Amazon River Life

p   Whilst taking the boat up the Amazon River from Leticia to Iquitos, being able to view a little of the lives of the people living on it´s banks made the biggest impression on me. Firstly, there are lots of people living there that the boat staff refered to as 'Isrealites'. The men had beards (very uncommon in Latin America) and the women wore head scarves. They otherwise appeared to be Latinos. In Caballo Cocha I got off the boat and asked one of the bearded mean what it meant to be an 'Isrealite'. The most important bit I got from him was that they believe that when one dies their spirit goes to another, and this also happened with Jesus and his spirit went to another who now lives on the banks of the Amazon. And with this they believe that the Amazon River is very important and cleansing.

   Does this explain why they all throw their rubbish into the Amazon? I guess then it´s not their problem... the rubbish flows to elsewhere. It bothered Julian and I when we saw boat staff emptying boat rubbish into the Amazon, so we got plastic bags and kept our rubbish until we got to Iquitos.
   Another thing that amazed me was this-

The large white block is Ice. At about 60 x 30 x 15cms it can´t be light. The boy (I asked him) is 10 years old. He boarded the boat and added his ice to a stack of ice blocks. 5 hours later he disembarked with the ice and headed past the shacks (resting as he passed one) and continued, with ice, into the Jungle. This picture also shows an example of the head scarves of the 'Isrealite' women.