Sailing the Waters: the rivers of the Amazon, living culture, and the journey of the forest

The rivers of the Amazon are more than landscape. They are lifelines. They carry people, goods, memory, and meaning. They are the living arteries that connect nature to design. For OMAMA, they are the ground beneath our work and the source of a forest that is always in motion.

Life along the water. The Amazon in motion.

In the state that holds one of the largest rivers on Earth, life moves to the rhythm of water. Small boats glide along jungle banks, carrying families, food, and daily essentials. Larger vessels known as recreios serve as floating hotels, linking cities and riverside villages in journeys that can last for days.

The wood we use at OMAMA travels the same rivers. These are noble Amazonian species, carefully selected from legal and sustainable sources. They cross long distances by land and by water. In the most remote parts of the forest, where there are no roads, the boat is not an option. It is the only way.

But these rivers are more than transport routes. They are part of a living ecosystem found nowhere else on the planet. In some stretches of the Amazon, fish like the tambaqui feed on fruit that falls from the trees. Yes, fruit. Above the water, branches. Below, floating menus.

And while the fish rise, the boats carry history. During the rubber boom of the early twentieth century, these waterways were alive with commerce. In 1910, the port of Manaus moved over one million tons of cargo per year, more than one hundred thirty boats a day. Lined up bow to stern, those vessels would stretch over three kilometers, all loaded with the forest’s white gold on its way to the industrial centers of the world.

This riverborne wealth reshaped the city. Manaus became known as the Paris of the Tropics, and not just for vanity. The city led in infrastructure. In 1896, it installed public electric lighting before São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. The Teatro Amazonas opened with European grandeur. It seemed that modernity had anchored itself in the heart of the jungle.

Today, the wonder comes from a different kind of encounter. Just outside Manaus, the Negro and Solimões rivers run side by side for kilometers without mixing. The Negro is dark, acidic, and warm. The Solimões is cloudy, cold, and fast. The contrast in density, temperature, and current creates a rare natural phenomenon and a powerful metaphor for the diversity of the Amazon. It is nature, alive and visible.

At OMAMA, that contrast inspires us. Like the Meeting of the Waters, our work brings together opposites. Tradition and innovation. Nature and craft. Forest and future. Each object we make carries a quiet balance. The weight of wood. The lightness of the hand that shaped it.

Like so many Amazonian communities, we depend on the river for transformation. The rivers are roads, markets, food, and theater. They are also the base of our work. With each journey, they remind us that to preserve is not to look backward. It is to make sure that this ancestral and regenerative path keeps flowing. For everyone. And for always.