Landed in Botswana this afternoon after almost 3 days of travel. Luckily no flights were missed and my luggage came without any problems as well. I was a little worried that something was going to go wrong, but it didn't. I am really tired right now so forgive me if I stop making sense. I got a chance to fly on one of the huge new Airbus plane and then jumped on a little propeller plane for my next flight - definitely a change. Managed to get some sleep on the Airbus as it was not booked and I happened to get a row to myself. And I have to say Air France definitely puts more into their food than American carriers.
Impressions in Botswana thus far. Hot. And humid. Reminding me of my time in India just because of that along with the well worn dirt pedestrian paths along the roads. Maybe that's way I sort of feel at home and was brave enough to wander aimlessly hoping to find a grocery store tonight. (accomplished the task as well which is why you are hearing from me). So far I have met the driver for the center and he brought me to an ATM and to a fast food restaurant of sorts before dropping me off in an empty house. There is another participant living there but she's on vacation right now and so its just me. I start "work" tomorrow. I think its just going to be a bunch of orientation and culture shock.
By the way today is International AIDS day - show your support in any way you can back home.
jenny
12.01.2010
11.29.2010
Leaving the snow behind
I set off today and will arrive December 1 in Gaborone, Botswana. I will be working with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative site while I am there. Check out the links for information about Botswana and about Baylor AIDS. I am excited to be going but I am going to miss my family, my friends, and my puppy dogs. And playing in the snow.
6.05.2008
Pictures
We are back in the states and have posted pictures from our trip.
Check them out at:
http://jennyjimmy.site.shutterfly.com/
Check them out at:
http://jennyjimmy.site.shutterfly.com/
5.29.2008
Hooray for Montanas
Dia 38 until what I think is 41...
(Yes, I have lost track of how long we have been gone).
We took the overnight Cruz del Sur bus from Lima to Huaraz. We ended paying an extra 20 soles a piece (about 8 dollars) to ride business class in hopes that the comfier chairs would allow us some sleep. Sleep evaded Jimmy but I managed to get a little. We arrived in Huaraz as the town was waking up or as the all-nighters were finally going to bed, which is maybe why we witnessed a couple of boys getting into a fight on the street corner. Although the fighting could also have been a sign that Huaraz is not as "safe" as the other towns we have been in. On our first day there, we met some Peace Corps volunteers (one who sported a Peace Coffee shirt - yeah Minnesota) who had been robbed by someone using a key on their throats the night before. After that story we definitely took our strolls around the city with more caution.
Let me say thank you to Erin for recommending Huaraz to us. It is phenomenally beautiful. The Cordella Blanca (white mountains) are breathtaking and it is sad to think that we would have missed out on it without her input. You can see the mountains from virtually everywhere in Huaraz, although my favorite spot was from Cafe Andino which also had the first great coffee that I have tasted on this trip. (It also had Scrabble, which Jimmy and I indulged on more than one occasion).
We spent our days doing day hikes, the biggest trip being to Laguna Churup at 4450 m - the highest I have ever hiked to. The trip was gorgeous, but I have to say that once again the Andes kicked my butt. Altitude and me don´t mix very well, but I did finish the trek to the lake and it was gorgeous. Imagine Rocky Mountain lakes, but with more impressive glacier clad mountain-tops. I dropped my fleece on our way down and Jimmy went running after it in a sleet storm, miraculously finding it along the trail. We also hiked to ruins of the Wari culture (pre-Inca). We met a kid along the way who decided to become our impromptu tour guide with his friend after dropping off his school bags. (He didn´t skip school - he was on his way home). On our last day in Huaraz we went rock climbing with a guide (as we didn´t bring any of our stuff and needed gear). It was fun, and we both realized how long it has been since we have been out climbing.
We are now back in Miraflores/Lima, doing the last minute shopping and trying to rest before our long trip home. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journeys and we hope to be able to share stories and pictures in person soon.
(Yes, I have lost track of how long we have been gone).
