Although his tenacity could not have been more obvious Gustavo's stupor repeatedly inhibited his efforts to sit upright and he swayed heavily back just catch his head with his arms as it smacked back down into the table.Nina was drooling a bit as she took "just a quick nap" which was her third such endeavor in the past half hour. But Nate had managed to get himself a beer and sipped it quickly trying not to show his consternation as Dory held the six-sided, jagged -ended emerald in her hands, marveling at its beauty and size. Dolores hovered over her nosily. Dory began to sniff the stone.
"Cedar oil," said Nate in a deep strained voice as if having a bowel movement, "it's an accepted practice in the industry for smoothing out minor flaws and it adds a little brilliance. The smell is long gone by the time it gets to the consumer and they usually cut the stones first but in this case-'
'In this case what?"
"In this case I can't tell you . What I can tell you is that emeralds are a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by a trace of chromium and sometimes vanadium. There is a camp that believes it is organic matter of some sort that causes the color. Emeralds are brittle and their resistance to breakage is generally poor. The word "emerald"comes from the latin smaragdus-
It is almost the same word in Dutch, smaragados" shouted Nina from her nap.
"Thank you for that Nina, "said Nate like a Professor, anxious to continue his monologue,"at any rate most Emeralds tend to have numerous inclusions and surface breaking fissures and can not be graded as scientifically as diamonds. Thus the emerald is graded by eyeballing it and if it has no visible inclusions and if the person eyeballing it has 20-20 vision it is considered flawless. But stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds, the most valuable beryls are oiled to enhance their apparent clarity. Eye clean stones of a vivid primary green hue like the one you are holding with no more than 15% of any secondary hue either blue or yellow command the highest prices. And most emeralds are oiled as part of the post lapidary process, but that one was found like that so it has become Dolores' amulet- especially when Benecio is not here."
Dory rotated the stone in her hands even more fascinated after Nate's discourse and then looked closely at the stone as if she could not believe her eyes.She blinked to try to clear them. Then again. Then pulled the green beryl as close to her eyes as she could and still have them focus. She began to read slowly what was apparently etched in tiny letters on one facet of the stone:" Inter...Natos...Mulierum...non...sur-rexit...mayor"
She looked at Nate."un-hunh,"she said.
'C'mon you told me you knew latin ! Out with it!"
"From the woman...not a greater man has come...Something like that. I have never translated Latin to English."
"Not bad at all. Exactly in English it says:Among them borne of woman there hath not arisen a greater man." The Conquistador Cortez put it on one of his most famous emeralds that he brought back from the New World. Some say he was referring to John the Baptist, and some say that this sacrilege or vanity brought him and Spain bad luck and trouble for a long time to come."
"So what do you think about it?"
"I don't think about it. I didn't put it there."
"Ah, so this is the vanity of your partner."
"Yes the vanity of my partner who if he finds out that you know of this stone's existence- which he will upon his return in a week or so- he will gut you both and feed you to the caiman crocodiles right here in the lake without a second's thought. The man has been humping through these jungles for 40 years and if we try to run, Gustavo and Fernando will track us like wild pigs. Might we be able to overpower Gustavo now and be ready for Benecio with the shotgun I've got in my room? We could do that if I did not want to be fabulously rich. This ...spot we have found is potentially richer than the Chivor Mine in Columbia. Emeralds have never been found in Ecuador to give you a quick history lesson but Pizarro brought back gobs of them from Peru saying that Pre- Inca high priests used them in their ceremonies and had one the size of an osterich egg that was called the ' mother stone' and that the mother stone liked to have all of her daughters near her and so when it was time to pray all the supplicates brought in the smaller "daughter stones" to make the mother and the greedy priests happy and ultimately made Pizarro very happy who added the 'mother' and her daughters' to all the gold he sacked from Atahualpa in his monument to greed only matched today by corporate oil rapists .And guess what? Emeralds have never been found in Peru ! Nor in Mexico where Cortes brought back his great emerald. No mines ,no nothing...But I'll come clean now I didn't get here, I mean to this area by chance I have research that has led me here . Hell, I knew before Beni-- But enough History... Now lets talk about life and death.
So what are your options ? We can try to hide the truth from Gustavo who you can see is still half out of his mind. We can try to convince Gustavo who, although Benecio is his Padrino,his godfather, can't stand the bastard. Will he betray the bastard who worked his father into the ground never giving him an even split on the oil camps they built together? We can try to convince me who knows Benecio fairly well to let me lie your way out of here but you know I don't really trust the bastard either. He has taught me everything I know about the forest which doesn't count for a rat's ass when measured against maybe 50 or a hundred million dollars or more and I see that quotation on the stone as well... something ominous ...something tells me he may not be happy with half since all I did was come up with twenty thousand dollars in his hour of need for something that is worth millions.So he might just gut me regardless of the good times we've had in the forest setting up for this thing,getting Columbian buyers who will keep their mouths shut and have the worldwide resources to get the emeralds popping up all over the globe so nobody can trace them back to a single buyer(By the way I've made some arrangements of my own in that department with a fellow in Jaipur, India, the Emerald capital of India not usually for this quality of stone, but I've sent him samples and he is anxious to get in the game-this is something that Benecio knows nothing about, Don't you think I know he walked out of here with a nice sized leather pouch of emeralds ? And besides everything I don't like the way he treats Dolores and there are some nasty undertones going on there. He encourages her to go topless and tells me he doesn't want her to lose her nativa roots. I think there's nasty dirty old man mojo going on there.. Hell then the next thing I know he wants me to marry Dolores because I can communicate with her- and probably keep all the money in the family so to speak if I did- and one night nipping sinchicara he said he would make us each crowns of ' stones of the finest water' - thats a slighly old school term for stones of the finest color and crystal that we would wear along with neclaces of placer gold with no nugget less than 3 ounces. Not a bad welcome to the family don't you think ?
Anyway , it may be a drunkards dream as the poet once said but what else is there. You can try to run on your own and either Gustavo will track you in about a half an hour or you'll be dead in three days. This jungle which is so wide open and vast has become your prison. It could be mine as well...
Nina started sobbing and Dory hugged her trembling herself.
