Caboclos - sounds rude doesn't it?

Having arrived safely in Menaus it was time to take stock of my adventures and prepare myself mentally for the next two legs of the journey - the Amazon proper and the vast expanses of the Llanos in Venezuela.

Manaus is a city worth visiting for its diversity alone, its mix of cultures are great to see but what is more amazing is just how modern its way of life is given its geographic location in the heart of the Amazon with very little in the way of infrastructure to reach it other than the river. Two days in Menaus was all I had time to stay as I had an appointment with adventure that I certainly was not going to miss. I had arranged to go on expedition deep into the jungle to experience the true native lifestyle of the Caboclas, the native tribe of this region. The first task was to get to where they live and that meant a trip by "road" ?? North to Itacoatiara for 184Km then on, North-easterly to a small village called Lindoia nestled on the banks of the Urubu River. At the village I was met by the guide who had brought a boat downriver to take me to the tribe. The first thing that hit me was the fact that so many of these people could speak, or at least understand English.

It turns out that in the areas history many missionaries had visited and set up schools and churches in a attempt to "convert the savages" to Christianity. It would appear that the missionaries were pretty successful as the majority of people in this area are deeply religious and mixed with their own traditional beliefs, their love of their land and its flora and fauna are fiercely protected. Another strange thing about this part of the Amazon interior pleasantly dawns on you pretty quickly - the lack of mosquitoes! Honestly it’s unbelievable after months of constantly being bitten I am in what would be perceived as the worst place on Earth for mosquitoes, and it’s totally free of them. It would be nice to think that the locals had cleared the area in readiness of my arrival but the truth is that this region is a unique botanical sanctuary with many varieties of medicinal plants. The chemicals given off by the unique vegetation as it dies and decomposes filters into the waterways making the rivers and ponds acidic. The acidity of the water eliminates the lavers of the mosquito making it impossible for them to breed here - paradise. Arriving at the village early in the evening was at first sight slightly disappointing as the sleeping accommodation that my hammock was to be strung up in was traditional but new and looked purpose built for tourists. This was an impression that was to change pretty quickly. The place I had arrived at was indeed a purpose built area that is being developed for Eco-tourism by the local indigenous Indians with help from the government agencies, in an attempt to allow the ever encroaching outside world in, whilst controlling and limiting its impact on the environment and the way of life of its inhabitants who were to be my hosts and guides for the next few days. Luxury, for me, lasted one night before we set off early in the morning, firstly by river then on foot deeper and deeper into the jungle. As we trekked deeper into the jungle it became more and more dense as the seedlings on the jungle floor fought for any available space and light that had dodged the all consuming blanket coverage of the canopy. This all changed however after a few kilometres, suddenly there was more space on the jungle floor as the trees grew taller and the smells, that constantly alerted your senses, changed. Further and further into the jungle you realise that the habitat was changing constantly and the trees, unbelievably got taller and taller still. In a clearing, several hours into the interior, we stopped having arrived at what was obviously going to be my home for at least the night. It turned out to be my home for the whole duration of my jungle adventure and what a location it was.

The first task for me was to find two trees suitable for slinging up my hammock, whilst my hosts started a fire in readiness for our evening feast. The jungle temperatures stay pretty well constant day and night but plummet to bearable levels of heat at night in the clearings and for this reason all sort of animals visit the area but this I wasn't to find out till later that night. Having set up camp and eaten an incredibly delicious meal. I was ready for my pit but Juan, my guide, had other ideas for me. Dusk was approaching, and as it did, the dimming light and the shadows it cast created all sorts of weird images from what was after all just trees, but to me I saw things that were really there, pathways between trees that didn't really exist and things moving that were no more than flickerings thrown out by the glowing embers of the dwindling fire. Juan told me that if I was to learn about the animals of the jungle then the only time to "see" many of them was at night so off we set into the unknown, unknown; that was at least for me. Juan has incredible night vision and it wasn't long before he spotted our first snake. I'll probably remember for the rest of my life the thought that went through my head as he pointed out this beautiful little thing no more than six inches long - "Do you call that a snake, I've been bitten by bigger snakes than that in Thailand and survived" His whole demeanour changed however as he carefully caught this little beauty and explained to me that this was one of the most venomous snakes in the area, capable of inflicting serious pain and days of fever if it bit you. Next on the agenda, just to make me feel perfectly safe in my hammock and put my mind at rest, was a mouse size whole in the ground that was obviously significant, prompting him to draw his machete from its sheath as he poked the hole with a stick. I was hoping he wasn't going to kill whatever was in the hole but my benevolence faltered somewhat when he withdrew the stick with an enormous Black Tarantula spider clinging on to it. The knife was used to hold the monster down while he maneuvered it into a position to pick it up so I could get a good view of its fearsome jaws. I have seen Tarantulas before but this one was big enough to steal your weekly shopping from Sainsbury's and run off with it! All this venom and we were only a couple of hundred yards from our camp. We continued our excursion for about another hour before returning to camp and although Juan pointed out many things that he saw fleeting glances of, I didn't see a thing I only heard the noises of scampering in the undergrowth. Back at camp that evening, the rustling in the jungle all around us ensured that I wasn't going to oversleep in the morning if I ever got to sleep at all.

