Amazon Days 1 & 2

Michael's second installment:

Hoatzin Bird

We saw quite a few interesting birds on the first excursion, including our first Hoatzin (pronounced watt-zeen), which is a strange looking bird that has apparently been around for a long time. The guide called it a prehistoric bird. The birds were fascinating, but the highlight of the animal search was seeing a GIANT anaconda resting in some of the shallow waters of the lake a little ways from our camp. At its largest, it appeared to be 8-10 inches in diameter and the guide thought that it was ~15 feet long, though we couldn’t tell for sure due to the murky water and the snake being coiled up.

Scales of the anaconda peaking above the surface

I was shocked by how close we got to it. Andrea and I were probably no more than 5 feet from the creature at one point, but apparently they only feed twice a year and they don’t really move much the rest of the time, particularly during the day. The guides didn’t seem concerned at all about being so close. I’ve never minded snakes much, but it took me a bit to adopt their unconcerned demeanor. To make it better, we finished off the night by taking a 10 minute swim in the lake only a couple hundred meters from the snake. It’s hard for me to imagine any business in the States having the gumption to take on that liability, even though it is apparently safe. We headed for camp, had a nice dinner, and enjoyed a long night’s sleep afterwards, since we hadn’t slept well on the overnight bus the night prior.

We started off our adventures on the second day in Amazonia with a morning hike. We planned to go a couple of hours out and then head back the same way, seeing what we could see along the way. We followed the plan with a notable modification that I’ll soon share.

Quinine Tree

Along our hike, we mostly looked at some of the different jungle plants.The guide showed us the tree that quinine comes from (which was used to treat malaria, until parasites in much of the world became resistant). We also saw the viney plant that curare comes from. Curare acts on the central nervous system to paralyze humans or animals. The local people used to use it for hunting to paralyze their prey, and it has been used medically in anesthesia as well. The guide also showed us how you could hit a particular species of giant trees with a large stick and it would make a sound that echoed for great distances. At one time, the indigenous people used this method as a way to communicate between villages.

Waiting in the rain at the edge of the lagoon where our boat should be

The hike was swell until we got back to our starting point and our boat driver had left with our canoe. We thought that there may have been some miscommunication or he had been needed elsewhere for some urgent reason, but we waited and waited and no one came. We ended up waiting for around two hours and it started absolutely pouring rain (as rainforests tend to do) about 15 minutes into the wait. It felt a little like an episode of Survivor or something and we had discussed what we’d have to do to hike back to the camp ourselves (our guide said it would have been around a 6 hour hike through the rainforest, but we were at least a little reassured by the fact that it was possible. Eventually the staff at our camp grew concerned that we weren’t back for lunch and came for us in another boat.
I don’t think anyone ever did find out where the boat driver went, but he was back at the camp later that evening and took us out for our evening fishing trip. (Apparently, the same fellow disappeared next day when he was supposed to take a group out for a shorter trip because he was convinced that he had Dengue fever and wanted to go the hospital even though he had no symptoms. At least he left them in camp instead of the middle of the rainforest. He was back again the next day, but I’d have to think that he got fired. I hope he finds a good psychiatrist).

Moving on, the evening fishing trip wasn’t your ordinary trip. We were going fishing for piranhas. We used basic stick and line poles with some beef loaded on the end. As you might guess, getting piranhas to nibble isn’t difficult. Andrea was the first to get a hook in one, but it wasn’t exactly caught. She pulled the pole up very quickly and the piranha took a little flight that didn’t end in the canoe. It was exciting to get our first look at one though. Eventually we caught around 10 of the little guys, including three different species: red, white, and silver. It was interesting having Lars, the fisheries professor with us. He pointed out some of the finer differences between them that I certainly wouldn’t have noticed on my own. He was pretty excited to examine the unique fish, which I suspect are quite different than those in the Great Lakes that he studies. I never did catch one of the little fellas. If you’re in the market for a fishing buddy, I’d take Andrea. She had much better luck.