We took the overnight Cruz del Sur bus from Lima to Huaraz. We ended paying an extra 20 soles a piece (about 8 dollars) to ride business class in hopes that the comfier chairs would allow us some sleep. Sleep evaded Jimmy but I managed to get a little. We arrived in Huaraz as the town was waking up or as the all-nighters were finally going to bed, which is maybe why we witnessed a couple of boys getting into a fight on the street corner. Although the fighting could also have been a sign that Huaraz is not as "safe" as the other towns we have been in. On our first day there, we met some Peace Corps volunteers (one who sported a Peace Coffee shirt - yeah Minnesota) who had been robbed by someone using a key on their throats the night before. After that story we definitely took our strolls around the city with more caution.
Let me say thank you to Erin for recommending Huaraz to us. It is phenomenally beautiful. The Cordella Blanca (white mountains) are breathtaking and it is sad to think that we would have missed out on it without her input. You can see the mountains from virtually everywhere in Huaraz, although my favorite spot was from Cafe Andino which also had the first great coffee that I have tasted on this trip. (It also had Scrabble, which Jimmy and I indulged on more than one occasion).
We spent our days doing day hikes, the biggest trip being to Laguna Churup at 4450 m - the highest I have ever hiked to. The trip was gorgeous, but I have to say that once again the Andes kicked my butt. Altitude and me don´t mix very well, but I did finish the trek to the lake and it was gorgeous. Imagine Rocky Mountain lakes, but with more impressive glacier clad mountain-tops. I dropped my fleece on our way down and Jimmy went running after it in a sleet storm, miraculously finding it along the trail. We also hiked to ruins of the Wari culture (pre-Inca). We met a kid along the way who decided to become our impromptu tour guide with his friend after dropping off his school bags. (He didn´t skip school - he was on his way home). On our last day in Huaraz we went rock climbing with a guide (as we didn´t bring any of our stuff and needed gear). It was fun, and we both realized how long it has been since we have been out climbing.
We are now back in Miraflores/Lima, doing the last minute shopping and trying to rest before our long trip home. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journeys and we hope to be able to share stories and pictures in person soon.
5.24.2008
Back to Lima
Dia 34-37
After the rainforest, we flew back to Lima/Miraflores. We hadn´t planned what to do with our next week, so that´s basically what we have been doing for the past few days. We leave for Huaraz tonight by bus, and hope to do some hiking in the mountains and perhaps a little rock clmibing before coming home. Nothing more exciting than that. Although, it is nice to be in a city that doesn´t care that you are a tourist and allows you to blend into the crowd for awhile. We update you about our time Huaraz when we get the chance.
After the rainforest, we flew back to Lima/Miraflores. We hadn´t planned what to do with our next week, so that´s basically what we have been doing for the past few days. We leave for Huaraz tonight by bus, and hope to do some hiking in the mountains and perhaps a little rock clmibing before coming home. Nothing more exciting than that. Although, it is nice to be in a city that doesn´t care that you are a tourist and allows you to blend into the crowd for awhile. We update you about our time Huaraz when we get the chance.
Monkeys, frogs, anacondas... oh my!
Dia 28-34
After survival camping we returned to the lodge for wildlife watching and some spearfishing and blow gun making thrown in for fun. The big things on our agenda to see were frogs (because I am a tad bit obsessed with them), more monkeys, an anaconda or two, and pink dolphins. We accomplished all of this and managed to stay away from the other tourist for quite awhile by going to stay at the research center deeper in the rainforest and by going camping (but not survival) again.
Highlights:
1. Canoeing at night through one of the lakes engulfed by the sounds of at least 6 distinct frog species calling. It was a constant chorus. And we caught a few little guys.
2. Dropping a 3 ft long caimen in our little canoe, which promptly crawled its way back to Jimmy, who´s first reaction was to jump off putting us in a rather precarciius position.
3. Finding a pygmy marmoset family who after deciding that we were not a threat, let us sit in our canoe a few feet away and watch them suck sap from their tree. (Marmosets farm saps from tree, killing them in the process make them the cutest parasite I have ever seen).
4.Chasing monkeys through the maze of trees on canoe. Spider monkeys are awesome to watch swing and jump from tree to tree.
5. Finding a 9-10 foot anaconda on the trail, which our guide spotted and promptly backed into us. The snakes like the shallow water, making it absolutely necessary to always watch your feet. Christian quickly decided that we must pick the snake up, fashioned 2 sticks to hold the snake in place, told Jimmy to grab the tail, had me hold the head in place and then went for the head. At this point, I thought he had told me to move the stick, when he was really telling me to move but keep the stick still. Well, that ended not so well with the anaconda breaking its head free and all of us running away. We told Christian that we could leave the snake alone, but he wanted to get it now more than ever, so he harassed for at least another half hour before finally giving up.
6. Searching for posion dart frogs and being very sucessful at finding them. They were so bright and beautiful and I think the coolest part was seeing them hanging out in their bromeliad homes in the trees, calling out to the world. Yes, this was probably my favorite day.
7. Watching Jimmy trying to spearfish, nic a fish´s head and then find the fish floating a few feet away, dead. We collected it and then brought it back to Pablo the lodge´s cat, who promptly rejected it. Maybe it wasn´t quite big enough for him.
8. Watching the Amazon change. It was so neat to see the seasons change around us. When we arrived at the lodge, it was engulfed by water, when we left we were able to walk around its perimeter on dry land. Each day you could see the water line drop on the trees (as the brown line of where the water had been grew larger and shrubs appeared underneath. It was simply amazing at how fast the water left.
We definitely have more stories, but we have probably overwhelmed you with information over the past few days so they shall have to wait until you see us again.
After survival camping we returned to the lodge for wildlife watching and some spearfishing and blow gun making thrown in for fun. The big things on our agenda to see were frogs (because I am a tad bit obsessed with them), more monkeys, an anaconda or two, and pink dolphins. We accomplished all of this and managed to stay away from the other tourist for quite awhile by going to stay at the research center deeper in the rainforest and by going camping (but not survival) again.
Highlights:
1. Canoeing at night through one of the lakes engulfed by the sounds of at least 6 distinct frog species calling. It was a constant chorus. And we caught a few little guys.
2. Dropping a 3 ft long caimen in our little canoe, which promptly crawled its way back to Jimmy, who´s first reaction was to jump off putting us in a rather precarciius position.
3. Finding a pygmy marmoset family who after deciding that we were not a threat, let us sit in our canoe a few feet away and watch them suck sap from their tree. (Marmosets farm saps from tree, killing them in the process make them the cutest parasite I have ever seen).
4.Chasing monkeys through the maze of trees on canoe. Spider monkeys are awesome to watch swing and jump from tree to tree.
5. Finding a 9-10 foot anaconda on the trail, which our guide spotted and promptly backed into us. The snakes like the shallow water, making it absolutely necessary to always watch your feet. Christian quickly decided that we must pick the snake up, fashioned 2 sticks to hold the snake in place, told Jimmy to grab the tail, had me hold the head in place and then went for the head. At this point, I thought he had told me to move the stick, when he was really telling me to move but keep the stick still. Well, that ended not so well with the anaconda breaking its head free and all of us running away. We told Christian that we could leave the snake alone, but he wanted to get it now more than ever, so he harassed for at least another half hour before finally giving up.
6. Searching for posion dart frogs and being very sucessful at finding them. They were so bright and beautiful and I think the coolest part was seeing them hanging out in their bromeliad homes in the trees, calling out to the world. Yes, this was probably my favorite day.
7. Watching Jimmy trying to spearfish, nic a fish´s head and then find the fish floating a few feet away, dead. We collected it and then brought it back to Pablo the lodge´s cat, who promptly rejected it. Maybe it wasn´t quite big enough for him.
8. Watching the Amazon change. It was so neat to see the seasons change around us. When we arrived at the lodge, it was engulfed by water, when we left we were able to walk around its perimeter on dry land. Each day you could see the water line drop on the trees (as the brown line of where the water had been grew larger and shrubs appeared underneath. It was simply amazing at how fast the water left.
