DAY 18. THE VENOMOUS FROG

The night went on without much adventure. It is quite a contrast. In the morning, I caught a small crab on the riverbank. So many species live here! It is a pity that the water is so murky, I would love to go snorkelling. There must be a whole world down there. With this thought, I let the crab go.

Despite my expectations, after the river split into two channels, the current slowed down to 5 km/hour, although I had been assured that the left arm would be faster. It is a pity. On the bright side, the river became much narrower. Now I can cross it with ease. It will not take me half an hour of paddling in sweat, but only 15 minutes. Well, all right, ‘with ease’ was a strong word.

I was almost out of drinking water, so I stopped at a small village called Juarkachiro, hoping to get some. There was no drinking water in the village, but one of the locals, Antonio, used his filter to filter 3-4 litres of life-giving moisture for me. Fantastic.

The village is pretty. The main avenue is paved with some kind of concrete blocks. There is no rubbish, and the village is very clean. The shops here do not offer much choice, so I just bought a few small hooks for sardines and some household trifles.

My boat was floating down the river when a man called out to me from the bank. He said, ‘Come and have a look at our lovely village, mister’. Erm, all right. I docked and they took me on a tour of San Miguel village. Only 30 families live there, and there is a bridge across a smaller channel from the main river, so that one can get to the village during high water season. Well, the water level must be lower now indeed.

The residents were so nice that they offered to let me stay with them, but I guess not. And I do not need a bride, thank you. Just as I was about to leave, a huntress’s boat returned to the village. She brought a huge capybara! I have seen them in Brazil, but they were small animals that lived in the park. This one is the size of a boar, and it weighs at least 50 kilos! I think it was already bloated with postmortem gases.

The residents tried to convince me that I should not go any further as there was a storm brewing. Indeed, there were some rainclouds in the sky, but I sweated so much today that I did not mind a little refreshing rain. Let’s hit the road!

I unzipped the tent, sealed the sides and took off down the river keeping close to the bank (so I would not get trapped in the elements again, as I had been recently). The wind was getting stronger and stronger, I started hitting the bushes along the bank, and the waves were rising. I decided against arguing with the nature and hide as deep in the thickets as possible.

As soon as I stopped, it started to pour. The waves picked up and the wind began to beat large raindrops against my tent. I had just said that I was running out of drinking water, huh.

I pulled out some empty water bottles and got to work refilling my supplies. In just under 8 minutes, I managed to fill up 8 litres! That is quite a speed! It is unbelievable. Now all the bottles are full and it is time for the rain to stop, thank you very much.

Well, 20 minutes of downpour – and I got my full supply of water. Now I have 15 litres – that will be enough for at least five days. The rain is over, I can move on. What lovely weather! I love the local storms: they are strong but are over quickly.

Then I had a foam party in the boat washing my clothes. All day long, I am digesting my experience from the recent storm and thinking about what changes I need to add to the boat before I reach the Great Amazon. First and foremost, I think I need to build a lower structure for the tent. It is raised too high for the strong winds – that is dangerous. A brilliant idea has occurred to me. Why do I sit on the bed all the time? I could remove the planks for the day and put more planks lower down so that I could sit deeper, like in a chair, and use some of the planks as a backrest. That way I will be able to put the tent 30 centimetres lower. And my centre of gravity will also be significantly lower this way.

I docked at the village of San Carlos to look for building materials, but the village had neither a carpenter nor any timber. I did meet some of the locals. One of the friendliest guys brought me a huge papaya! I have never tried one before, so it was a fantastically nice gift. As I was about to depart, a girl came up to me and cautiously asked: ‘Why don’t you have any hair on your face?’ Hah! They may indeed be afraid of people who have hair growing on their face. I made a joke that I had shaved beforehand so that they would not be afraid of me. The people around me burst into laughter. At that note, I said goodbye and was off.

Well, an extra papaya is great, but I stayed too long in the village, so now I am paddling to the other bank in the dark. The sun has already set, so the mosquitoes will be waiting for me there. I am tired after the day, but it is not the time to relax yet. A convenient place for the camp will not find itself.

I docked. The mosquitoes came in a huge swarm, and my lighter refused to provide fire when I tried to light the anti-mosquito coils. That is painful. By the time I found the back-up lighter that I luckily bought today, I had already got dozens of new bites. I wrapped myself in anti-mosquito coils as if they were my ancient amulets and started to set up my luxurious bed.

I was setting up the tent in case of rain – and almost died. Just another day in the Amazon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The thing is, there was a tiny frog sitting in one of the folds that I was unfolding. It was not just any frog, but a green treefrog! Its skin is deadly poisonous. The poison is called ‘batrachotoxin’ or something like that. One touch means a sure death in ten minutes. There is no cure. Whoa!

You should have seen me taking pictures of it. I had a pillow in one hand in case it jumped in my direction and my phone in the other. It was like I was shooting from a foxhole. Heh. That is scary. What a ridiculous death that would be! To wander halfway round the world and die at the touch of a frog. So much for that fairy tale of a princess frog. No, it is too ridiculous for me. This is not how I will die.

NB. I may be mistaken in calling this species a treefrog (although there are similar species among them, acid green with black eyes), but one thing is certain: it is poisonous. Subsequently, I showed this photo to the locals more than once. They looked at me in astonishment, saying, ‘Are you still alive?’ Then someone would grab his throat and pretend to be dead. Maybe they were wrong too, but I prefer to assume that everything unfamiliar is dangerous and poisonous. This has saved my life more than once, and not only in the Amazon.

Then I unfolded the tent on the other side and discovered a huge spider. I started to laugh hysterically. It looks like an assassination attempt. I have apparently been targeted. Ha-ha. I am too exhausted today; everything brings about a storm of emotions. Had I barely escorted the frog out, it was the spider’s turn to show up. I tried to chase it off too, but it went under my bed. Welcome aboard, I guess.

Just as I was about to lie down, I nearly fell off the boat – I lost my balance for a moment. Okay, no more sudden movements today.

It was time for the exotic fruit tasting. I have never eaten papaya in my life, at least not when I was aware that it was papaya, and this fruit grows to an enormous size in this part of the world. It tastes delicious – a bit like mango, but without any sour flavour.

I hope I will not have any more guests tonight. I think I have had enough for one day – dear guests, come visit me tomorrow. Tonight, I am sleeping on the water. It is scary, because the boat still leaks a little, and the bank is too high to pull at least the bow of my dear ‘Libertad’ onto it.

I barricaded myself in the mosquito net. Frogs cannot get me. Oh, that is so funny! Am I afraid of frogs now? I guess that is a rational fear in this case.

2 May, ~53 (708) km covered.