Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
In Amazonas - 1998
In Amazonas - 1998
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-18 22:36:03
Displayed times (last time: )
which preferred still water. The smell of blood would have attracted them rapidly and I wouldn't have had any way of defending myself nor time enough to get out.
I remembered what some old Brazilian peasants had told me: "To cross a ford you must sacrifice the weakest animal in your herd, cutting it several times with a knife and forcing it to wade in. When the piranhas attack it, you can cross with your other beasts a little farther upstream. But you must be quick. The steer will be stripped to the bones within minutes."
What I couldn't understand was what had caused the scratches. Then I noticed that under the water several long, slender leaves similar to those of the maize-plant, were drifting in the current. They were very sharp-edged. The cold of the water had numbed any pain but once I was on the bank, in the sun, the cuts began to smart, and became an irresistible target for the flies and mosquitos. I hurriedly got dressed to avoid their bites.
We would spend this coming day on foot in the jungle. We marched in decisevely, following a narrow path through the trees used by the natives when they went searching for a tree trunk suitable for use as a curiara. The suffocating heat and humidity immediately slowed us down. The light, which had to filter through the profuse, overhanging vegetation, was very dim, too weak, for instance, to take photographs. The forest was also almost silent since the animals are only usually out at dawn or dusk. Even so, a whistle, a rustle or a cry behind us sometimes made me jump. I suspect, however, that our biggest danger came from the ever-present possibility of putting our foot on a snake or disturbing an insect. Walking in that humidity fatigued us terribly. It was so difficult to breathe that it was as if one's nose and mouth were blocked by a ball of cotton wool. Just before nightfall, however, we came to a clearing in the woods where someone had constructed a sloping roof of leaves on top of
...
See photographs from:
Brazil Gallery
