for their project’s implementation. They intended to handle the açaí BRS, planting it on high land, with plenty of sunshine. They counted on the community’s disposition in changing their means of life, betting on a açaí planting that would blossom all year long, with a 20% higher commercial value.

On the open field in the middle of the forest (without the need for burnings or dismantling), flourishes one hundred and seventy revolutionary palm trees, with its green leafs spikes, filling the community with the hope for a less hard life. They received us with festivities and ceremoniously, during the four days the expedition stayed at that Igarapé’s margin.

Fourth Stop: Curuçá.

From Barcarena to Belém we had a nice journey, but when we arrived at Pará’s capital, we were received by a very strong pour of rain, with strong winds that rocked the boat, making our anchoring at the Estação da Docas (Dock Station) difficult. We said our goodbyes to Paco Nunes, for our next stop would be on the seaside, and our boat is not made for salt water.

Curuçá is a 352 year old city. It was founded by Portuguese folk, and has a seaside air to it. The sun is generous there, and the people are very welcoming. The big old houses bring a special charm to the city. In August 2007, the “Brasileiros” magazine had, as its cover, the stories of the city’s most famous characters: “Seu” Cristóvão, a fisherman, who knows that region’s sea and the mangues*** as his own life. The story also alerts to the fact that the future of craft fishermen like “Seu” Cristóvão are threatened. The reason for that is that MMX, with Brazil’s Government support, intends to build a port for leaking minerals. Not just any port, though, but simply the world’s third and Latin America’s biggest port.

At Curuçá, lingers the Resex Mãe Grande, which shelters the entire region’s mangues and the Romana Island. There, approximately two thousand families get their livelihood from the sea and mangues.

And as to get to know the reservation and the ecotourism projects that the Peabiru Institute started to develop, the Canadians faced two and a half hours in an urban bus – the bus company made us change from a reclined-seat bus to a normal urban bus, having the passengers fight for space with their own luggage.

The project is sponsored by Petrobrás, and presents the ecotourism as a natural path to the city’s development, qualifying young people and fishermen as tourist guides and environmental instructors.

For the way the expedition was received and the knowledge acquired on the forest tracks, beaches and mangues, you can clearly see that this is, without a doubt, a project that has a future.

While walking around the town, we received a History lesson on the old streets. We also learned about the popular traditions, as there was a presentation of traditional dancing by a local group, which moved both Brazilians and Canadians and made everyone dance at the rhythm of the “carimbo”. We had a class on the location’s biodiversity, given by the fisherman at the tracks, beaches and mangues.

At the end, was left the desire of wanting to come back, a strong indicator that the ecotourism may well be a way out towards economical development for Curuçá, all of it without the risks of social-environmental impacts that the construction of Porto Espadarte may cause to the region, accordingly to the Peabiru’s biologists and sociologists.

At the expedition’s end, we felt the confirmation that, for those who want to change the world, there are no frontiers, no cultural barriers and that initiatives such as Navegar Amazônia and EcoMaris strengthen an already strong and active force of artists, environmentalists, and people who can form opinions, like the young Canadians and Brazilians. They are the future professionals of the construction of a third margin for the Amazon riverside: citizenship.

 *Translator’s note: The pororoca is a tidal bore, with waves up to 4 meters high that travel as much as 13 kilometers inland upstream on the Amazon River. Its name comes from the indigenous Tupi language, where it translates into “great destructive noise”. It occurs at the mouth of the river where river water meets the Atlantic Ocean. The phenomenon is best seen in February and March.

**Translator’s note:A caboclo (or cabaço, from Tupi kaa’boc, ‘who came from forest’) is a term used in Brazil describing a person of mixed Brazilian Amerindian and European descent. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço.

 ***Translator’s note:Mangue, is a coastal ecosystem, transitioning between the terrestrial and sea environments, characteristically from tropical and subtropical regions.

[Fotos: Gavin Andrews/Navegar Amazônia]

Backpacked, we start towards to Ver-o-Rio Port in order to take the boat and get to Barcarena, where the Cupuaçu community waits for us with a tight schedule.

At Barcarena, we make a quick stop to come on board of one of the ICA boats, which has gone ahead to explain the expedition’s one day delay.

 And the waters truly do encounter at Cupuaçu. Transparent, strong waters, conducting the most pure energy.

We can already feel the warmth of Cupuaçu’s hospitality as soon as we enter the river top that leads to that community, where children come to pick us up in a canoe.

After sailing a few meters in the canoe and walking through little bridges made from “miritizeiro” trunks, we get to “Dona” Albina’s house, where the community has prepared our reception under a big shed at the backyard, ornamented with little flags from the Festa de São João** (St. John’s Festival). They serve us a very tasting feijoada*** and give us many, many hugs, as if we are friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time.

At night, we have a party, blessed by all the June saints, and have corn meal, tamarino juice and dance the quadrilha**** . The “Waters Encounter” expedition dances the forró and the carimbo, their feet on the ground, their spirits high, with all the love they were received with.

After dancing, the community and the students gather at the center of the big shed for a quick chat, where everyone speaks a little about their expectations on this encounter, and what will come from the meeting of two such different cultures, gathered with one single purpose: Nature.

Later, the young Canadians and Pará people from the ICA face their first great rain under an improvised (yet resilient) shed made out of wood and straw. This is an adventure they face with great spirits and humor.