We definitely have more stories, but we have probably overwhelmed you with information over the past few days so they shall have to wait until you see us again.
5.23.2008
Pursuit of Rat Soup
Dia 24-27
jimmy writing this blog
So one of the main reasons why we choose to stay at this lodge was because of their well known survival class. Now we didn't know exactly what was involved with this course or who did it but it sounded like a good idea for us. Christian was very excited about taking us camping and even more excited when we said we wanted to learn survival stuff. He recommended 10 days or maybe a week. I said 3 days sounds good. In the end we went with 4 days and 3 nights.
We were told to bring some clothes, water, bug spray, rubber boots, and no extra food. They would supply a bug net and sheets. Christian was quick to comment about wanting to see what extra food we brought. Apparently most people ignore the no food rule (including a guy who we saw leave a week later with 2 oranges). Jenny and I are good little kids who always do as we are told never thought to bring food. We also didn´t have any food to bring if we wanted to.
The first day was spent taking a small boat with an outboard motor up the Rio Blanco to our campsite. This was a very narrow river and had numerous tress blocking the way. We quickly learned that a machete can cut throw anything if you just keep going at it. Christian and our boat driver/assistant Betner were experts at this skill. After many hours of chopping and lifting and pushing the boat we found a campsite.
The campsite was at the location of an old run down set of huts. There was a nice sized snake waiting to great us at our hut. By hut a mean floor with a thatched roof that might stop some rain. We said hello to our reptilian neighbor and went about catching some fish for dinner. I hate fish! No really, the thought of eating a fish makes me a little ill. Apparently survival camping is mostly about going "normal" camping without food and this means fish is going to be served. I successfully did not catch a single fish. Jenny caught an adorable catfish that was good for bait. Our guides caught a series of impressive sized piranha. We ate dinner and settled down for the sun to set. Apparently dusk is when snakes attack. Once it was pitch black we took out the flashlights and started wandering around the amazon rainforest looking for things that might try and kill us. We found a small snake and some bats. Then headed off to sleep.
The next day we woke up bright and early. Christian told us we were going to move up river some to a better campsite but first we were going on a hike. Jenny and I assumed this would be a 2 or 3 hour hike and didnt take anything with us. After 3 hours of walking directly away from our campsite we started regretting not having taken our water bottle. We were shown some edible things along the way. We were unsuccessful with trying to knock some nuts out of a palm tree with a stick tied to another stick. We found some vines that had potable water inside. I was given a machete and told to chop down a palm tree. I didn´t really know why, but it seemed like fun. This quickly tore some skin off my hand and felled the innocent tree. The top 3 feet of the trunk was cut off and then the outer layer were removed to reveal a 2 inch diameter substance in the center of the trunk that was edible. This was kind of like bland string cheese, but it was food. We were told that this was the heart of the palm. Christian finally realized we were getting thirsty and told us we were hiking 3 more hours to a shamans house to see if there was food there. Apparently this was a joke and we headed home.
We then went up river to the new campsite which had some thatched roof shelters for us and set-up a new camp. At this point our guides started lumberjacking and took down a few more innocent palm trees for some food. Betner found some nuts for us to suck on for a while. We made a dinner out of the heart of the palms and some plantains that Christian got during the boat ride up. After dinner we were handed some plastic cups with brown water and told to drink it. We assumed that this was just boiled river water and it tasted really weird, but we begrudgingly drank it down. We were also supplies some farungua (dried starchy stuff) as an emergency source of food, which we ate a bunch of. During the day we may have met some of the amazons most populace residents (Miss and Mrs. Mosquito). Now it was off to bed. I quite enjoyed lying in the hot mosquito net on hard uneven ground with sticks in my back while scratching every inch of my body. I enjoyed it so much I did it all night and almost had a mental breakdown before dawn.