"Well this whole thing is my fault. I'm no saint but I was a fool to bring you down here and I see only one solution. Tomorrow , I will talk to Gustavo as the first step and since you already know too much, Nina, lets hope he thinks just a little bit with his dick.His attraction to you...and Gustavo may not mind doublecrossing Benecio if I put the package together properly for him. ...And since you already know too much and Dory has such a keen sense of curiosity,,,do they have that expression in Dutch: Curiosity Killed the Cat...Well you get what I mean...Oh Yeah, I remember a Dutch expression...let me see ...how did that go ? ah: Those that don't honor the little don't deserve the big. On the face of it a VERY quaint expression but look I got it all figured out see I'm honoring the little in fact I bow down to Dolores' little stone I kiss it every chance I get.Because It represents one motherfucking lode of the big that even Cortez and Pizzaro couldn't imagine. You get me. Kleine Beetje?Tomorrow I will show you everything (if Gustavo doesn't kill me first)."
"No don't tell us anymore,"cried Nina thoroughly alert now and terrified.
"I would like to see," said Dory,flatly."I am like that cat of yours."
Nate rolled his eyes.
"Okay, Dory I suggest you give the stone back to Dolores and I will direct her to keep quiet about the stone. If Gustavo mentions it to you, act Dumb."He made a face like Dolores might make.
"Now lets have some breakfast, if you ladies don't mind," and he plucked the stone away from Dory before she even had a chance to give it to Dolores and with Dolores following close behind him and squealing they headed out the back door of the cabin.
They ate breakfast virtually in silence ,with Dolores, now fitted again with her red bra top and joining them at the table. The girls had fried some kind of fish they found looking surprisngly fresh in the propane powered refrigerator, and Dolores had showed them how to smash plaintain slices into patacones for frying and with this she made a quick tour of the garden and snipped an assortment of vegetables which were so young and tender they needed perhaps three minutes in the steamer and then were dabbed with some sort of butter like substance just barely.The rice and the patacones Nina saw were in honor of the riverborn member of the group who did not take even one scoop of the succulent vegetables.
Then the girls retired to their room for a siesta which suprised Gustavo who only shrugged at Nate who shrugged back and he rolled into his bunk in the kitchen.
Nate sat on the edge of his bed straining to hear Viva the Macaw chatting it up with a pair of macaws crossing the lake.His hearing was beginning to fail him brought on by a vicious case of measles he had contracted six weeks earlier. It was useless to try to clear his ears anymore, the phlegm had subsided and anyway he had no doubt that Viva was telling them every detail of the drammatic recent events down to the last detail.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
# 13 The Green Monster
The empty Sinchicara bottle lay on its side on the table.Benecio's brew contained among its secret ingredients some relatively mild halucinogens compared to what was available in the rainforeast such as ayahuasca and mixed in to 100% alchol concoction he would normally portion it out in nips for mild "sidetrips" as Nate liked to call them.
Now the the chuchuhuasa bark that had been inside the bottle crumbled out of the lip of the overturned empty bottle, a sign that all the Sinchicara's energies had been released into the minds of the imbibers who were sitting and writhing gently to the music HCJV, the Christian Evangelist Radio station with the fifth largest signal in the world. They had had considerable more than a nip of the drugs whose first effect was conviviality and drunkeness.
"I could see the notes,"slobbered Dory as she whistled along to some light classical music.
Watch my hand ", said Nate ,and fingers spread broadly, he passed his beautiful hand which held so much meaning, she knew, slowly in front of her face and she saw the after images of a hand as if she were seeing a thousand hands.
Nina had her head cradled in her arms on the table and said like a little girl: "No one can see what I am seeing."
And Dory put her face in her arms like Nina and said:"oh yes I can, You are looking at your parents and they are smiling and waving at you as you get on the tram to go off to kinder."
And Nina raised her head and looked in horror at Dory who had also raised her head smiling.
"And what was I wearing"
"A red sweater."
And then the two began to talk earnestly in dutch and finally burst with laughter.
Suddenly Gustavo rose from his chair and though he had no comb he made the motions of combing his hair.He took off his shirt and a great Harpy eagle with enormous talons- Was it a tatoo?-flapped its wings and hovered above the table only to return to his chest again and again, finally roosting there but with an angry eyeball peered on the assemblage as Gustavo lowered his voice several octaves and in guttural Spanish began to orate with great gestures like a shaman:
"A Great Beast Lives in this forest and that is why Nate and I and Benecio and My Brother are here. We are here to capture the the great beast with the hard green eyes. It is three meters tall and has 6 heads and is capable of changing its body shape into every kind of deformity you can think of .It eats everything that moves in this forest without distinguishing and farts beautiful music than can be heard at great distance, It has an infinite supply of horned women that are attracted to him, beautiful women accept for their horns and it can speak every language. Once a man has seen it he will do anything to capture it for he has seen it walk around a tree where birds are roosting, (and this is just one example of his many powers) walk around and around until they are hypnotised and all the birds fall to the ground so little effort must he use to hunt and he eats them with his green teeth and green tongues and all of his six green heads and though you may think he is an enemy he is everybodies friend. Everybody wants to be near him and to be seen with him at the best parties because he always has something valuable to say.
Gustavo stopped, suddenly dazed, as if coming out of a trance and confused, slumped back into his chair. Then hit his head hard on the table as he tried to bow his head into his folded arms and missed.
At last they all assumed this position with their faces on the table in stupor and only static came from the radio. Many hours later the sharp click of the off button, or the absence of static,or maybe just the diminished level of halucinogens in their brains brought them all up virtually in unison . A loud sound began to emanate from the the direction of the door.It was Dolores,standing spread eagled between two chairs towering above them, her youthful breasts defying gravity and between those breasts a jagged crystal of enormous proportions of what could only be emerald.She was chanting now ,a loud wordless admonition. There was a plea included and a gloating provocation all at once.
"What is it Dolores?" asked Dory, and to Nate :"What does she have around her neck is that real?"
Nate and Gustavo Both made reflexive moves to get her and they both fell down, still far from equilibrium.
Now Dolores held up her musuem size emerald that had been strung with the sinew of some animal and made a gesture with it to each of the girls.
"You mean it's here," Dory asked , "Dolores?" but got only more shrieks in return.
"You mean it's here, a mine or something,"She asked Nate.
But Nate , who had managed to climb back into his chair only bowed his head and groaned as if he had the hangover of his lifetime.
