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“Holy shit!” whispered Pete McBride, “National Geographic” and “Men’s Journal” photographer. We were both up to our waists in opaque waters and surrounded by shafts of sunlight piecing through the tangled trees.
At first I thought he had seen a snake, unsettling enough on hard ground but distinctly unnerving in deep water. I turned to where he was looking and saw what looked like the head of a catfish - the size of an athlete’s calf - with a wide flat mouth. The body had no visible fins, was very snake-like, and about two metres long.
“What is it?” asked Pete.
“I’m not sure” I replied, “but its not scared of us”.
“That could only mean two things” Pete retorted, “its never encountered humans before or it has no need to be afraid of us.”
Its presence was curious and it sunk out of site towards Pete. We didn’t see it again and Pete continued to take shots of Cho and I cutting through the tangled swamp. After ten minutes Pete was done. “Lets get out of here.” he suggested.
That night I climbed into my hammock through the flap in the bottom and listened to the mosquitoes vainly trying to pass through the net. I felt safe in my little sanctuary and opened my book “The Lost City of Z” by David Grann. The book is about the legendary Lieutenant Colonel Fawcett and his incredible mapping expeditions into the Amazon on foot.
Fawcett was apparently fearful of giant electric eels or anguila as they are called here. I read on…
“about six feet long, with eyes set so far forward on their flattened heads that they nearly rested on their upper lips – were living batteries: they sent up to 650 volts of electricity coursing through the bodies of their victims. “One shock is sufficient to paralyze and drown a man – but the way of the [anguila, Electrophorus electricus] is to repeat the shocks to make sure of the victim,” Fawcett wrote.
Hmmm… sounds rather familiar.
Apologies - I’m having problems with still images despite being surrounded by photographers! First image today is from Google images and the second was taken by Keith Ducatel about two months ago. I will hopefully have my camera sorted by the next blog.
Ed
Encounter with an Amazonian Tazer! I wonder which would hurt more.
~Again, I continue to read and listen to the people of the Amazonian River area. The people who seems to know more of the lingering dangers the Amazon area is in (as much of our world is).
I just had a conversation with my dad and mentioned you to him and your quest to walk the Amazon. He is a great historian and wise about many conditions around our world (as well as a Veteran of WWII), he is now 83. He knows how vital the Amazon is to our entire world and without it, the stakes our entire world may pay.
Your continued effort are not invain.
I do have a question? With the set of questions you are asking, depending on the people. Are they willing to listen to any information you may give? I sense that many are simply unaware (perhaps uneducated) to events and changes existing worldwide. What do you find to be the greatest reason for the Amazon’s rising or current conditions? Means to survive and the amount of people living in the area? Lack of respect or appreciation? (as in so many part of our world)
Wondering…
(Excellent interview with Fransisco Grippa)
Safest Travels Ed and all who accompany you.
Julie
Arizona
Reply for Julie…
In the most part so far the educated Peruvians know all about climate change and think that the developed world and the developing world are to blame.
The unaware or uneducated think that the climate changes that they are living through are part of the natural changes of the world. They are surprised to hear my views on climate change but it is difficult for most of them to imaging a place so big that it has enough pollution to change the climate on the other side of the world.
The majority of the deforestation here that I’ve seen is done by people from both camps. But their unifying reason is that they need the money to survive. Its that simple. No amount of education here will stop people cutting down trees if that is the sole way of feeding their family.
Not much batteries Julie… Thanks for your comments and Hi to your Dad.
Ed x
I wanted the eel story to keep going. I was picturing Pedro pulled into the murky water like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars with this thing wrapped around his neck slowly choking the life out of him … oops, getting carried away.
Great stuff, what an exciting adventure.