Book “Tete-a-tete with the Amazon”: Introduction

In 2023, I paddled the Amazon River alone in a self-made canoe. 2800 kilometers in 67 days. Now I wrote a book about it. It’s not fiction.

Sometimes dreams do not lead to paradise beaches. This book is a diary of a journey through the Amazon. Together with the author, you will live an entire life on the river. You will wake up and fall asleep, rejoicing in the rays of the sun. You will build a canoe that will become your home for 67 long days. You will fight for survival against insects and… not only them. You will get sick in places where no one can help. You will learn. You will search for ‘that’ crocodile and some fish for lunch. You will meet the indigenous people of the rainforest. You will endure shipwrecks and pirate attacks. You will lose and regain faith in people — Faith in human potential. Our potential.

Introduction

Curiosity or fear of the unknown… which is stronger? It seems to me that this is the main question, thanks to the answer to which you can understand what you are ready to do for your dreams. Having answered it back in 2019, I decided to take a big hitchhiking trip around the world. The culmination of this journey was rafting down the Amazon in a homemade canoe, which took me 67 unforgettable days. There I lived my whole life.

I still can’t believe it wasn’t a dream. The content of this book is a travel diary where I shared my observations, experiences and adventures. I hope that my experience will be useful and that every reader will be able to draw his or her own conclusions.

Before I get to the journal, I’ll tell you a little about myself and the backstory of this journey so that it’s a little easier for you to understand my motivations, as well as keep me company along the way.

My name is Misha, I was born and grew up in Siberia, in the city of Krasnoyarsk. For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the unknown. While the boys in kindergarten rolled cars, I was in the backyard trying to find the remains of some dinosaur, dreaming of becoming an archaeologist. Didn’t work out. The dream of a round-the-world voyage and travel, I also discarded, deciding that I and my family such a thing is certainly not affordable. Indeed, where am I and where are they — the people from the books?

For many years I combined my studies with a job as a loader, and then I worked in IT for a while. That was when I first experienced freedom. I realized that the world does not belong to money, as is commonly believed, but to those who have information and knowledge. People. Every year I gained more and more confidence in my abilities, I even started going on small trips, which were always accompanied by fishing. The farther I went, the more the mountains beckoned me. I took up mountaineering. The borders were getting smaller and smaller. Once I tried hitchhiking, which was a real discovery for me. And it wasn’t about economy, it was about development. Experience.

Hitchhiking allowed me to learn how to talk to people, which has always been my weakness because of my reticence and natural tendency to introversion. This is how I came to the point where, on my 25th birthday, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream — to go on a trip around the world and see the world. This diary will talk about the final part of it.

When I went to Latin America, I took with me a packraft, a lightweight but reliable thermopolyurethane boat (weighing no more than 4 kg with a paddle). When people asked me why I was carrying such a load, I joked back, saying something like, “I’m thinking of rafting down the Amazon.” People around me laughed and twisted their heads. They had no idea how much truth there was in that joke.

Six months later, when I had traveled clockwise around Latin America, visited the edge of the world (the southernmost point of the continent, Ushuaia), crossed the Atacama Desert and the Bolivian high plateaus, I knew I was ready. Along the way, I had managed to learn enough Spanish that I no longer had trouble communicating with the locals. Looking ahead, I can say that this is what saved my life more than once on the river.

By the time I reached the Peruvian town of Pucallpa, where all roads end but the river begins, I had barely 300 dollars left. I wasn’t too worried about that, because I had accumulated a lot of knowledge along the way, which was generously shared with me by all sorts of people. I think I talked about Amazon to literally everyone who might know something. They were people from the barber to the fisherman at the marina. Some will wonder, “Why didn’t you Google it?” I tried. There was trivially no reliable and useful information for my plans. Several books, notes and dozens of videos about how tourists “survive on the river for 3 days” blowing all sorts of myths. Excellent initial data for a person who wants to open the veil of mystery of an amazing place and write about something really unique and significant.

On April 11, 2023, I found myself in the upper reaches of the Amazon, on the bank of the Ucayali River, which would later merge with the Marañon to form the great river. I couldn’t believe my eyes until the last moment, because the journey to get here was incredible in itself — more than 10 months of hitchhiking, dozens of countries and several languages under my belt, but the Amazon… a whole other level. It was (and will forever be) the Everest of the jungle for me.

Contrary to the need for rest after the long journey, I set out on the first day to find craftsmen to help me build a canoe. I ran around the harbor part of the city with such fire in my eyes, with such energy, that it didn’t take me more than 3 hours to find someone to help me. Behind me were dozens of craftsmen trying to fool the white stranger. Knowing Spanish is a huge deal! So the final price of construction dropped from $500 to $150.

The construction time turned out to be frighteningly short. The craftsmen finished the work in just 3 days. Yes, there were still questions about reliability, but I was reassured by the fact that I tried to follow each of the stages, participating as much as I could. So I managed to sand all the working surfaces of the canoe with sandpaper, which is not customary among the locals. The calculation was simple: in a humid climate any splinters would cost me too much, so there should be none.

By the time the boat was completed, I was almost out of money. Then I bought a solar panel so that I would have enough power to take pictures. Floating down a river is one thing, but documenting every day of the journey is quite another. It might even save someone’s life in the future.

On the 4th day in Pucallpa, the canoe was completely ready. This is where my diary of this, without exaggeration, incredible adventure will begin. I will disclaim that the style of the diarywill change throughout the journey, reflecting well my state of mind — both emotional and physical. Each part of the river presents its own challenges and dangers, so I will be changing as well. Enjoy your dive. The Amazon awaits.