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Now the the chuchuhuasa bark that had been inside the bottle crumbled out of the lip of the overturned empty bottle, a sign that all the Sinchicara's energies had been released into the minds of the imbibers who were sitting and writhing gently to the music HCJV, the Christian Evangelist Radio station with the fifth largest signal in the world. They had had considerable more than a nip of the drugs whose first effect was conviviality and drunkeness.
"I could see the notes,"slobbered Dory as she whistled along to some light classical music.
Watch my hand ", said Nate ,and fingers spread broadly, he passed his beautiful hand which held so much meaning, she knew, slowly in front of her face and she saw the after images of a hand as if she were seeing a thousand hands.
Nina had her head cradled in her arms on the table and said like a little girl: "No one can see what I am seeing."
And Dory put her face in her arms like Nina and said:"oh yes I can, You are looking at your parents and they are smiling and waving at you as you get on the tram to go off to kinder."
And Nina raised her head and looked in horror at Dory who had also raised her head smiling.
"And what was I wearing"
"A red sweater."
And then the two began to talk earnestly in dutch and finally burst with laughter.
Suddenly Gustavo rose from his chair and though he had no comb he made the motions of combing his hair.He took off his shirt and a great Harpy eagle with enormous talons- Was it a tatoo?-flapped its wings and hovered above the table only to return to his chest again and again, finally roosting there but with an angry eyeball peered on the assemblage as Gustavo lowered his voice several octaves and in guttural Spanish began to orate with great gestures like a shaman:
"A Great Beast Lives in this forest and that is why Nate and I and Benecio and My Brother are here. We are here to capture the the great beast with the hard green eyes. It is three meters tall and has 6 heads and is capable of changing its body shape into every kind of deformity you can think of .It eats everything that moves in this forest without distinguishing and farts beautiful music than can be heard at great distance, It has an infinite supply of horned women that are attracted to him, beautiful women accept for their horns and it can speak every language. Once a man has seen it he will do anything to capture it for he has seen it walk around a tree where birds are roosting, (and this is just one example of his many powers) walk around and around until they are hypnotised and all the birds fall to the ground so little effort must he use to hunt and he eats them with his green teeth and green tongues and all of his six green heads and though you may think he is an enemy he is everybodies friend. Everybody wants to be near him and to be seen with him at the best parties because he always has something valuable to say.
Gustavo stopped, suddenly dazed, as if coming out of a trance and confused, slumped back into his chair. Then hit his head hard on the table as he tried to bow his head into his folded arms and missed.
At last they all assumed this position with their faces on the table in stupor and only static came from the radio. Many hours later the sharp click of the off button, or the absence of static,or maybe just the diminished level of halucinogens in their brains brought them all up virtually in unison . A loud sound began to emanate from the the direction of the door.It was Dolores,standing spread eagled between two chairs towering above them, her youthful breasts defying gravity and between those breasts a jagged crystal of enormous proportions of what could only be emerald.She was chanting now ,a loud wordless admonition. There was a plea included and a gloating provocation all at once.
"What is it Dolores?" asked Dory, and to Nate :"What does she have around her neck is that real?"
Nate and Gustavo Both made reflexive moves to get her and they both fell down, still far from equilibrium.
Now Dolores held up her musuem size emerald that had been strung with the sinew of some animal and made a gesture with it to each of the girls.
"You mean it's here," Dory asked , "Dolores?" but got only more shrieks in return.
"You mean it's here, a mine or something,"She asked Nate.
But Nate , who had managed to climb back into his chair only bowed his head and groaned as if he had the hangover of his lifetime.
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Friday, December 19, 2008
#12 Sinchicara
They returned to the cabin in the last traces of a golden afternoon and prepared to bathe in the lake before dinner. Benecio was nowhere to be seen and Dolores was cooking by herself in the kitchen. Fernando was missing also, not in his familiar free time spot on the canoe bench whittling ever more elaborate walking sticks for the girls which he traded for clumps of Drum tobacco and rolling paper that Dory and Nina showed him once how to roll and he became expert. At the dock, Dory noticed that the boat was gone. Nate seemed unencumbered by all of these disappearances and he bathed and joked as usual.
The highlight of this day had been seeing, very close-up, a family of pygmy marmosets. Weighing not even half a pound, they were the smallest of all monkeys,very sedentary- finding their food in the trees where they settled and most astonishing of all, the extremely accurate replications of human faces;more so than any other primate.At First it seemed as if they smiled and welcomed their brother and sister visitors to the forest, then from the expressions on their faces, it became painfully apparent to the aliens that the marmosets had grown quickly bored and slinked off to sleep: a more productive activity than paying heed to the cooing and chirping humans on the forest floor just 5 feet below them.
As Dolores cleared the table Nate disappeared into the kitchen as well and produced a square decanter with a brownish liquid inside and 4 glasses. Gustavo, who had eaten dinner with them,
started laughing and cried out :"Sinchicara"
"That's right ladies and gentleman," began Nate like a carnival barker , "Sinchicara! Made of 5 medicinal plants (one of which is chuchuhuasa because I see the bark floating in there- and four others so secret only a man named Benecio the Magnificent knows for sure- and even then only on a good day. But! It will cure snakebite Nina. It will grow hair, Gustavo . It will cure sadness madness and sometimes badness. And all ya got to do is drink a few rounds to be delivered."
He poured out what amounted to double shots to each of them and they chugged them.
Nina gasped. Dory did not but her face flushed instantly.Neither Gustavo nor Nate had any outward reaction.
Nate poured another round of doubles."This also has quite acute painkilling abilities , I forgot to mention, and in large doses ,well,let's just say it gives you insight."
"Yes,"said Dory, already a little sloppy, "because it is 100 percent alcohol."
"Shut your mouth, woman,"Barkered Nate, "only one dealer at this table."
"Ja,"she said, "I can think of a lot of times when you did not want me to keep my mouth shut."
"Yes, he said in fond remberance lingering in the reflection, "anyway bottoms up !"
They all threw down another round and this time no one reacted outwardly. He filled the glasses this time and Dolores appeared from the kitchen and thrust forth an empty glass. Nate waved her off and she thrust it again. He tried to grab the glass from her but her reflexes were now better than his .Finally he shrugged and gave her half a shot. She squealed with delight. Nina squealed in return unaware that she had done so.