As it happens, whether it was complete confidence in Juan or the fact that I was totally shattered, I slept like a baby only waking up to the aromatic smells of breakfast being cooked as dawn rose the following morning. As we sat eating our breakfast all of a sudden an unearthly sound, of what seemed to be a hurricane heading our way, filled the air. Juan quickly told me to grab my small day-sack that we had prepared the previous day and follow him. I wasn't, sure if his voice was filled with excitement or terror but I did know that my life was in his hands and I was totally confident in his judgement, so without hesitation I followed at what felt like fifty miles an hour trying to keep up with him as he bounded through the jungle like an antelope being chased by a lion. The noise we had heard was the cry of Howler Monkeys heading our way and Juan wanted to make sure we were in a suitably camouflaged hideout when they passed. Unfortunately something must have spooked them and they changed direction before ever reaching our hide. Not to worry though, the Amazon is teaming with life if you know how to find it and I was in the hands of an expert and it wasn't long before Juan heard the sound of Spider Monkeys quite near by so we stayed where we were and Juan made the call of a baby Spider Monkey in distress. Ten minutes later there they were, in the trees right above our heads, screaming, jumping up and down and swinging through the canopy in an aggressive manor, warning us not to mess with these bad boys - fantastic.

The longer I stayed in the jungle the more I became in tune with it and soon began to recognise different sounds and more importantly smells. The smells are so important because, although seeing Toucans, Macaws, Chameleons, snakes and so much more, the flora and fauna are vitally important to survival and you need to distinguish similar plants by smell as one can save your life whilst an almost identical one can cost you it. One thing of particular interest to me was how to find pure drinking water. In the jungles of South East Asia I was taught how to recognise which Bamboo will produce pure water when cut in a certain way but the Amazon doesn't have much in the way of such bamboo across vast swathes of it. What the Amazon does have is vines hanging everywhere, vines that are suitable for emulating Tarzan, vines that are particularly suitable for stringing bows (as in bow and arrow) and vines that will give you fresh drinking water when cut in a certain place. I can't begin to describe the pleasure of standing under the hanging part of a freshly cut vine and allowing the crystal clear, cold water, pour down your parched throat. Juan even made me a cup of tea from the bark of a tree and the vine water which tasted refreshingly like Earl Grey - unbelievable.

I could go on forever describing the skills I learnt such as which trees to use for making eating and cooking utensils, which trees to use for instant paper, how to catch and hold snakes and Tarantulas, seeds and berries to use for what such as the Tento seeds used for ceremonial dress and so much more, but one of the highlights was making my own blowpipe and darts. Blowpipes are made from a particular sapling which has a hard perfectly straight exterior with a core that is much softer, almost like Bolsa Wood. The fascinating part about making a blowpipe, and one that has always puzzled me, is how they hollow them out with such precision. The answer lies in another tree that grows long thin offshoots that has barbs along its length similar to a blackberry vine at home. These long, straight, unbendable barbed rods come in varying degrees of thickness depending on their age. Using a very fine rod at first, a pilot hole is drilled through, almost like a cleaning out the drains with drain rods, then progressively using larger rods the softer core of this branch is gradually removed to produce a hollow tube of exactly the required bore, All that is left to do after that is to make the all important mouthpiece from a type of boxwood and the darts from spines of another tree with flights made from a sort of dried grass. Simple eh? Not so! The barbed rod used to hollow out the blowpipe rips the hands of amateurs apart whilst the experts don’t even get a scratch - guess which category I'm in!

I have so much more to tell about but as usual I'm going to save a lot of it for when I meet you guys personally and besides I have to move on to the Venezuelan Llanos and tales of the giant Anteaters. I am also writing this at altitude with a lack of oxygen, so I am finding it very hard and slow going
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Just a quick hello to Kev and Eva down in New Zealand before I go and love to my Mother and my angels - I'm missing you all so much.
Symmy - Hows the weather in Spain in October / November
Steve the drummer - Where's the sarky coments? I'm missing them
John I'm approaching the USA in a couple of months - Have you got Anthony’s phone No
Boy wonder - Hows the van going? and more importantly how’s your love life, better than the van I hope
Farrer - if you're reading these reports I would love to hear from you
Jilly baby - Love getting your emails, keep them coming
Everybody else at the Lodge, Monkey, Black Horse and back at home in general - I would love to hear from you all.