Man does not live by dread alone, in the Amazon Basin. He requires a reliable guide, a hardy constitution, and
essential survival gear ---- if he intends to return from the world's largest jungle.
This colossal body of flora and fauna in the Amazon Basin incorporates one-third of Brazil, a chunk of Peru, and pieces of Colombia,
Venezuela and Bolivia. For the hunter, there are behemoth beasts that slither and pounce. Ornithologists and
anthropologists will encounter birds and tribes in their uncorrupted nests and huts. Tourists can capture sights and
sounds sufficient enough for crates of slides, photos, videos, and disks -- for Grand Premieres to their friends that breathlessly await the return of an
errant neighbor.
Missionaries can have a heyday, as can altruistic doctors, or students of both ecosystems or rain forests. Others may go simply for the
adventure of experiencing life in its most rudimentary and incorrigible presence. The Amazon revitalized my
instincts like a bracing tonic, rejuvenating senses which had been dulled by the tedium of the work-a-day world.
The quickest method of finding oneself a member of a tour of the jungle is to fly to Iquitos, Peru, the capital of jungle excursions.
Once in Iquitos you will find many options. 'Explorama' has packaged a number of tours, parceled into time intervals of
three, five and 10 days. Their office is located in Santiago Lores 684, Iquitos (near the central plaza). Among other
theatrical displays, Explorama offers a staged exhibition of skilled sharpshooters of "perdigones" (poison darts), which
is presented on the third day of every excursion. Explorama's safety record is unblemished. A modicum of tourists actually complained of a lack of hazards, after their adventure booked through Explorama was completed.
Family survives high-water season.
Unorthodox entries into the jungle are arranged with independent guides who prowl the Plaza de Armas. In the
jargon of the tourist agents, these independents have been dubbed "pirates." They offer an excursion of any duration,
and are employed frequently by scientists, researchers, entomologists, vacationing dental surgeons and doctors seeking thrills, writers for
National Geographic and other such global publications, or simply just students struck with wanderlust after their semester break commences.
For those like myself, who prefer the unknown, replete with all its contingencies, a trip of one to three days upriver from Iquitos is recommended as a starter. It is relatively easy to rustle a poor unemployed Indian hunter, born into a long line of ancestors --- all of whom were trained by their forefathers in the arts and sciences of how to survive (and remain master of the jungle). Simply paddle your way into a riverbank and climb onto the streets of
a sleepy river town, and hire such a guide to lead your expedition. This method of exploring the jungle and its plants and animals and insects and river snakes -- is by far the most
authentic experience, and consequently, the cheapest, due to its nearly non-commercial orientation. A guide of this ilk will charge almost nothing for his services --- and
requests no more than a few dollars at the end of the expedition, in addition to all the raw foodstuffs, petro, ammunition, medical supplies, and ample and adaptable humor [in case you run into one of the cannibal tribes, which we did], that must be supplied for the outfit by someone such as myself. We took only one liter of rum and two cartons of cigarettes for a party of four, for an estimated two months into the unknown, so any human vices had to be relearned as an artform in the practice of moderation, over a very short time.
On an unchartered route with a poor native hunter one can custom tailor his itinerary and carve his own
fantasies, with his own machete, into the hinterland. Every hour is a compromise with the strong and mild elements and caprices of nature, richly rewarding
and often full of surprises. At times there is no avoiding the necessity of canoeing two to three days through the black armlets of
obscure river bends, only to find oneself confronted with an obscene tangle of trees and vines, when you finally disembark onto a high and dry land
mass -- creepily striated in a miles long, metallic black, shiney path of army cutter ants. Never open jams or tins containing anything sugary or sweet or you will live [maybe] to regret it. At no times drink water or liquids after 8pm, because if you get up from your mosquito netting and exit your custom-built palm hut [which you spent nearly a full afternoon constructing out of local plant fabrics] to urinate, you unzip your life to the fangs of killers, when the night canopy is at its most still. Dangerous and exotic vipers have highly sensitive heat seeking bio-devices, added to their acute fangular toxins, for which there is no antidote, and lunge out of the ashes of the previous night's campfire, if you forgot to bury the ashes underground. Of particular concern in this region is the "silent bringer of death." The Bushmaster, known as the 'surucucu' in Brazil, and the 'shushupe' in other countries, is the largest venomous snake in the New World.