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The highlight of this day had been seeing, very close-up, a family of pygmy marmosets. Weighing not even half a pound, they were the smallest of all monkeys,very sedentary- finding their food in the trees where they settled and most astonishing of all, the extremely accurate replications of human faces;more so than any other primate.At First it seemed as if they smiled and welcomed their brother and sister visitors to the forest, then from the expressions on their faces, it became painfully apparent to the aliens that the marmosets had grown quickly bored and slinked off to sleep: a more productive activity than paying heed to the cooing and chirping humans on the forest floor just 5 feet below them.
As Dolores cleared the table Nate disappeared into the kitchen as well and produced a square decanter with a brownish liquid inside and 4 glasses. Gustavo, who had eaten dinner with them,
started laughing and cried out :"Sinchicara"
"That's right ladies and gentleman," began Nate like a carnival barker , "Sinchicara! Made of 5 medicinal plants (one of which is chuchuhuasa because I see the bark floating in there- and four others so secret only a man named Benecio the Magnificent knows for sure- and even then only on a good day. But! It will cure snakebite Nina. It will grow hair, Gustavo . It will cure sadness madness and sometimes badness. And all ya got to do is drink a few rounds to be delivered."
He poured out what amounted to double shots to each of them and they chugged them.
Nina gasped. Dory did not but her face flushed instantly.Neither Gustavo nor Nate had any outward reaction.
Nate poured another round of doubles."This also has quite acute painkilling abilities , I forgot to mention, and in large doses ,well,let's just say it gives you insight."
"Yes,"said Dory, already a little sloppy, "because it is 100 percent alcohol."
"Shut your mouth, woman,"Barkered Nate, "only one dealer at this table."
"Ja,"she said, "I can think of a lot of times when you did not want me to keep my mouth shut."
"Yes, he said in fond remberance lingering in the reflection, "anyway bottoms up !"
They all threw down another round and this time no one reacted outwardly. He filled the glasses this time and Dolores appeared from the kitchen and thrust forth an empty glass. Nate waved her off and she thrust it again. He tried to grab the glass from her but her reflexes were now better than his .Finally he shrugged and gave her half a shot. She squealed with delight. Nina squealed in return unaware that she had done so.
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
#11 Love And Decisions
Nina had tripped on an armadillo hole and Gustavo, knowing his fate,still grabbed the tachuelo or thumbtack tree- the closest support to him- and saved Nina from falling. He knew he would take a wound, had calculated its importance versus his novias' fall ,and chose pain. He was treating the deep hole with sangre de drago the red sap or resin, with so many documented curative powers ,that he had harvested himself from the tree he found on the way back from their excursion making several cuts into the bark with his machete and catching the sap in a leaf with a prominent drip tip.Nina , upon seeing the wound, became upset. Gustavo with a little bit of machismo but a lifetime of experience with the drug,shrugged it off with a laugh and Nate explained its many curative powers, antiseptic powers, internal powers against ulcers and other ailments and began a discourse that lasted all the way back to the cabin about the many healing herbs and oils of the rainforest. It was a virtual pharmacy, he said, all you had to know was what to look for and where to look.
Benecio announced that he was going to leave the next day and said he was going to cook his famous jungle dinner for lovers, sarcastically letting everyone know that he was aware of what was going on in and out of the cabin.
Each night Nate and Dory, attempted to emulate with their mouths what they brought back brimming in their hearts and souls from their excursions into the trembling forest. Fecund tongues propagated pleasure in original and exciting ways like some newly discovered carnal beasts so deep in the Amazon,dripping with sexual juices , pleasure their only motive for existence. These creatures became real in their pristine love jungles, orgasm after orgasm, producing enigmatic ecstasies.
Gustavo would slip into the room Nina supposedly shared with Dory from his place in the bottom rung of a bunk bed off the kitchen- always to return before daybreak, sometimes encountering Dory in the dining room as she too made her way back to her room which repeatedly startled both of them.They both tried to suffocate their laughter with a hand over the mouth which made them laugh even louder.
The last night Nate stayed up drinking with Benicio . First at the dinner table and then outside on the parted canoe that served as a bench.
Dory carefully opened her door so that she could hear the conversation on the porch which was quite drunken. She knew she had missed a lot that had gone on in the dining room.There had been yelling and it sounded as if the two men had pushed each other in a kind of angry duel which neither had much heart in and now they were drinking out of jars, aguardiente, pure sugar cane alcohol and both were slurring there words.
Nate made a passionate plea: "Benecio, my friend, my brother, my partner in crime, I don't think you have the emotional experience to understand what I am going through. I am in Love god dammit."
"Love , "said Benecio, and he spit over the railing as if for emphasis."Nate, I am an old man.
"Hombre viejo," he drunkenly signed the same words," and old men do not have the luxury of three week fuckings with holandes putas... and with the money, hombre, you will be able to buy your share of french, german, American whatever you want. The oil people will be back here one day maybe you know dat. Or someone will find this place and then we are jodido man. You want to be rich or do you want to fuck ?"
"I want to be rich," said Nate softly.
Dory who had her head up against the door lost her balance made it creak.
The men heard it.
They started talking to each other in sign language.
"Hokay " ," said Benecio, for the benefit of of anyone who might be listening, "and then you say your goodbyes.And Gustavito can take them back to town."
"It looks that way," said Nate.
"I'll be gone with Fernando before sunrise,"said Benecio,"And I am leaving the bitch with you."
"I don't mind looking after Dolores," said Nate protectively.
"You know why I named her Dolores," said Benecio, because she is an Dolor, a pain."
"I don't think your wife would agree with that."
"What does that puta know?"
"I think it's time to go to bed Benecio,"
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Benecio announced that he was going to leave the next day and said he was going to cook his famous jungle dinner for lovers, sarcastically letting everyone know that he was aware of what was going on in and out of the cabin.
Each night Nate and Dory, attempted to emulate with their mouths what they brought back brimming in their hearts and souls from their excursions into the trembling forest. Fecund tongues propagated pleasure in original and exciting ways like some newly discovered carnal beasts so deep in the Amazon,dripping with sexual juices , pleasure their only motive for existence. These creatures became real in their pristine love jungles, orgasm after orgasm, producing enigmatic ecstasies.
