Meeting of the Waters

Sunday 12th June 1988

We had black coffee and dry crackers in the hotel dining room where a crowd had gathered to watch England versus Eire in a European Cup soccer match on the television. The Republic of Ireland's first match in the 1988 Euro finals was against England on 12th June 1988 at the Neckarstadion in Stuttgart, West Germany. It was also Ireland's debut match at a major international football finals competition.

Former English world Cup winner Jack Charlton had guided Ireland to qualification for the finals at his first attempt. During the Euro 88 qualification campaign other teams had difficulties coping with Charlton's football style.

His soccer philosophy of playing direct, long ball, tactics helped the Irish team to compensate for what he perceived was a lack of quality (when compared to the bigger football nations) in the Irish squad. Ireland won the match 1 – nil.

Mike and I left them to it and walked down to the Central Bus Terminal and tried to find a bus to the Careiro Ferry Dock. If there was any order in the layout of the bus stops we failed to discover it’s secret.

We were eventually shoved onto a bus, which was none of the possibilities listed in our guide books, by a friendly local. The bus did get us to the ferry terminal from where the car ferry crossed the “Meeting of the Waters”. This is where the dark waters of the Rio Negro meet the silt-laden brown waters of the Rio Solimões forming the mighty Amazon River.

The coffee-colored water, rich with sediment, runs down from the Andes Mountains on the Rio Solimões. The black-tea water from the Colombian hills and interior jungles is nearly sediment-free and coloured by decayed leaf and plant matter; it bears the name Rio Negro. Where the two rivers meet, east of Manaus, Brazil, they do not mix but flow side by side within the same channel for six kilometres.

The cooler, denser, and faster waters of the Solimões and the warmer, slower waters of the Negro form a boundary visible from space and from the water surface itself. Turbulent eddies driven by the faster-moving whitewater eventually mix the two, as they merge to become the Lower Amazon River.

We missed the 11:00 hrs. ferry so we had a couple of Fanta orange drinks at one of the wooden shacks which served waiting ferry passengers. Powerful truck tractors hauled big trailers from a flat barge. We got talking to one truck driver and when it was apparent that we would have a long wait for the next ferry we decided to skip it and go to Ponta Negra Beach.

The trucker said that he would join us and led us through a wooden shanty town to his big Scania tractor. We jumped aboard and hammered through town and out to the small beach resort on the Rio Negro.

We swam in the river and got talking to two local girls who fed us with rice and fish while we drank Antarctica beer. At 16:00 hrs. our driver friend ran us back into town where we got a free ride on a terrifying kamikaze local bus to the hippy fair at the Praça da Saudade in Manaus.

This is a garden square on a former burial ground, featuring a memorial to poet Tenreiro Aranha and a pergola. Bento de Figueiredo Tenreiro Aranha (4th September 1769 to 11th 1811) was a Brazilian writer. There were stalls selling local handicrafts, but the majority sold typical Brazilian foods.

We had chips at on stall by the kiddies fun fair and then walked back via another spacious plaza with a modern arty fountain. We walked back, glowing with sunburn, to the Hotel Rio Branco. The Hare Krishnas in the temple opposite were going great guns, bobbing around chanting to jingling bells. Inquisitive locals peered in the window.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Alfred Ford is one of the prominent patrons.

Its core beliefs are based on Hindu scriptures, particularly the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana. ISKCON is "the largest and, arguably, most important branch" of Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has had adherents in India since the early 16th century and American and European devotees since the early 1900s.

ISKCON was formed to spread the practice of Bhakti yoga, the practice of love of God in which those involved (bhaktas) dedicate their thoughts and actions towards pleasing Krishna, whom they consider the Supreme Lord.

Marlene and a German lad returned from their Jungle Trip while I was having a shower. Torrential rain hammered down outside. At 21:00 hrs. we joined the Jungle Tour veterans with their guide for a night out on the town.

The young manager of the Jungle Tour company drove too fast through the drowning streets in limited visibility, but we survived the ride out to a restaurant at Ponta Negra and back to the Jet Set Night Club by the Opera House.

Here we danced amongst the pornographic murals on the walls and watched a couple of strippers while drinking the caipurhina drink which came included with our 400 Cruzados entry fee. Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar, and lime.

All the girls in the place appeared to be professionals (now known as sex workers) but we resisted the temptation. At 02:00 hrs. we walked back home in the rain which was finally abating.