Brazil

The Amazon river drains a watershed almost as large as the lower 48 Unites States. The water which flows from the Amazon into the Atlantic ocean is one fifth of the output of all the world's rivers. Yet the vast river basin is sparsely populated, and most of the population lives along the banks of of the Amazon and its tributaries. The Amazon rain forest is an area of great mystery.

In 1996 I went to visit my daughter in Barcellos, a town with 10,000 inhabitants and an area the size of Massachusetts. Barcellos is located on the bank of the Rio Negro (the seventh largest tributary of the Amazon) 1,000 miles from the Atlantic. At Barcellos the river is about 6 miles wide and contains the world's largest fresh water archipelago. My daughter was working for a project studying the sustainability of catching fish for aquariums. From this work she knew some of the local fisherman, and she hired Silas and his 30-foot boat to take us up some of the smaller rivers and help us understand life in the rain forest. Silas brought his son, the son's wife, and their 8 children on the trip. The daughter-in-law cooked for us, the children played and fished for dinner, and we all slept in hammocks on the deck. It was cozy but enjoyable.

In the US we hear about the deadly piranhas that inhabit the Amazon basin, but to the caboclos, the people along the river, they are just another edible fish, dangerous in schools, but schools are rarely seen. There are far more interesting denizens of the rivers and streams. Silas specialized in catching tiny ornamental fish, such as the Cardinal Tetra, for aquariums in the US and Europe. The largest Amazon fish is the Pirarucu which grows to ten feet in length and a weight over 450 pounds. There are abundant Black Caimans, a type of crocodile, which can be 16 feet long. But perhaps the most interesting inhabitant of the rivers is the pink river dolphin. The dolphins are born dark gray, almost black, but gradually turn pink as they reach adulthood. Adults are about 8 feet long and weigh 400 pounds. The caboclos know the dolphins are intelligent, and the people are extremely cautious in their interactions with the dolphins. They know that the dolphins build beautiful cities at the river bottom, and if the dolphins take an interest in a particular person they will “invite” the person to come live with them in their underwater cities. The dolphins can take human form at night to entice people they are interested in to come to the river. When a child, or even an occasional adult, disappears along the river, it is known that that person has gone to live in a dolphin city. Therefore, the caboclos avoid doing anything harmful to dolphins, but they equally avoid doing anything friendly. It is best not to be noticed.

During our trip with Silas we stopped at a small riverside village. The people at the shore were highly agitated. Men from the village had been fishing with a net strung between two dugout canoes. A young dolphin had gotten its nose through the net, and the net was now caught on its needle-like teeth. It would certainly be bad to harm the young dolphin, but it might be equally bad to show it kindness by freeing it. The villagers saw the visiting gringos as their salvation, and begged us to take the net and release the dolphin. They knew gringos didn't believe that dolphins could harm people. Indeed, I did not believe, and with a bit of help from my daughter I worked the net off the dolphin's nose and returned it to the river. Dolphin and humans were all joyful. For the rest of the day we saw numerous pink dolphins in the river near our boat.

That night I felt a gentle rocking of my hammock. To my amazement there was a voluptuous young woman, naked and dripping wet, swinging my hammock to awaken me. When she saw my eyes open she put one finger to her lips and gestured with her other hand. Two muscular young men, also dripping and unclothed, stepped out of the shadows and gently took me by the arms. In a trance, and without speaking, I went with them to the edge of the boat and slid into the dark water. The three people with me transformed into pink dolphins as we entered the water, and I became alarmed as the trance-like state evaporated, but before I could call out for help we were below the surface. Strangely, either I could breathe in the water or else I could do without breathing – I felt perfectly comfortable although more and more frightened. With one dolphin above me and one to either side, all nudging me along with their flippers, I was unable to rise to the surface. We traveled beneath the surface for what seemed like hours.

Eventually we reached an area of many buildings on the river bottom, and I was escorted to the largest. Inside, I came nose to nose with a very pink dolphin, its hide held many scars indicative of a long and turbulent life. I was amazed that I could “hear” it speaking to me inside my head. I attempted to speak/think back at the dolphin and it appeared it could “hear” me too. But we could not communicate – the dolphin seemed to be “speaking” in Brazilian Portuguese and I was only able to speak/think in English. Neither of us knew more than a few words in the others language. Eventually, the dolphin indicated to me with sadness that I did not belong in his city and I should leave. At some signal I did not see or hear, three dolphins again surrounded me and took me on another hours-long journey beneath the surface. When they finally allowed me to get my head into the air, I could see Silas' boat nearby. Then they were gone. I swam to the boat, pulled myself aboard, dried off, and climbed into my hammock. No one aboard the boat, even the young children, showed any sign of stirring, and I sank into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning, my wet clothing was the only visible sign of my strange adventure, and I don't think my story was believed. My gringo traveling companions did not believe the dolphins could take me, and the cablocos did not believe they would let me return!

Written as an assignment for the writers' group at The Fountains in April 2017. The assignment was to write something imaginary.