Gustavo would slip into the room Nina supposedly shared with Dory from his place in the bottom rung of a bunk bed off the kitchen- always to return before daybreak, sometimes encountering Dory in the dining room as she too made her way back to her room which repeatedly startled both of them.They both tried to suffocate their laughter with a hand over the mouth which made them laugh even louder.
The last night Nate stayed up drinking with Benicio . First at the dinner table and then outside on the parted canoe that served as a bench.
Dory carefully opened her door so that she could hear the conversation on the porch which was quite drunken. She knew she had missed a lot that had gone on in the dining room.There had been yelling and it sounded as if the two men had pushed each other in a kind of angry duel which neither had much heart in and now they were drinking out of jars, aguardiente, pure sugar cane alcohol and both were slurring there words.
Nate made a passionate plea: "Benecio, my friend, my brother, my partner in crime, I don't think you have the emotional experience to understand what I am going through. I am in Love god dammit."
"Love , "said Benecio, and he spit over the railing as if for emphasis."Nate, I am an old man.
"Hombre viejo," he drunkenly signed the same words," and old men do not have the luxury of three week fuckings with holandes putas... and with the money, hombre, you will be able to buy your share of french, german, American whatever you want. The oil people will be back here one day maybe you know dat. Or someone will find this place and then we are jodido man. You want to be rich or do you want to fuck ?"
"I want to be rich," said Nate softly.
Dory who had her head up against the door lost her balance made it creak.
The men heard it.
They started talking to each other in sign language.
"Hokay " ," said Benecio, for the benefit of of anyone who might be listening, "and then you say your goodbyes.And Gustavito can take them back to town."
"It looks that way," said Nate.
"I'll be gone with Fernando before sunrise,"said Benecio,"And I am leaving the bitch with you."
"I don't mind looking after Dolores," said Nate protectively.
"You know why I named her Dolores," said Benecio, because she is an Dolor, a pain."
"I don't think your wife would agree with that."
"What does that puta know?"
"I think it's time to go to bed Benecio,"
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
#10 The Blue Butterfly
An enormous Morpho butterfly,a week later, dubbed by an unknown but profound Naturalist, "the bluest thing on earth,"loped by them in long swoops with its six inch wing span.Its iridescent azure wings, as if drawn from a secret palette,made it a rapturous blue anomaly in the green and brown forest tableau in which they stood. Gustavo caught it with ease and put it on Dory's shoulder. Nate took a picture. The girls wanted another picture of themselves and they hugged while Gustavo somehow anesthetizing the butterfly put it in Nina's hands as Dory and Nina hugged and Andrew took the picture with Nina's point- and -shoot camera. Finally, Nina pulled Gustavo, who was combing his hair next to her and he put his arm around her waist familiarly and Nate took a picture of the two with the butterfly on Gustavo's shirt pocket. Everyone laughed as Gustavo blew on the butterfly first softly, then hard until it finally loped away,leaving blue exclamation points as it traveled leisurely through the green and brown. They had spent many days in the forest now and were beginning to accept on its own terms, the terms that Nate had wanted them to undersatnd and with this comprehension real knowledge and understanding of just how vast this ecosystem was beginning to sink in.
Gustavo and Nina were now lovers of six days. The jungle, dealt with on its own terms, accepted rather than struggled against,romance. The danger with the viper that Nina had encountered was the rare exception that proved the Amazon rule :be ready for anything but especially passion. Though she may have felt that she owed him her life so she gave him her body in trade- that would have been an obvious explanation.But it was more than likely that the excitement and fascination came as each were fantasy figures from the culture of the other. The blonde gringa from the olive-skinned boy's TV Porn videotapes the chongos showed to warm men up for their painted ladies had certainly aroused his curiosity,and the liberated blonde European who nourished herself each night with her cultural fantasy for this land that included a handsome olive-skinned boy.It was a part of any good travel adventure:you fuck the culture to really get to know it. And with the desirable mystical airs of the jungle - and of course he had saved her life: sex was heightened by its racial distinctions.They came each night, in unison, a single-colored ecstasy.
They accepted it on its own terms.
Gustavo took Nina's hand to cross the bridge he had whipped up in a matter of minutes to cross the stream. The machete was an extension of his arm and seemed to be constantly in use; cutting vines that held water that was deliciously pure, notching off brush from the trail which was not well-defined, to mark it so that they could find their way back,cutting palm leaves from one kind of tree that were good for this and from another that looked identical to the girls but was chambira the only palm good for a whole littany of weaving tecniques that according to their expert, for which no other would serve. He cut the tagua nut, vegetable ivory, that had fallen from another palm near by and he made the girls notice that all the palms were different. That maybe in an hours walk you would find three trees that were the same. That the forest did not have groves of trees almost never.
The stream bed and then the ground under foot became rocky with small stones as they passed midday and they could hear off to the left a growing sound as they approached, that seemed recognizable to Dory.She tilted her head like a musician.
"There's a waterfall near here ?'
No," said Nate, just the wind through the trees,"I couldn't tell you anyway my ears are all blocked up with phlegm."
"Una cascada," Nina asked Gustavo.
"No," he replied, "el viento.
But as they reached a point in the trail where the sound for Dory was nearly unmistakable she noticed that some trees had been cut obstructing all who would attempt to venture in that direction. She could make out a set of deep wheel marks, like those you might find on a small wagon, through the brush in the rocky mud.
Gustavo chopped a wedge from a balsa wood tree and Nate did the explanation which after letting them feel the lightness of the wood and explaining how it would float so well if they ever neeeded a quick raft he tried to explain to them about toy wooden airplanes which apparently they were not familiar with. Until they had a long discussion in Dutch.
"Ja,"they finally said in unison, "Naturlich".
Suddenly Gustavo sniffed the air like a dog and motioned for everyone to crouch down in place silently. Nothing happened. Then they heard squealing and a thundering of hoofs on the ground and soon passing by not 5 feet from where they hid was a herd of peccary, wild boar, their teeth chattering and looking ferocious in such a large group.Their stench was now upon the humans and the girls held their noses.Then they were gone.
The dust and stench of the pecarry caused them to cough for several minutes after they had passed and as if to clean things off, the hot afternoon brought on a rainstorm, so common in the tropics when the heated earth's temperature floats up to the cooler temperature in the water-laden clouds above and because of the lower density of the cool materials overhead they fell as rain. The earth, in this convection effect, for now, would remain at a suitable temperature for all that lived and breathed in these forests.
Back in the cabin HCJV was playing loudly on the radio but there was no one to be seen . It was a sermon in Quechua, the indian language and Nate smiled understanding the name Paul and Romans.",Gustavo, " he called, get over here," and he talked over the Quechua in Spanish and then sermonized himself as if exulting in God's holy light, "For as through the disobedience of the one human, many were made sinners, thus also through the obedience of the one many were constituted righteous..uh...uh..in order that just as sin reigned in death, so also the grace reigned through rightgeousness unto everylasting life through Jesus Christ Our Lord. A-men."
He grabbed a beer from the the refrigerator and came back jubilant sucking it down."I have been saved and once your saved your always saved,Amen.I've got no worries because God is on my side. I mean there are christians and superchristians and I am a pentacostal superchristian born and bred and I know that his divine grace is acting on me today and everyday. Hallelujah. Sorry. You guys want beers."
"Yes please," said Dory, I thought you were Jewish.
"Why is that?"
"You know because you are fixed down there?"
"Another dick joke ?"
"No it's just-"
"Circumcision runs in my family and the modern thinking is or was you get it or don't according to what they did to your father- anything wrong with it?"
"No it is .. beautiful and I think gives me more pleasure"
You mean a clipped pencil dick gives you more pleasure how could that be?"and he laughed broadly and took her into his arms affectionately.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Gustavo and Nina were now lovers of six days. The jungle, dealt with on its own terms, accepted rather than struggled against,romance. The danger with the viper that Nina had encountered was the rare exception that proved the Amazon rule :be ready for anything but especially passion. Though she may have felt that she owed him her life so she gave him her body in trade- that would have been an obvious explanation.But it was more than likely that the excitement and fascination came as each were fantasy figures from the culture of the other. The blonde gringa from the olive-skinned boy's TV Porn videotapes the chongos showed to warm men up for their painted ladies had certainly aroused his curiosity,and the liberated blonde European who nourished herself each night with her cultural fantasy for this land that included a handsome olive-skinned boy.It was a part of any good travel adventure:you fuck the culture to really get to know it. And with the desirable mystical airs of the jungle - and of course he had saved her life: sex was heightened by its racial distinctions.They came each night, in unison, a single-colored ecstasy.
They accepted it on its own terms.
Gustavo took Nina's hand to cross the bridge he had whipped up in a matter of minutes to cross the stream. The machete was an extension of his arm and seemed to be constantly in use; cutting vines that held water that was deliciously pure, notching off brush from the trail which was not well-defined, to mark it so that they could find their way back,cutting palm leaves from one kind of tree that were good for this and from another that looked identical to the girls but was chambira the only palm good for a whole littany of weaving tecniques that according to their expert, for which no other would serve. He cut the tagua nut, vegetable ivory, that had fallen from another palm near by and he made the girls notice that all the palms were different. That maybe in an hours walk you would find three trees that were the same. That the forest did not have groves of trees almost never.
The stream bed and then the ground under foot became rocky with small stones as they passed midday and they could hear off to the left a growing sound as they approached, that seemed recognizable to Dory.She tilted her head like a musician.
"There's a waterfall near here ?'
No," said Nate, just the wind through the trees,"I couldn't tell you anyway my ears are all blocked up with phlegm."
"Una cascada," Nina asked Gustavo.
"No," he replied, "el viento.
But as they reached a point in the trail where the sound for Dory was nearly unmistakable she noticed that some trees had been cut obstructing all who would attempt to venture in that direction. She could make out a set of deep wheel marks, like those you might find on a small wagon, through the brush in the rocky mud.
Gustavo chopped a wedge from a balsa wood tree and Nate did the explanation which after letting them feel the lightness of the wood and explaining how it would float so well if they ever neeeded a quick raft he tried to explain to them about toy wooden airplanes which apparently they were not familiar with. Until they had a long discussion in Dutch.
"Ja,"they finally said in unison, "Naturlich".
Suddenly Gustavo sniffed the air like a dog and motioned for everyone to crouch down in place silently. Nothing happened. Then they heard squealing and a thundering of hoofs on the ground and soon passing by not 5 feet from where they hid was a herd of peccary, wild boar, their teeth chattering and looking ferocious in such a large group.Their stench was now upon the humans and the girls held their noses.Then they were gone.
The dust and stench of the pecarry caused them to cough for several minutes after they had passed and as if to clean things off, the hot afternoon brought on a rainstorm, so common in the tropics when the heated earth's temperature floats up to the cooler temperature in the water-laden clouds above and because of the lower density of the cool materials overhead they fell as rain. The earth, in this convection effect, for now, would remain at a suitable temperature for all that lived and breathed in these forests.
Back in the cabin HCJV was playing loudly on the radio but there was no one to be seen . It was a sermon in Quechua, the indian language and Nate smiled understanding the name Paul and Romans.",Gustavo, " he called, get over here," and he talked over the Quechua in Spanish and then sermonized himself as if exulting in God's holy light, "For as through the disobedience of the one human, many were made sinners, thus also through the obedience of the one many were constituted righteous..uh...uh..in order that just as sin reigned in death, so also the grace reigned through rightgeousness unto everylasting life through Jesus Christ Our Lord. A-men."
He grabbed a beer from the the refrigerator and came back jubilant sucking it down."I have been saved and once your saved your always saved,Amen.I've got no worries because God is on my side. I mean there are christians and superchristians and I am a pentacostal superchristian born and bred and I know that his divine grace is acting on me today and everyday. Hallelujah. Sorry. You guys want beers."
"Yes please," said Dory, I thought you were Jewish.
"Why is that?"
"You know because you are fixed down there?"
"Another dick joke ?"
"No it's just-"
"Circumcision runs in my family and the modern thinking is or was you get it or don't according to what they did to your father- anything wrong with it?"
