Rio Casiquiare
Humboldt's sponsors, the Spanish, bid him to find a a waterway from the Spanish to the Portuguese occupied territory. In all likelihood their reason was common imperialism and belligerence. Humbolt managed to find a 'link,' a 'backward' tributary of the majestic Orinoco River deep in what is now Venezuelan sovereign territory that instead of draining into a larger river, actually 'steals' its water. Some Venezuelans say they are hardly surprised. Humboldt tracked this tributary, Rio Casiquiare, which accepts its flow from the Orinoco and then via Rio Negro spills into the great Amazon River. Any tactical advantage of affording the Spaniards with a 'backdoor' onto Portuguese colonies in what is now sovereign Brazil was nullified by the treacherous climate and environmental hazards to Europeans. Like all jungle rivers, subject to seasonal flooding, and sometimes only navigable in high water season, the indigineous Indians would use this system of waterways as their communication network. allowing transports and visits during part of the year to places that may be cut off when water levles fall in the dry season. One might characterize the Rio Casiquiare as a pre-Internet communication 'gateway' for everyman.

Center of image shows the Rio Casiquiare branching from the Orinoco River, on its way to the Rio Negro and then the Amazon River.

Background information concerning the project - a Bawue film grant proposal extract including:

A sample XML page used to drive the neural net Kohonen Self-Organizing mapping algorithm;

The entire Humboldt text "A Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent 1799-1804";

And some quotes and notes.