Dinesh's photos with the keyword: River of Darkness

The conquistadors found the heart of the Andes stunningly beautiful and yet virtually impenetrable. they faced violent flash floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions as they descended to the Amazon Basin

In his dealings with the Amazonian Indian tribes, Francisco Orellana used his considerable language skills and diplomacy much more frequently than force. he found many of the tribes to be generous hosts, some allowing him and his men to remain for over a month at a time in their villages and providing the Spaniards with food and boat building materials

Amazon under moonglow was hauntingly beautiful, but also rife with danger, the river teeming with ferocious caimans and deadly anacondas

On the fields of Cajamarca, November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro and his 167 men annihilated some seven thousand Incas and took emperor-elected Atahualpha prisoner

Caripuna Indians with a large tapir near the Madeira River. One such animal sustained Orellana and his men for nearly a week.

The Andes Cordillera was so brutally steep and difficult that Gonzalo Pizarro lost most of his ill-clad porters and many of his horses during his initial mountain crossing in late February 1541

Francisco Orellana, first European to descend the Amazon from the headwaters in the Andes to its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. His voyage in 1541-1542 is considered as one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of exploration and discovery, hailed by chronicler Oviedo as “something more than a journey. . . more like a miracle The Spanish saying that had been associated with Diego de Ordaz, that “he who goes to the Orinoco either dies or comes back made,” could now be rewritten and hung on Francisco Orellana: “He who goes to the Amazon goes mad and dies.” ~ Page 238

Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon