Fear And Loathing In....Las Amazonas
A great mist covered the Amazon this morning, such a beautiful sight if only a little eerie. It was so thick that we could barely see 5 feet in front of us. This made café de manha a little more interesting, I have never eaten breakfast by candle light!
Deuzimar told us of a waterfall not too far from here so we decided to check it out. After hours of walking the waterfall was a wonderful sight in the dense heat of the jungle. We jumped in straight away, beautiful! We cooked lunch here, it was the perfect location to eat. Deuzimar made us some tea from some plants that he found which was surprisingly beautiful.
From here we decided to carry on walking through the jungle until I heard a the snap of a branch.....
A shadow running through the trees, a growl of a jaguar, the pounding of rain beating down on my face, adrenaline coursing through my veins, I clutch my machete tighter and throw my bags to the ground.
From behind I hear more movement and turn face to face with a jaguar who let out an almighty roar. My heart was pounding against my chest as if trying to break and run away. The standoff seemed to go on for ever. I kept expecting my life to flash before my eyes but somehow I did not want to lose sight of the 120 lb beast that was eyeing up his supper. At that moment my grip slipped with all the rain and my machete fell to the ground along with all my hopes for survival. My left hand searched my pocket for my pen knife but produced the banana I was saving for later, well guess I wasnt going to need it now.
They say that the best why to drive the fear of God into your enemy, is to observe how they frighten you. That is the only reason I can use to explain what happened next. I raised my arms (including the banana), took a step forward and roared at the top of my frozen lungs through the lump that had quickly welled up in my throat. It worked. The beast ran away. It worked. Deuzimar firing a shotgun at the same time possibly helped also.
The cats ran off to the east so we ran full throttle to the west. We did not know where we were running but we sure knew what we were running from! It made me think of the old joke of two people filming a documentary in the Serengeti, the camera man asks the presenter why he is putting on trainers to which the presenter replies, I may not be able to out run that leopard but I can sure as hell out run you!!........ I was wearing flip flops!!
That night we kept watch in three hour shifts. I was first up. It is amazing how the jungle truly comes to life in the dark of the night. Feels like you can hear a leaf fall a mile away. Every little sound, every little movement seems to echoe it's way through the trees. Through the crackling fire I felt that I could hear something. It's flickering light made the shadows appear to dance.
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