Day Three: Raft Building

23rd September 2010

Early in the morning all the rafters met en masse at the town plaza to load orselves onto a fleet of busses that would take us up the river to Porvenier where we would take a boat to Isla de Pescadores to build our rafts and begin the race. After a couple of hours of riding the bus we stopped at the town of Nauta where we were treated to a procession, drmming, and speeches from the local councillors, given good luck bracelets (mine made from red and black seed pods from the jungle and anaconda vertebrae) and provided lunch of rice, chicken, salad and juice in the hall. It was unbelievably hot and humid but terribly exciting to be given such a great reception by the local people there.

To get across to Isla de Pescadores we were loaded into the belly of a huge industrial type cargo boat (very exciting) to cross the river to the isolated sandy beach, where many piles of logs waited. A lottery was drawn for the piles of logs. We were rather unlucky in drawing a pile of 8 rather bent and skinny balsa logs, but soon got to work shaping the ends with machete, axe and chainsaw and lashing them together using steel cable that we had purchased earlier in Iquitos. As international entrants, we were permitted the help of locals. Unfortunately our local "helpers" turned out to be rather inexperienced, but enthusiastic nonetheless and got carried away with our vessel, causing some amount of friction between our team as we all felt rather frustrated with the design and style with which it was taking shape. Still we made the best of it, and nailed on four plastic garden chairs with the legs sawed off, upon which we would place foam pads for the comfort of our behinds, and an awning of army camo netting to shade us from the sun. Pink dolphins eyed us curiously from the waters edge, and we saw the most amazing and memorable golden syrup sunset. We worked until the sky was dark and we were eaten raw by vicious mosquitos, and I cut the name of our raft "Josephine" into the front log, with the image of a dolphin carved above, for good luck. Josephine was Beths mother who sadly passed away from breast cancer some years ago, and the reason we were all there together. Finally we fixed a ginormous union jack flag to the back of one of the masts, accompanied by our 2Action4Cancer" flag (black with 2 big pink feet) next to it ont he other back mast. It looked pretty darn fine, and we celebrated by eating our dinner of rice and chicken and hot spiced apple juice seated upon the craft.

The atmosphere of the camp was marvellous. I felt like I was living the pages of an episode of national geographic magazine, a shot somewhere between some bedouin encampment or refugee caravan, with awnings and tents spread across the back, people scattered about among campfires, logs and machetes cast about the place, the air hanging hot, thick and smoky. Wandering out behind the line of tents and tarp awnings to go to the toilet was interesting because there was so very little in the way of bushes or foliage to shelter behind!! Far behind the stretch of sand the jungle loomed both enticingly and also threateningly. I didn't even make it fully onto my camp mattress and slept on my back, fully clothed, hot and clammy, head leaning back on my back pack, and out like a light, covered in mosquito repellent hoping I would not be bitten any more in my sleep.

Peru: Day One (continued) & Day Two

Here is continued from when I posted briefly from Iquitos on tue 21st September (day one). That night we went to the rafters welcome party at a little bar called La Noche, where we got to meet the other competitors, listen to some announcements and letters of encouragement from previous rafters were read out amid the music and drinking, and exciting evening as everyone was buzzing with the anticipation of the huge task we were about to undertake. This is where I met Jordan, another rafter with whome I became familliar. After the party we stayed out late talking on the street eating mangoes given to us by his hostel landlady and drinking some awesome mead made from honey from bees that live in the jungle, and watching enormous bats swoop down to catch insects attracted to the light from the street lamps- the first of many highlights that would follow.