"No it is .. beautiful and I think gives me more pleasure"
You mean a clipped pencil dick gives you more pleasure how could that be?"and he laughed broadly and took her into his arms affectionately.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Monday, December 8, 2008
# 9 The First Excursion
Dory and Nate had seen the whole thing. And Gustavo, of course,who had so casually lopped off the snake's head with a flick of his machete( somehow reminding Nate of a martial artist chef chopping a carrot into his magical stockpot void) wore a schoolboy grin as he combed his Elvis Presley hair. But there had been more to it than that: the rearing up of the pit viper's upper half into a powerful s-shaped striking position on the low-hanging tree-limb, the dance of its tongue and whap! A split second before attacking Nina at the ear, Gustavo had dispatched it. The Fer-De-Lance was the most dangerous snake in the Amazon not because it was the most venomous,the bushmaster held that title, but because it was venomous enough to kill more people than any other snake. With its diet of small rodents and birds its favorite habitat was in river-dwellers hovels where rats and mice were always plentiful.It crossed paths often with riberenos and always to their detriment.
So to find the ground-dwelling snake in old growth forest on a tree-limb after sun-up would portend ominous spirits to those who believed in such things.
Fernando had the head in his hand and he was taking it to show Nina, who had heard all about her near death in excited detail from Nate.First the swelling and oozing from the puncture wound, then bleeding from the nose and gums, nausea, vomiting,bleeding from the stomach, finally acute renal failure and hemorrhagic shock.
"We do have anti-venom,' he said, seeing how white Nina had become, "But it's a serum made from horses and some people get sicker from the anti-venom than they do from the bite.People survive the damn thing all the time," he added, "because the snake bites them without enough venom. Say it just blew its wad on a couple of rats. It has to wait to get more venom into its system."
Nate shot off a series of pictures as Nina vomited her breakfast which Benecio said was one his specialties but had set poorly in her stomach to begin with. The idea of scrambled turtle eggs mixed with canned hominy, called mote in Spanish and bits of a smoky meat that he dubbed "jungle bacon" ,was unpleasant to her ,and its gamey flavor was too strong for breakfast food.
But she had eaten it heartily in light of Benecio's new attitude of friendly hospitality. The native girl was there. A dark exotic creature who would be snapped up in an instant by the world's courtier for the runways of Paris or New York, but who seemed totally uninformed of her natural devestating allure ,was perhaps 18 .She wore a bright red bra and cut off blue jeans. She served the food and Nate made some kind of banter in sign language, smiling at her with devilish affection.She snorted as though it was a vulgar joke then laughed oddly in the way a deaf mute would and pranced back into the kitchen. Dory and Nina simultaneously jerked their shocked heads toward Nate .
"Benecio took her in," he said, scraping his plate.
"And how is it you know sign language already . You have been coming to this place... these people I don't know what but..."Dory was beside herself for lack of information.
"Always with the questions," he said marveling, "are you going to be a prosecutor when you grow up?"
"What is a prostetutor? You mean a lady of the night ?"
"No an attorney, a barrister an advocate?"
"You are avoiding my question," she said shaking her finger and bearing down on him with her eyes.
"Ok...I won't... Both of my parents were deaf mutes as were their parents before them.Maybe you can imagine everbodies' dismay when I showed up able to play for the other team.But they did not hold it against me. They were loving, simple, gifted people who made rugs and bird houses for the deaf and dumb craft shop in Albany , New York, and we got by on that and hand-me-downs.
I learned how to talk with my hands before I learned how to talk with my mouth and when I was with them I was always in their silent world that's why I was attracted to the camera. I could take pictures and take them in a certain way that would give special meaning to them ,little gifts for the folks by the way I took them. That's how I developed my style of photography. That's what made my photographs unique. I was appealing to the deaf mute experience,interpreting the world for them, explaining inconsistencies that I know they felt about life ,by the way I framed my shots and the subject matter I chose and the "normal world"thought I was a genius never knowing that I did not have a clue that my "interpretations" would be considered "Art".But that's history. My folks are dead.My photos I don't give a shit about. Every frame I expose now belongs in the cemetary with my parents. Sure fooled the New York Gallery Crowd didn't I?
Yeah. I was a sensation with my show and then the book "Hand to Mouth" which was a study of the beauty of signing hands and my "interpretations" on opposite pages , people were falling all over me and comparing my work to breaking new ground in the same way Diane Arbus did.Then my agent arranged to take the show on the road 14 cities or something insane like that and I started to believe what everyone was writing about me and was finally able to support myself and my parents. Then...Then...It became time to see what I would do next and I quickly came to realize I had used up my 15 minutes of fame.Because guess what ?I did not have anything left to say . So I still get royalties from prints that I did in editions of 89. And I've got about five posters that provide a steady revenue stream and I'm down here taking nature photographs, trying to apply "my interpretation" to the rainforest. Maybe it will click and maybe it won't but I've got a backup plan that I am absolutely not going to bore you with now.
Anyway, it wasn't long before I stopped hearing from my agent and I soon learned that in the speaking world silence is a form of speech.So I used the last of my wad that I had squirreled away to somehow get revenge or find peace or as I said to you once:everbodies got to be someplace so lets say I used my last little wad to hook up with Benecio and have me a place to be. And I swore I would work to come up with an angle, to find "my interpretation " again...but its just not working out, I'm pursuing other avenues now, maybe someday..."
"But,"tried Dory.
"I'm not a photographer anymore,"he said with an air , "I'm a shutterbug."
A great welling of phlegm rose up from his lungs and he got up from the table and quickly left the cabin through the back door. He could be heard hacking for several minutes. He returned to the table his face pale but picked up the conversation without missing a beat.
"Now, as to the sign language," he blew past her making a magicians flourish with his hands," as to the sign language with Dolores, Benecio and his wife have raised her since she was abandonded at age 4, gladly donated to him by some Basque Separatist Priests from Spain who are Missionising up river. But that's another story, far too complex for me.
So he learned,"he said,poorly, but he learned," now hand signing each word with great exageration and slow motion:"the...hand...lingo..."He stopped signing and looked at his bony hands front and back, laughing, "and needless to say I screw up with Spanish all the time," now he started again racing his hands with the words that came out staccato,"pero. no. es. muy. dificil. para. mi. a hablar. con. la Dolores. que. es. una. de las mujeres. mas.bonita. en el mundo."
Dolores who had apprently stuck her head out of the kitchen squealed like a pig and ducked back inside before any of them could see her and Benecio leaning in perfect Juan Wayne fashion against the door post let out a laugh too.
"Me Alegro mucho,"said Dory and took one of his magical hands in hers.
