4. Night in the Jungle
Day 111
Puerto Misahuallí. The end of the road. There is nothing but Amazon basin jungle all the way from here to the Atlantic. 3,000+ km. And Rio Napo is one of the thousands contributors ending up in the Amazon river. You can ride a boat from here all the way to the Atlantic. The jungle is different here then anywhere I’ve been so far. It is interesting that you can distinguish among different types of jungle. There are a different types of vegetation here, different smells and sounds.
The town itself is as small as they come. A few hotels, few stores and central plaza and that’s about it. The town is right on the river and there are many sleek river boats beached there waiting for their passengers. It is an off season for tourists so they are used mostly for transporting locals back and forth to their houses and settlements downstream. There are few fancy jungle lodges further down the river where you can have a proper jungle experience. I settle for a river boat tour. I hired a boat and off we go to see a local shaman, about 30’ boat ride downstream. The river is few hundred meters wide and very fast flowing. Tito, my driver and a guide grew up here so he knows the river well. At least I hope he does. There are many rapids and fast current. I asked about local critters. Well, no caymans in this part of the river, or pirañas or anacondas. The water is too fast for them. But it is another story in the lagoons on the side of the river. Tito said we can go and try to find them in the night. Absolutely! But meantime we are motoring on this river, which is a little creek compare to Amazon. The jungle on the river banks is unbelievable thick. I can only imagine what lives there.
Soon enough we reach a couple huts on the river bank. We (I mean Tito) beach the boat and climb the steep bank. The water level in the river goes up up 5m in the middle of the rainy season. It is hard to imagine. That shaman comes to greet us a collects $10 fee. Then he takes me on a tour of his botanical garden. There are herbs, trees and shrubs for everything. They have a medicine for every possible illness. He explains every tree, pretty cool. Oh yeah, all explanations are in Spanish and to my surprise I understand the most of it. He has some cool stuff there like walking palm tree which “walks” moves sideways up to 60cm in a year. The whole tree! Or curare, famous for its potent poisonous brew which they dip their arrows in.
As a shaman he is allowed to practice some cleansing and purifying rituals only shamans can do. He offered me bunch of the procedures. One of them is Ayahuasca. I’ve read about it. It is a very powerful hallucinogenic with many weird side effects. People from all over the world come here to experience it. No, thank you, I am not that depressed to start experiment with that stuff. The shaman offers it but didn’t push it, so it was good.
Then he showed me his blow darts. They use it to kill the animals. Or enemies … He showed me how to do it and I tried it. Without the poisonous dart. I aimed at a small wooden bird and I hit it on my first try! What can I say, I am natural for the jungle life …
They also showed me how they prepare fresh chocolate. Cooked on the sauce pan, it is very fast and they poured it over fresh bananas and you have freshest and most delicious snack in now time. I could eat bunch of them …
They also have a small store, or rather hut with all the organic medicines they produce there. They have medicine for everything. Lotions, potions, powders, leaves, you name it. And everything is VERY cheap. We are talking about single digit $. Fortunately, I don’t need any of them.
It is time to say goodbye to the shaman and head back upstream. The powerful engine of the boat make for an easy and fast ride back to the village. Gliding past the jungle on the side I can’t help to think about the first explorers coming to Amazon. And for the some part, not much as changed. Certainly, exploring Amazon jungle is one of things I’ve read about when I was a kid. And now, I am here. Amazing. Before you know it, it is time to snap out of my daydreaming. We are back.
I know that jungle at night is a different beast. And I want to experience it so I set up another tour with Tito. We are going to meet after the sunset and go for another ride.
I have about 2 hrs to kill so I head for a dinner in one of the few restaurants in town. Then I grab my headlamp from the hotel and head back to the boat launch. Tito is already waiting for me with massive headlamp on his head. It is pitch black at this time. We cross the river in somebody else’s boat and hike for a bit in the jungle. All of the sudden, my senses are starting to tune to the unfamiliar surroundings. After 20’ we come to a lagoon. There is a small boat for 2-3 people and no engine. Just a big stick which Tito will be pushing us. I sit down and we are on our way. You can’t see a hand in front of your face. We turn our headlamps on from time to time. I see we are in a very narrow canal about 5-10m wide. Deepest jungle on side with mangrove reaching the water. You can see a small brighter sliver high above us. That’s that starry skies. It is so narrow it doesn’t do anything to help illuminate the surroundings. It is a very strange feeling I have never experienced before. All of the sudden you feel vulnerable. You are not the top predator here. I can see how easy you could get an anxiety attack here. I thought I would be scared but I am anxious, trying to hear and discern different noises. And it is noisy. Jungle feels alive at night with lots of animals hunting for food. I am loving every minute of it. We are looking for animals. We saw some nocturnal birds with big eyes so they can see better at night. But I want to see caymans and anacondas. I know, it weird because I am deathly afraid of the smallest of snakes. Then I saw two bright lights about 5m to the side. I shine my light there and sure enough, there is a cayman waiting for his pray. We slowly and quietly maneuver our rickety canoe to about 2m from the guy. He doesn’t move but his eyes betray him. He is definitely alive. I have my Nikon set on the darkest settings. But there is NO outside light whatsoever. Only when we both shine our lights on the cayman I can take a decent pictures. And sits there, no moves. He is a juvenile about 3m long. I could touch him if I was crazy enough or didn’t care I have one less limb. We stayed for a bit and I took many pictures. Then we leave him and continue down the canal. We come cross an animal path leading to the waterline. We sat there waiting for something getting thirsty but nothing showed up. We continue floating around for another 2 hrs. No pictures, it is just too dark. I am just sitting there trying to absorb and understand the senses totally foreign to me. I absolutely love it. We come across a house. The back is facing the water and has a small porch above the water. There is a light and somebody is having dinner there. We slowly glide right to it like a Navy SEALs without anybody knowing we are there. We are 5m from them. I see Tito’s face in the reflection and he just chuckles. We leave just like we came and nobody new we were there. Very scary. For the rest of the time I am sitting there with my mouth open loving every second of it. Now I know how it feels to be alone in the jungle in the middle of the night. And I can see how easy it would be to freak out. Wow, what an experience! Well, I hope my Amazon adventures are not over. I have big plans for later in my trip.
We come back where we started and hide the canoe in the jungle and head back to the river. Tito has his buddy waiting for us so we jump in and it is only a short ride across the big river and we are back home. Tito stays in the boat and he and his buddy heading back into the darkness of the jungle.
Wow, I can’t believe the last few hours! It was an incredible experience I will never forget.