Jungle adventures not to be tried at home
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2004
1
4
25
Trip End
Jul 27, 2004
Somewhere near santa ana,
Ecuador
Thursday, May 6, 2004
¨what?"
"it's time to bring in the fish net, do u wanna come?" my kiwi amigo replies
"is no an option" i groggily reply
"yah i spose if u r a pussy, and besides its been raining all night so the river will be up and i dont know if sandro will be able to bring it in by himself"
"okay, im coming"
next thing you know i am crawling out of my warm sleeping bag, and am slipping into my wet trunks and tshirt for a wet ride in a dugout canoe upstream towards the net we had set up earlier in the daylight...
so it was that the two "commandos" (as our Shuar native guide sandro affectionately calls us, when he isn't calling us ivia (devils of the jungle)), and sandro headed into another adventure that isnt recommended in the guide books...
after we get as far as we can travel upstream, we get out of the canoe to walk/crawl thru the dense jungle on a pseudo-path, trying not to think about the fact that only four hours earlier on our night walk (on which we saw many glow in the dark fungi, bugs, and other assorted insects) he was warning us to be careful and stay on the path!!!after about 30 minutes, we are at the spot with the net, only now because of the all night(and current) downpour, the river is about 1 meter higher...in my head i am thinking, "what the hell have i gotten myself into, i was struggling to set the net during the day in a much slower current, and now we are supposed to haul the fish in???"yet again, stuart is in over his head it would seem...thankfully after a few minutes of assessing the situation, our indian friend tells us "no es possible ahora", and we breathe a collective sigh of relief...
however, now he informs us that the river is "friendly" and we are going to float downstream at floodwaters pace, over the rapids and to our canoe...i guess walking back semi-safely would be too easy....so into the water, and off we go...argh, my foot bounces off the net but i am not snagged, and on we go down an amazonian river, CRUISIN!!!this is some crazy shit...my companions a way ahead of me, i lose sight of them (it is a little dark at 3 am), but can still hear them when they yell "swim to the side, get out, hurry!!!" that is when i can see why, 50 meters ahead are the large set of rapids, and semi-panic modes sets in again as i struggle to swim to the side of the river...it is obvious that i am going to be just short of the bank, when i see sandro's hand reach out, and just like hollywood cinematography, i just barely grabbed onto him, and he pulled me in...but the current and me would prove to be too much for even this jungle mans strength, as i pulled him off his branch that he was holding onto...fortunately, i had time to grab a branch (filled with thorns of course, but there was no way in hell i was letting go of it), and was able to bring him in...
like usual, alls well that ends well, and we reach our canoe, paddle safely home, and have another jungle adventure story under our belts..."esta vida en la selva"-this is life in the jungle, he repeats for the umpteenth time....during the final few minutes of our canoe trip back, one can hear a weird whirring sound, and he explains that it is just the 3 meter anaconda(big ass snake) sounding out his territory....thankfully the story ends here, and i dont have anything to say about being eaten alive by a large snake...not that you would hear about it i guess, as i doubt the inside of its belly would have internet access....