Now that the night was over it was time for things to start getting better. No sleep is no problem when there is fun to be had. We got up and got ready for adventure and Christian told us Betner was fishing for breakfast and after a while asked Jenny for her leatherman. He walked away letting us know he was "going to clean some fish". This was about 8:30 in the morning and breakfast was going to be any minute.
Now imagine your us: You´re two Americans in the Amazon miles away from any civilization and even those are just a couple huts. You arrived here on a motor boat that is no longer in sight. Even the two machetes are gone. Oh and the two local guides are not there. At what point does it become a problem that you are in this situation? 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, ....?
So we sat there for 2 hours with no sign of our guide, boat, or food. I gave in and did what seemed most reasonable. I yelled "CHRISTIAN" as loud as I can a couple of times. A little bit later we heard some human made animal calls coming down the river. Apparently nothing had gone wrong, this was just how survival camping goes and this was normal. Christian told us that when he left, Betner had not caught any fish, so he went to catch some fish for a couple hours. We were not pleased with this part of survival camping. After our fishy breakfast at 11:00, we headed out on an other day hike.
During this trip we went in search of palm tree nuts that the locals love. Instead of using the old fashion stick-tied-to-stick method of the past, which failed miserably on our previous attempt, we switched to the old fashion machete through everything approach. Apparently a single palm tree can hold about 60-70 pounds of nuts. Most of this is not edible and is just heavy. Since I was the only one to bring a bag on this journey, our guides decided to make some baskets out of palm fronds.
At this point I would like to explain what survival camping is and is not. Survival camping is going into the wild living off the land through the skills of experienced guides. At no point do you become capable of taking care of anything yourself. You do not learn how to make lean-tos, thatched roofs, palm baskets, fire, differentiate between edible and poisonous anything. You just follow along as your guides do everything. Although we would have loved to learn new skills during our survival camping experience, we were glad to have guides there to do these things for us in a very short period of time so that we could get food in our bellies sooner. I think the skills for survival could be best taught when survival is not in immediate danger.
So they made some impressive baskets and we carried the nuts back to camp. We now learned one skill. How to make a juice from a palm nut. The funny thing about this juice is that it looks exactly like boiled river water. We now realized that at the end of the other day we had been offered palm nut juice and not dirty water, which made a lot more sense. After making this juice was still had many pounds of nuts left over. We were told that it is customary for guides to bring food back to the lodge after going out camping.
We attempted another night hike with no important results and once again it was time for bed, but this time I had a goal. Yes, I was going to try and go to sleep. I started off by sneaking down to the boat and stealing one of the cushions. Then I went to our guide and asked for some unknown medication for itchiness. When I asked for two he said that would make me really dizzy, so I went with one. Ahh, sweet slumber.
Yeah, we survived it. Now all we need to do is take the boat back down river. Since Christian had already chopped wholes through all the trees along the way this should be a quick journey. Also I think Betner was tired of finessing the boat through holes and took on a new strategy. This strategy involved lining the boat up with some sort of opening and hitting the gas. Then pulling the propeller up as the boat skidded bounced off trees and mud. Dukes of Hazard with a boat. Things were looking good for getting back by lunch time.
After some time Christian said we should stop and make some more palm nut juice, so Jenny and I got to work crushing nuts. About half way through this somewhat tedious process Betner starts talking loud and fast (he doesn´t speak English). Then Christian starts moving. We look over and see a giant rat swimming to the shore. Christian untied the boat, while Betner started the engine. They hit the gas and rammed toward the rat. Before the boat reach dry land Christian jumped out and fell on his face in the mud. This gave the rat some time to run for cover behind a tree. With spear in hand Christian circled the tree and Betner got his spear. As Christian went for the kill, Betner got out of the boat and started running. Christian missed and the rat ran for a little stream. Betner took his chance to dive after it and threw his spear. All we heard from then on was a splash and a lot of squealing. Then some pounding as the animal was beat to death. Our guides were wet, muddy, and proud. We had LUNCH!
