35. Landscape of France

The river flows, calmly, through fertile prairies. Some velvety reeds adorn the margins. Huge water lilies float on the waters. Cows with shiny hide ruminate in the shade of trees and, at times, the breeze brings a vigorous and healthy smell of barn and dung.

Picardy, Normandy?... Not at all! We are on the Careiro or, more precisely, on the Paraná of the Careiro, a branch of the Amazon a few kilometers upstream of Manaus. Have you never seen these giant trees in our countryside, and haven’t you noticed that the cattle is crossbred with zebu?

Every day, before dawn, a speedboat leaves the floating dock of Manaus, carrying a mixed load of people and baggage. They are riverside dwellers going back home after having done, the evening before, their purchases in town: flour, salt, sugar, and some yards of cotton fabric, some medicine... In pitch-blackness, just like the river, the boat passes by the lights of the oil refinery, almost touching drifting islets as it moves along.

Suddenly, in front, the east lights up in marvelous tones of purple and gold. Stretches of clouds come ablaze with the first rays of the day. The black river sparkles like an immense dark velvet carpeting, sprinkled with topaz and rubies. The sun rises quickly in the sky. The fiery clouds subside in the morning glory. The Solimões, with its silt-laden waters, catches up with us. It is the beginning of the Amazon that spreads farther than one can see. The speedboat approaches the riverbank and soon enters a canal where the turbulent waters suddenly calm down. We are on the Careiro.
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