And now for something completely different...

The year was 1973, and Latin America was experiencing political unrest. For Argentina it was the year that Peron returned from exile, and in Chile it was the year that Allende was assassinated and his government overthrown in a military coup. It was also the year that I ventured to South America to live with missionaries deep in the Amazon interior. The political tension of the region was not lost on me when our plane landed in Caracas, Venezuela for a short layover before my destination in Manaus, to be surrounded by armed soldiers when we had taxied to a stop, and from my window I could see our pilot talking with what looked like a well decorated military officer. At 18 I had an active imagination, I thought we had just managed to land during a coup and that we were all being held hostage. As it turned out, the pilot returned to the plane, the “general” (if that was his rank) walked away, and the soldiers broke off their positions and marched away into the darkness. We soon were back in the air and breathing easier. Although I never did find out why soldiers surrounded the plane or what that incident was all about.

This last weekend we went to see “The Mystery of the Nile” in our local omnimax theater, my friend Trissa joined us and discussion of her application to the Peace Corp, along with the Nile adventure brought back many vivid memories of my own adventure many years ago on another major world river. I lived for a time, with missionaries, among two different tribes of people whose home territories are along tributaries to the mighty Amazon River. These two tribes in West Brazil are the Culina, and the Canamari (who have come to some fame through articles in National Geographic magazine). At the time I showed up they had at the most maybe two generations of contact with Western culture, and still practiced a way of life that we have categorized as hunting & gathering, basically Neolithic, which they had practiced for thousands of years before. They had no written language, only oral tradition. And I learned much from the short time I spent among them.

Of course I have many anecdotal stories to fill endless hours around a campfire. One of my favorites is about the wild animal hazards of life in the jungle. Out in the bush we had no indoor plumbing, so our lavatory facility was a communal outhouse about 30 yards from the house, and the bath was the river which was a quarter mile hike through the jungle. It was a nicely cut trail, but through dense overgrowth and a plethora of biting insects. One evening when venturing down for a bath, I noticed a long snake stretched out along the trail, looked like about 8 feet long. I didn’t want to get too close to see if it was a poisonous one or not, it’s always a safe bet to stay away from all snakes, as there are several species that are especially dangerous. So I picked up a broken branch along the ground, and threw it at the snake in the hopes of scaring it away. Just my luck the branch came down on the snake’s head, and its head jumped up as if I just woke it up, and it started speeding its way right up the trail toward me. I turned and ran back to the house, as I was unarmed and wasn’t prepared to defend against a large snake. I picked up a machete and headed back down the trail, not to be thwarted from my daily hygiene routines. But the evening was getting late, and twilight was setting in. Back on the trail the snake had left, and was probably more afraid of me than I was of him. As I approached the bank of the river, I noticed two alligators on the opposite side. They were about 5 to 6 feet long, and when I approached they slithered into the water. This was along a narrow stretch of the river and from my bank to the opposite bank was maybe 40 feet. Too close for my comfort. But not to be thwarted, I used one of the canoes tethered to the shore, quickly jumped in the water and out again, lathered up with soap, and quickly jumped in to rinse, and was done. Usually I would leisurely swim around and enjoy my bath, but with darkness quickly approaching and the two other companion bathers, I made quick work of it, and headed home.