We took the boat for a couple more hours to Betner´s grandmothers house where they made some Acouchy (Giant Rat) soup. Jenny ate a bit and gave up, because it was chewy. I swallowed each bit without chewing and finished all my rat soup.
That is how this story ends.
jimmy writing this blog
So one of the main reasons why we choose to stay at this lodge was because of their well known survival class. Now we didn't know exactly what was involved with this course or who did it but it sounded like a good idea for us. Christian was very excited about taking us camping and even more excited when we said we wanted to learn survival stuff. He recommended 10 days or maybe a week. I said 3 days sounds good. In the end we went with 4 days and 3 nights.
We were told to bring some clothes, water, bug spray, rubber boots, and no extra food. They would supply a bug net and sheets. Christian was quick to comment about wanting to see what extra food we brought. Apparently most people ignore the no food rule (including a guy who we saw leave a week later with 2 oranges). Jenny and I are good little kids who always do as we are told never thought to bring food. We also didn´t have any food to bring if we wanted to.
The first day was spent taking a small boat with an outboard motor up the Rio Blanco to our campsite. This was a very narrow river and had numerous tress blocking the way. We quickly learned that a machete can cut throw anything if you just keep going at it. Christian and our boat driver/assistant Betner were experts at this skill. After many hours of chopping and lifting and pushing the boat we found a campsite.
The campsite was at the location of an old run down set of huts. There was a nice sized snake waiting to great us at our hut. By hut a mean floor with a thatched roof that might stop some rain. We said hello to our reptilian neighbor and went about catching some fish for dinner. I hate fish! No really, the thought of eating a fish makes me a little ill. Apparently survival camping is mostly about going "normal" camping without food and this means fish is going to be served. I successfully did not catch a single fish. Jenny caught an adorable catfish that was good for bait. Our guides caught a series of impressive sized piranha. We ate dinner and settled down for the sun to set. Apparently dusk is when snakes attack. Once it was pitch black we took out the flashlights and started wandering around the amazon rainforest looking for things that might try and kill us. We found a small snake and some bats. Then headed off to sleep.
The next day we woke up bright and early. Christian told us we were going to move up river some to a better campsite but first we were going on a hike. Jenny and I assumed this would be a 2 or 3 hour hike and didnt take anything with us. After 3 hours of walking directly away from our campsite we started regretting not having taken our water bottle. We were shown some edible things along the way. We were unsuccessful with trying to knock some nuts out of a palm tree with a stick tied to another stick. We found some vines that had potable water inside. I was given a machete and told to chop down a palm tree. I didn´t really know why, but it seemed like fun. This quickly tore some skin off my hand and felled the innocent tree. The top 3 feet of the trunk was cut off and then the outer layer were removed to reveal a 2 inch diameter substance in the center of the trunk that was edible. This was kind of like bland string cheese, but it was food. We were told that this was the heart of the palm. Christian finally realized we were getting thirsty and told us we were hiking 3 more hours to a shamans house to see if there was food there. Apparently this was a joke and we headed home.
We then went up river to the new campsite which had some thatched roof shelters for us and set-up a new camp. At this point our guides started lumberjacking and took down a few more innocent palm trees for some food. Betner found some nuts for us to suck on for a while. We made a dinner out of the heart of the palms and some plantains that Christian got during the boat ride up. After dinner we were handed some plastic cups with brown water and told to drink it. We assumed that this was just boiled river water and it tasted really weird, but we begrudgingly drank it down. We were also supplies some farungua (dried starchy stuff) as an emergency source of food, which we ate a bunch of. During the day we may have met some of the amazons most populace residents (Miss and Mrs. Mosquito). Now it was off to bed. I quite enjoyed lying in the hot mosquito net on hard uneven ground with sticks in my back while scratching every inch of my body. I enjoyed it so much I did it all night and almost had a mental breakdown before dawn.
Now that the night was over it was time for things to start getting better. No sleep is no problem when there is fun to be had. We got up and got ready for adventure and Christian told us Betner was fishing for breakfast and after a while asked Jenny for her leatherman. He walked away letting us know he was "going to clean some fish". This was about 8:30 in the morning and breakfast was going to be any minute.
