DAY 34. BACK ON THE WATER

Now it was time to say goodbye. Iquitos brought me not only this unpleasant experience, but a chance to get acquainted with the wonderful Yoli, her neighbour Donald and Julio. Even the Venezuelans, who were so disliked by the locals, tried their best to help, and one of the guys even gave me some food when he heard the story of my misadventures. Ciao, my friends! The river awaits me.

I am back on the water. I missed it so much! Now the current carries my boat straight to the Big River. One more second – and the dark, clear waters of the Itaja will merge with the Amazon. A child’s serenity will be replaced by adamant resilience of a woman: this is the river which has not allowed any bridge to obstruct its course. The Amazon knows a lot about freedom, and there is a reason why it was named after the mythical female warriors in the jungle who defended their way of life.

The sun is boiling hot and merciless today, it is over 30 degrees outside, no less. I dried all my belongings, and it even got to the point where the canoe started to dry faster than it was taking on water. The locals say that it is not hot yet, that within a month the dry season will surely take over, the water will go lower and numerous sandy beaches will appear along the banks. I would love to see these changes.

I decided to make fishing simpler. Since I am constantly going through baits (berries, bread, fish pieces and so on), I assembled several different swivels with hooks and sinkers. This way it will be easier to choose the tackle according to the target and avoid wasting time on assembling all the pieces together every time.

Is it just me or is the water indeed lower? It seems as if the water had dropped by half a metre or a metre over the last few days, and there are more good places to stop along the banks. I cannot help but be pleased. It is just about time to find a place for the night.

It is sunset. I landed on the dry bank – it is dry indeed. It is an unfamiliar sensation: there is hard sand under my feet. I made a few attempts to catch some fish but failed. It feels like there is absolutely no fish in the river. I am itching to try and use the tarafa net, but it is no use in such high water anyway. It shall wait.

When I went to bed in the dark, I felt the boat rocking back and forth. The sound of the waves changed. It reminded me of the Mediterranean coast at low tide, but I was on a river. Is the water receding that fast? I should loosen the rope so I would not end up all on dry land by morning, but there are too many mosquitoes outside. They will be awake and active for a couple more hours.

In the middle of the night, I had to get out and move the boat to a more secluded place, as lightning flashed on the horizon and the strange sound of the water continued to disturb me, keeping me awake. So did the passing boats.

I was surprised to notice that I had lost my touch in handling mosquitoes. No other explanation for such painful bites could yet be given. Is it some other species? At Yoli’s house there were no mosquitoes at all because of the abundance of boats around. Petrol leaks into the water now and then, so mosquito larvae have no chance at survival. It is an environmental disaster – and yet it allows residents of houses on the water to live a little more comfortably.

The boat is barely rocking at all now. The mosquitoes that got under the tent have been exterminated. Well, sweet dreams to me!

18 May, ~54 (1138) km covered.