Freeman Explore

Locals gave us a hand around dangerous rapids

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Last night we fell asleep to the rumble of the Panelas Rapids. In the morning our first job was to figure out a way around the half mile long, dangerous rapids. Roosevelt found a local man to guide his party safely past the rapids and we did the same thing. Several locals led us down a narrow side channel and helped us portage our canoes and equipment around the worst of the rapids. It took us about an hour to carry everything around.

Hercilio holds a small snake that likes to live in the trees.

Hercilio holds a small snake that likes to live in the trees.

We paddled on for the rest of the day and only encountered a couple sections of fast water. Our next major rapids is 40 miles downstream.

Jack and Hercilio caught 3 large piranha just before dark in the exact place we were all bathing a few hours before. It makes you think twice about swimming. However, it is really hot, and piranha bites are very rare. I think our chances of getting a fungal infection or a painful rash from poor hygiene are far greater than being bitten by a piranha.

Tambaquis, piranhas and electric eels, oh my!

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This morning we pushed off from shore and let the current grab our bulging canoes. The swift current helped us travel 25 miles relatively easily. There were many small rapids, but we were able to navigate them with having to portage. A portage is when you have to carry your canoe and all your supplies around a rapid. We saw many animals today, including howler monkeys and lots of macaws. Hercilio caught a large tambaqui, which is a fruit-eating fish. It has large flat teeth that it uses to crush the seeds that it eats. Paul caught his first piranha. We are going to eat the tambaqui and piranha for dinner!

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A howler monkey clambers down a branch along the riverbank.

We also paddled past a small Zoro Indian village today. We did not see any people, but we saw a palm thatch hut and a school boat tied to shore. The right side of the river belongs to the Zoro Indians. Eleven percent of Brazil has been set aside as reserves that are controlled by the indigenous people. Most of the indigenous people in the Amazon have regular contact with the outside world and many indigenous people live in towns or cities, have T.V., cars, computers, and other modern conveniences. However, anthropologists estimate that there are about 60 uncontacted tribes still living in the Amazon.
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Dave shows off the sun protection provided by his ExOfficio BugsAway Cape Hat.

Brazilian Believe it or not! An electric eel surfaced alongside our canoe today. It is one of the Amazon’s most amazing critters —  It packs a punch and can send a 650-volt electric jolt that kills or stuns the fish it preys on.  That’s 6 times the voltage that powers your house and, as you know, even a shock from house wiring can be deadly.  Fortunately, electric eels don’t  generally choose people as prey.  However, a participant on a canoe expedition down this same river system about 10 years ago reported getting zapped by an eel while swimming.  Apparently, that eel just wanted to say hello because that lucky swimmer noted that the mild zap he got felt “mildly pleasant.”

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Paul is super comfortable in his MTI Adventurewear Slipstream PFD and ExOfficio SolCool shirt.

Paul eats piranha for the first time

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Sunrise 3

By the time the sun began to burn through the blanket of fog coating the Rio Branco Farm, our team had the cars packed. A 5 minute drive brought us to the Rio Branco. We quickly unloaded all of our supplies. Tonico, Eurico, and Baca headed back down the primitive road to drop off the three cars in Cacoal. If everything goes as planned, they will hire a car to drive them back to our campsite this evening. The rest of our team is waiting at the campsite. I can’t imagine driving that road three times – we will have to do something special for the drivers.

Piranha 1

Hercilio caught and cooked the first Piranha this morning and we marched into the rainforest and harvested a heart of palm to eat for dinner.

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The water’s edge is laced with Tapir tracks, and hundreds of butterflies dot our campsite. It feels so good to be in the rainforest, surrounded by towering tees. We’re all looking forward to launching our canoes and heading deeper into the forest.

Butterfly 2

Piranhas at Walmart?

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We went to Walmart and Sam’s Club today to buy our lunch supplies. Tonico is packing all of our dinners and Jack is packing all of our breakfasts. Each team member is in charge of their own lunches. Paul and I are packing our lunches together. We pushed the cart up and down the isles past flat screen TVs, blenders, beer, produce, and the million other things for sale at mega stores like Walmart. The packaging on the food looks a little different, but it was easy to find nuts, dried fruit, summer sausage, and cheese, which combined with our Cliff Bars will be our lunch each day on the Rio Roosevelt. The biggest surprise was a giant pile of Piranhas for sale for about $3.50 a pound! We were tempted to buy some, but decided to wait and catch our own in the Rio Roosevelt. DO you think they are farm raise or wild caught? Do Piranhas come with the Walmart low price guarantee?

In the morning 6 of our 8 member team will meet up for the first time and start packing. We have a ton of stuff to cram into two cars for the 2,400 KM drive to the River of Doubt. The drive will take us 2 and 1/2 days and we will probably leave Saturday morning. If all goes well we can start paddling on Tuesday!

Paddles Up!
Dave


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