FishNet Explore 97 - Diary - July 28, 1997

[William Vannerson <William_Vannerson@ama-assn.org>]

Diary - July 28, 1997

 This was my first day actually out in the wilds.  We took a
small plane to Tefe, one of the oldest cities in the Central
Amazon area. Here the Amazon River gets large enough in
one place where they actually call it Lake Tefe.
 
 Heiko had been here about one year ago and had a special
place he wanted to go to collect some fish and photograph
them.  We hired a truck for the expedition and nearly got
stuck one place where the ground was very boggy.  We
finally got to the site, but found nearby that there was a good
deal of deforestation going on.  Some areas were still
smoldering from the fires.  It was very depressing and Heiko
was very upset.  
 
 The foliage around the stream where we collected was very
thick, so to get anywhere along the way, we had to actually
walk through the water, sometimes as deep as chest high. 
Heiko would grab his one-person net, which was collapsible,
and dive into the edge of the stream where the foliage was
thickest.  He would dip up piles of leaves with the net and
come up with a surprising number of fishes.  We collected a
leaffish that I had to look at for several minutes before Heiko
could convince me was really a fish at all!  We also bagged a
pair (mated) of Apistogrammas and some "electric fish" that I
had never heard of before.  Heiko took at least twice as much
time photographing the fish carefully than it had taken him to
catch them.  I got lots of good photos, too.
 
 Later we went to visit a friend of Heiko's that had rescued
some Manatees and were keeping them hoping to be able to
breed them.  It was a real adventure to see these odd
creatures up close.
 
 Tonite we slept in Tefe at a hotel - our last chance at
electricity.  However, I found out that they turn off the
electricity to the whole city at night. There went my air
conditioning!
 
 Tomorrow we go on to Eirunipe, our last "civilized" stop
before the jungle.
 
 == John ==