Across the River of Death

Not a bad start to 2023.
This is the second book of Danish explorer Jorgen Bisch (or Bitsch - there are books with is spelled both ways, which is confusing) which I have read. Here he is in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador over the course of two trips to South America. It is not a linear description of his travels, but fairly independent chapters (although in a few cases the story continues into the next chapter), which may be in linear order, but he jumps over less relevant parts of his journey.

I enjoyed the fact he references other authors (Bertrand Flornoy (author of Jivaro and Inca Adventure - both books I have copies of) and Lewis Cotlow (author of Amazon Headhunters - which again I have a copy of), which leads me to expect the best of those books too. Bisch is a documentary filmmaker and explorer - so travels with cameras and film - all the more unwieldy in the modes of travel he chooses!

Published in 1958, Bisch starts the story with a torturous experience - that of obtaining travel documents in Rio. Department after department, the military, certificate for this, endorsement for that, bribe for that. Even with his embassy assistant to help, and some quick forgery of location at the end this was a good start to the real adventure. With papers now in hand he had to plead with the military to join a flight to a remote airfield. From there, he heads up-river - the Rio das Mortes - The River of Death.

The Tapirape Indians are not particularly scary - he says they are known as ‘the world's laziest people' (but then life is just easy for them, so why exert yourself?), and they also have a name for being the most peaceable people. He spends some time with them before heading to the small colony of Santa Teresina. Established by an Air Transport Company the colony is a forerunner to a coffee plantation the company is investing in, hoping to reap profits in the years to come. This colony of mixed race people lives in fear of the nearby Kajopo Indians, and while Bisch is there they work themselves up to a fear of being attacked. Unable to resist the excitement Bisch sets up to film it all, but it all sort of peters out to nothing - a false alarm.

Taking to the river again, he has hired a guide and paddlers, who he must change out at every territorial border. Several days upstream he reaches the land of the Awatti Indians. There have been plenty of explorers into the Matto Grosso area of the Amazon, none less famous than Colonel Fawcett (who gets a mention), but plenty of others have disappeared, and the Awattis generally get the blame. Bisch spends a number of weeks with them, sharing in their lifestyle and learning some of their jungle skills. This includes witnessing the Festival of the Dead.

Included in his chapters are those of history - for example, one on Manaos, once a prospering city rivalling European cities with its architecture and glamour - all on the back of the rubber trade. Bisch explains it highlights and downfall to a muddy backwater. Then contrasts it with a chapter on his fight with an anaconda - a fight he was asking for by the way. An attempt to capture a large anaconda to be caught on film, and for the anaconda to live out its days in a Zoological garden - although he suspects the man he left it with killed it an sold the skin!

This ends the time in Brazil, and is followed by chapters on time spent around Lake Titicaca; Machu Picchu; Peruvian mummies; attempts at climbing Mt Ilinizza (also spelled Mt Illiniza) in Ecuador; staying with the Colorado Indians of Ecuador; and then several chapters about his time among the Jivaro Indians - famous for the headhunting. The second part of the book Bisch is accompanied by friend and compatriot Gunnar Knudsen.

For a film maker, the photos in the book are passable - B&W of course, and usually featuring people or dramatic scenery, there are plenty in this book. No maps however are included.

4 stars