Now imagine your us: You´re two Americans in the Amazon miles away from any civilization and even those are just a couple huts. You arrived here on a motor boat that is no longer in sight. Even the two machetes are gone. Oh and the two local guides are not there. At what point does it become a problem that you are in this situation? 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, ....?
So we sat there for 2 hours with no sign of our guide, boat, or food. I gave in and did what seemed most reasonable. I yelled "CHRISTIAN" as loud as I can a couple of times. A little bit later we heard some human made animal calls coming down the river. Apparently nothing had gone wrong, this was just how survival camping goes and this was normal. Christian told us that when he left, Betner had not caught any fish, so he went to catch some fish for a couple hours. We were not pleased with this part of survival camping. After our fishy breakfast at 11:00, we headed out on an other day hike.
During this trip we went in search of palm tree nuts that the locals love. Instead of using the old fashion stick-tied-to-stick method of the past, which failed miserably on our previous attempt, we switched to the old fashion machete through everything approach. Apparently a single palm tree can hold about 60-70 pounds of nuts. Most of this is not edible and is just heavy. Since I was the only one to bring a bag on this journey, our guides decided to make some baskets out of palm fronds.
At this point I would like to explain what survival camping is and is not. Survival camping is going into the wild living off the land through the skills of experienced guides. At no point do you become capable of taking care of anything yourself. You do not learn how to make lean-tos, thatched roofs, palm baskets, fire, differentiate between edible and poisonous anything. You just follow along as your guides do everything. Although we would have loved to learn new skills during our survival camping experience, we were glad to have guides there to do these things for us in a very short period of time so that we could get food in our bellies sooner. I think the skills for survival could be best taught when survival is not in immediate danger.
So they made some impressive baskets and we carried the nuts back to camp. We now learned one skill. How to make a juice from a palm nut. The funny thing about this juice is that it looks exactly like boiled river water. We now realized that at the end of the other day we had been offered palm nut juice and not dirty water, which made a lot more sense. After making this juice was still had many pounds of nuts left over. We were told that it is customary for guides to bring food back to the lodge after going out camping.
We attempted another night hike with no important results and once again it was time for bed, but this time I had a goal. Yes, I was going to try and go to sleep. I started off by sneaking down to the boat and stealing one of the cushions. Then I went to our guide and asked for some unknown medication for itchiness. When I asked for two he said that would make me really dizzy, so I went with one. Ahh, sweet slumber.
Yeah, we survived it. Now all we need to do is take the boat back down river. Since Christian had already chopped wholes through all the trees along the way this should be a quick journey. Also I think Betner was tired of finessing the boat through holes and took on a new strategy. This strategy involved lining the boat up with some sort of opening and hitting the gas. Then pulling the propeller up as the boat skidded bounced off trees and mud. Dukes of Hazard with a boat. Things were looking good for getting back by lunch time.
After some time Christian said we should stop and make some more palm nut juice, so Jenny and I got to work crushing nuts. About half way through this somewhat tedious process Betner starts talking loud and fast (he doesn´t speak English). Then Christian starts moving. We look over and see a giant rat swimming to the shore. Christian untied the boat, while Betner started the engine. They hit the gas and rammed toward the rat. Before the boat reach dry land Christian jumped out and fell on his face in the mud. This gave the rat some time to run for cover behind a tree. With spear in hand Christian circled the tree and Betner got his spear. As Christian went for the kill, Betner got out of the boat and started running. Christian missed and the rat ran for a little stream. Betner took his chance to dive after it and threw his spear. All we heard from then on was a splash and a lot of squealing. Then some pounding as the animal was beat to death. Our guides were wet, muddy, and proud. We had LUNCH!
We took the boat for a couple more hours to Betner´s grandmothers house where they made some Acouchy (Giant Rat) soup. Jenny ate a bit and gave up, because it was chewy. I swallowed each bit without chewing and finished all my rat soup.
That is how this story ends.
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