Believe me, it takes much much longer to master the jungle at night, than it does to avoid calamity in the daylight.
Within the ventricles of this pulsating biomass, an inexhaustible supply of fruits, roots, wildlife, birds, insects and
flowers thrust themselves into awareness. To wit, "abejas" (bees) live in wooden tubes, slick as formica, which they have drilled in their geometrical fetishes to
hollow out tree trunks. At times, a colony of abejas can generate a deafening echo from the combined frequency and "voltage" of their busy busy beewing work. There are monkeys --- too numerous to name one and all --- the
largest being the "mono negro" (black monkey), and the chorro, which is quite tasty. Garrulous birds encroach upon the midday
silence, such as loros and papagayos (parrots). When you are so hungry that you have to track down a flying parrot, you know you will be eating two of them. Once shot, the mate flies in circles deploring the death of their marriage partner, in heart rending squawks and wails of grief. Many times a Pukakunga (Quechua Indian word for a red-throated
water fowl) will scramble underfoot. Properly roasted in the campfire, the tender and flavorful flesh of this bird will
encourage gluttony.
Large wild boors [called Capybaras, something like a cross between a hippo and a pig; some say it is a giant aquatic rodent that travels in herds like miniature cows], charge from the shadowy brambles, even more frightened than you, but nonetheless, charging for their very life. At times like this I was happy my safety was off. The Capybara is even more delicious than the Pukakunga, hard as that is to believe, but the pelt of this stringy haired Amazon pig is very ugly and wirey and not good for attire or upholstery. Do not confuse the Capybara with the Nutria, a horrible and environmentally destructive water rodent in parts of South American, the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, and the Bayou of Louisiana, notorious for its gigantic yellow teeth and for carrying nematode blood worm larval parasites.
Many wild fruits are edible, if you can find them, and on occasion the succulent "anona" can be sighted. It is a fruit
the size, shape and texture of a pineapple, but with a bovine twist, the meat is very milky and the white creamy syrup oozing out of its white flesh is inimitable, in flavor and texture. Beware! The jungle is not so fertile for edible plants, due to the constant flooding that washes away most of the rich and fecund topsoil that is essential for cultivating edible plants.
The primitive Indian
tribesmen [some of them cannibalistic], deep deep in the jungle, have eluded the in-roads of "civilization," even with all the current and tragic deforestation programs funded by the World Bank, world organizations, global corporations, and governments; these tribesmen have remained fearless hunters of their "familiarity breeds contempt" predatory beasts from their region. Their hunting is done for both survival and profit. These hunters seldom fall prey to their fellow creatures of a lesser technology. Hunting is, in its essence, a technology. Sometimes the bio-devices and abilities of these animals far exceeds the reflexes and weaponry of an unsuspecting human. Then the beast can relish its bio-derived superior "technology" and maybe even get a meal out of this victory. Your expedition party is thus, regretably, one person short.
I had several menacing encounters with hostile animals, and with three peevish head hunting tribes/cannibals ["Carib," aka "canibales"; "Macushi" who ate many of Columbus's men; and vengeful "Jivaro" headhunting tribes], but suffered no personal injuries other than a nasty spiderbite on my kneecap that required extensive draining. The German anthropologist with us caved in to a nervous collapse after only 6 weeks, and had to be medvac'd out by a helicopter of the Peruvian Army that flew overhead by chance, lucky for him. Many an hour every hair follicle on my body bristled and my blood churned with concentrated adrenaline, but the resolve to press ahead remained firm and youthful and focused. Those of you who choose to see, for yourselves,
the marvels of the Amazon --- are fortunate indeed!
Bryan Adrian, a former employee of the San Francisco Chronicle and a long time resident of Germany, is a
free-lance writer living in New York City, who grew up in Charleston.)
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Here are some highly recommended sites:
This dove is one of the very few to get away from its forest of OUTSOURCING and temp agency slavery -- and it protected itself from being OUTSOURCED via flight and swiftness. Look how beautifully it flies away from both Hillary and GW -- both knuckle fisted outsourcers!!!
