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One unexpected
development
occured at meal time at the lodge: I had arrived, by chance, with 4
other
French people. At meal time, we were snubbed by the English table. Some
of the English guests were a bit boorish, rushing to be first at the
buffet.
The French guests were a gentler bunch. There were no Americans
around
at the time. All the Europeans had spent so much time and money to get
to Perú. They couldn't believe how painless it had been for me.
I was the oldest guest too, by the way.
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As much as I enjoyed the fish and the birds, I was most captivated by the people... |
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...and by the
vegetation.
My guide Victor introduced me to households and to plants. He would
show
me herbs and explain "this is good for chicken... and for
rheumatism,"
or "this is good for fish... and for kidney stones." We even cut a
notch
in the bark of a curare tree, and saw a drop of the famous poison drip
down.
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This jungle beauty of three or four... |
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...showed me
around her
kitchen. Her mother is obviously much more clever than me. With such a
setup, I would burn the house down before long.
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The
children don't have many toys,
but I saw them playing with animals a lot.
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So often it
was hard to
know who was more interested in whom. School was off that day, and the
surest way to start a conversation was to ask "are you sad there is no
school today?"
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Look at
Junior goofing off in the hammock,
and also at the other family, that lives at ground level under the
floor
planks:
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The forest
walk was another
matter, perhaps the high point of the whole trip. Imagine a walk in the
Pennsylvania woods after a good summer soaking rain. Now multiply
everything
by ten: the smells, the size of the plants, the obstacles, the mud, the
bugs, the noises...
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We were wearing long sleeves, long pants and plastic ponchos, and yet I felt stings underneath it all. My glasses were steaming up, and finally I slipped off a log into some soft bottomless ooze. "Save my camera" I pleaded. The fragrant mud went up to my knees, over the top of the rubber boots I had rented in Iquitos. My rescue was complicated by the fact I couldn't stop slipping and laughing. I taught my guide the useful word "klutz." |
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This is so
beautiful that
one feels exhilarated. And what about the dangers? I asked Victor. He
said
that the greatest danger is to get lost. If you can't see the sun, your
sense of orientation doesn't work. No help from moss on the North side
of tree trunks when you are right under the Equator. You need to camp
until
you see the sun, or you'll get more and more lost. Apart from that, a
few
snakes, and the bugs are the main threat. Jaguars are extremely rare.
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I could have walked forever, but too soon it got darker. The days last exactly from 6am to 6pm, and it was time to return to the lodge, slurp out of the boots and take a cold shower before dinner. For the more hardboiled type, the lodge offers one night in the wilderness, where you have to build your shelter and find your food! Maybe next time. |
