Life has come to a standstill for a floating village, now stranded amidst muddy plains formed by the severe drought gripping the Amazon rainforest region.
The primary means of transportation, motorboats, lean in the mud, no longer bringing fish, fruits, and vegetables, nor ferrying tourists to witness the meeting of the waters of the Negro and Solimões rivers, where they form the Amazon River.
As Lake Puraquequara dried up, businesses for boat owners and floating shops stuck in the mud also evaporated. Similar to the floods in the southern region of Brazil, the Amazon drought is a result of the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the Pacific Ocean's surface waters, according to experts.
Some rivers cutting through the vast Amazon forest have accumulated volumes of dead fish as the drought worsened. The carcasses of around 120 pink river dolphins were found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River under circumstances experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.