22nd Sept- Day Two

A free day. We took a couple of moto cabs (afore mentioned trike rickshaws) and then a wooden motorboat with drivers Raoul and Manuel to the village of Belen on the riverside, where the race would be finishing. All the houses were on stilts as during high water season the river rises so high people are dependant on canoes to get around. Some houses were built on big log rafts instead of stilts so as the water rises the houses simply float up with it! The streets were dirt and the buildings painted colourfully. We visited one house which was more like an open fronted shack with a few chest freezers inside, a collection of locals on rocking chairs and hammocks, a mangy dog, beautiful kids scattered around and someone preparing fish from a big tub in the corner- this was a local pub, and chairs were soon pulled around for us for each of us to have a cold beer, which was most enjoyable, despite the early start!! The childeren were fascinated by Fyf and my hair, both of us having a lot of it and with Fyfs bright silky blonde and mine woven into braids and dreadlocks with orange and pink wool- while drinking I would feel the occasional gentle tugging and fiddling of my locks, not at all unpleasant!

While on the river we saw pink river dolphins (an unexpected delight since we are so often hearing of how close to extinction they are)- we were told it was unusual to have sightings at that time of day and we took this to be a good omen. We travelled up the river and the boat struggled against the current, which was somewhat sobering as we would soon be crossing this very stretch of water on our rafts, reliant on our muscle and will power in place of an outboard motor!

We arrived at a floating cafe where we feasted on a huge platter of various local meats (battered caiman, smoked capybara and some kind of fish) with two different styles of fried plantain (delicious!), "jungle spaghetti", a type of vine shredded up that looks like tagliatele and salads with pineapple and chilli salsa and omelette. We tried a delicious strong drink of lime juice and local gin (I forget the name) and more local beer (very nice) and relaxed on (and in) the warm water before heading up to a small wildlife park where we met and handled some sloths, caiman, anaconda and a monkey. The sloths are amazing! They have a beautifully calm and contented aura about them and seem to smile as they gaze around in wonderment at their surroundings. They are anatomically bizarre and fascinating too, and it was a rare treat to be able to handle and inspect one so closely.

After a full and brilliant day I enjoyed some time with my new friend in the evening though was unfortunately mugged on our way back to my hostel by 3 men on a moto cab whizzing by and grabbing my bag off my waist from behind almost taking me with them, and so I lost my money, credit card and camera. Still I was in good company and having an otherwise incredible time so I didn't let it get me down too much after the initial anger and upset subsided. Afterall, tomorrow the real adventure would begin, tomorrow we would build our vessel that would carry us some 112 miles down the mighty River Amazon...

Let the training begin!!

Gosh what a long time it is since I updated this blog! Now I am getting down to business and plan on updating regularly to use it as a log from my most recent adventure. True to my regular style I have found myself involved in some mad-cap idea without really thinking it through first;this september I will be flying to Peru to take party in the Great River Amazon Raft Race!! I'm the 4th team member paddling for my friend Bethyns charity, Action4Cancer. We aim on raising £2000 each for the charity and will do this by getting sponsorship for building our own raft and in just 3 days, paddling said raft 112 miles down the Amazon River!! EEEK!

Now I do not consider myself the fittest person. Granted I am probably fitter than the average (non gym going) person due to my insanely heavy duty zoo keeping job, though in the last 6months I have neither boxed or been swimming as I used to so avidly. I'm not fool, I realize that this raft race is going to be an excruciating measure of my fitness and both pyhsical and mental endurance. i also hate pain. I will happily admit to being a bit of a wimp. So in order to reduce the discomfort of this crazy project, I am starting fitness training in the form of the following:
Running
Boxing
Swimming
Press ups
Weights
Belly dancing.

Unfortunately I hate running with a burning passion. In the last 2 days I have been swimming and also on each day done 20 pressups. I am already aching!!! Tonight I plan on executing the first step of the running training plan sent to me by the lovely Bethyn, who is a sports teacher. I'm not feeling too wild about it.

If you would like to follow my progress and donate to this most worthy and charitable cause, you can send cheques made payable to Action 4 Cancer to 134 Cromwell Road, Cambridge, CB1 3EG or go to my facebook page via this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=134736266557666&ref=ts

More soon, inc pictures anddetailed descriptions of the ways in which this training is hurting my body!!!

xx