Posted on 05/28/2011 8:24:45 AM PDT by rawhide
Looking back, I can’t say I wasn’t warned. I’d asked an Indian chief to contact the next village by radio, and heard the threat loud and clear: ‘If the gringo comes here, he’ll be killed.’
It was my Peruvian guide, Cho, who came up with a solution: instead of passing through the hostile village, we’d inflate our rubber rafts and paddle over to a long shingle island. There, I could continue my mission to walk the entire length of the Amazon river, without fear of attack.
Which is exactly what we did. Then, at the other end of the island, just as we were lowering our rafts back into the water, Cho said calmly: ‘Look, Ed, behind you.’
As I turned, I saw five dugout canoes full of indigenous Indians, their faces highlighted by lines of bright red paint, coming towards us fast. Many of them were standing up, with bows drawn and arrows trained on us. The women, I noticed, were all clutching machetes.
I could feel sweat pouring down my temples. My heart-rate quickened and my perception of time slowed down.
When the boats beached, the tribe of Asheninka Indians leapt out and stampeded towards us. As they drew closer, I could see that the men’s faces were taut with anger, while the women looked nothing less than possessed....
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Interesting.
If they were Hovitos he would have been dead. Unless he could speak Hovitos.
In 1974, Mr. Mercat and I got on a small steamboat is Iquitos Peru and road on it to Pucallpa Peru up the Peruvian Amazon. Iquitos is lmost 2000 miles from the Atlantic but the river there is still enormous. It was quite an adventure. Just to give you an idea of the accommodations, We had a very narrow wooden bed with a straw mattress and a sink in a tiny cabin about 8’ square if that. If we wanted it, we were fed boiled plantains, rancid fried rice, and salt fish once a day and at breakfast, unsalted unsweetened gruel which might have been oatmeal. Their main cargo going that direction was empty beer bottles. Fortunately we brought some of our own food and at a couple of stops were able to go hut to hut and buy a few food items. No refrigeration anywhere and people who were subsistence farming. It was totally 17th century except that our boat was powered by diesel.
I thought it was Professor Challanger....
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