"Yo tambien,"said Nina.
"Great," he replied,happy and resplendent," now we can go on that hike or start our own Bleeding Hearts Society.I think I've bled enough here now for two societys. let's get the fuck out of here."
The hike began with a paddle , Gustavo and Fernando fore and aft, around the lake to catch the birds who came to the forests edge to warm themselves with the first rays of sunshine after the 12 hour cooling off that was the forest night on the equator. Toucans called to each other from high limbs on opposite banks, seeming to enjoy the echo their shrill song caused, The Paradise Tanager appeared again,The green heron,a small bird, for which the lake was named could be seen at various spots around the water's edge thrusting its bill into the water seeming to have success with its fishing , Cotingas, Trogons,and various more average birds to the girls' untrained eye such as social flycatchers and and the black greater ani's were all pointed out by Gustavo, giving the indian name for each one. A Squadorn of Macaws flew over head already full of rumors and lies which they freely touted to everything that breathed in this forest.
"I know where they are headed,"said Nate, "but we won't get there today. I have tickets for tomorrow's show."
The girls, now acclimated to his brand of humor, only smiled.Appreciative of this inviting, magnificent rainforest and of Nate,who they knew was giving them a gift they could never repay.
They docked the boat and found the hoatzins right near the dock in a large stand of marshy foliage.
Clumsiest of all birds six could be seen in what immediately appeared to be nature's answer to the Vaudeville act, fluttering their nearly useless wings and seeming to be acting in consort to produce some comedic routine that had no beginning and no end. The Hoatzin was the only bird that survived completely on vegetation , had a stomach that worked like a cow's and usually fell when it tried to fly. Its stench was ghastly and with its blue eye patch on naked flesh and its blood shot red eye, the bird, about the size of a turkey with a wobbily, Mohawk crest as a final touch to its costume, was a sight to behold. The birds closest ancestor was said to be prehistoric and clearly it looked like something from the age of dinosaurs with no defensible purpose for its existence.
Shortly after visiting this hilarious contribution to life's grand folly from the Amazon Animal Kingdom which on top of everything had the nerve to draw attention to itself with an often repeated nasal squawk, Gustavo saved the day with his razor sharp machete. Nina had by now regained her composure although she looked all around her as if fer-de-lance snakes came in herds and the troop set off with Gustavo in the lead, laughing as Nina took hold of his shirt tale.
They were headed toward Mandicocha , another lake about a mile behind the cabin and as they climbed back up the hill from the dock, the girls saw the full extent of Benecio's garden which was so abundant with vegetables, vegetables that did not belong in the tropics, in various stages of growth. Everything looked bright and shiny and healthy unlike the natural forest where plants were dying all the time as part of the normal course of life. They saw Dolores in the distance, trimming the growing tips off broccoli and putting them into a basket. The girls tried to get her attention by shouting and waving but she did not look up.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
So to find the ground-dwelling snake in old growth forest on a tree-limb after sun-up would portend ominous spirits to those who believed in such things.
Fernando had the head in his hand and he was taking it to show Nina, who had heard all about her near death in excited detail from Nate.First the swelling and oozing from the puncture wound, then bleeding from the nose and gums, nausea, vomiting,bleeding from the stomach, finally acute renal failure and hemorrhagic shock.
"We do have anti-venom,' he said, seeing how white Nina had become, "But it's a serum made from horses and some people get sicker from the anti-venom than they do from the bite.People survive the damn thing all the time," he added, "because the snake bites them without enough venom. Say it just blew its wad on a couple of rats. It has to wait to get more venom into its system."
Nate shot off a series of pictures as Nina vomited her breakfast which Benecio said was one his specialties but had set poorly in her stomach to begin with. The idea of scrambled turtle eggs mixed with canned hominy, called mote in Spanish and bits of a smoky meat that he dubbed "jungle bacon" ,was unpleasant to her ,and its gamey flavor was too strong for breakfast food.
But she had eaten it heartily in light of Benecio's new attitude of friendly hospitality. The native girl was there. A dark exotic creature who would be snapped up in an instant by the world's courtier for the runways of Paris or New York, but who seemed totally uninformed of her natural devestating allure ,was perhaps 18 .She wore a bright red bra and cut off blue jeans. She served the food and Nate made some kind of banter in sign language, smiling at her with devilish affection.She snorted as though it was a vulgar joke then laughed oddly in the way a deaf mute would and pranced back into the kitchen. Dory and Nina simultaneously jerked their shocked heads toward Nate .
"Benecio took her in," he said, scraping his plate.
"And how is it you know sign language already . You have been coming to this place... these people I don't know what but..."Dory was beside herself for lack of information.
"Always with the questions," he said marveling, "are you going to be a prosecutor when you grow up?"
"What is a prostetutor? You mean a lady of the night ?"
"No an attorney, a barrister an advocate?"
"You are avoiding my question," she said shaking her finger and bearing down on him with her eyes.
"Ok...I won't... Both of my parents were deaf mutes as were their parents before them.Maybe you can imagine everbodies' dismay when I showed up able to play for the other team.But they did not hold it against me. They were loving, simple, gifted people who made rugs and bird houses for the deaf and dumb craft shop in Albany , New York, and we got by on that and hand-me-downs.
I learned how to talk with my hands before I learned how to talk with my mouth and when I was with them I was always in their silent world that's why I was attracted to the camera. I could take pictures and take them in a certain way that would give special meaning to them ,little gifts for the folks by the way I took them. That's how I developed my style of photography. That's what made my photographs unique. I was appealing to the deaf mute experience,interpreting the world for them, explaining inconsistencies that I know they felt about life ,by the way I framed my shots and the subject matter I chose and the "normal world"thought I was a genius never knowing that I did not have a clue that my "interpretations" would be considered "Art".But that's history. My folks are dead.My photos I don't give a shit about. Every frame I expose now belongs in the cemetary with my parents. Sure fooled the New York Gallery Crowd didn't I?
Yeah. I was a sensation with my show and then the book "Hand to Mouth" which was a study of the beauty of signing hands and my "interpretations" on opposite pages , people were falling all over me and comparing my work to breaking new ground in the same way Diane Arbus did.Then my agent arranged to take the show on the road 14 cities or something insane like that and I started to believe what everyone was writing about me and was finally able to support myself and my parents. Then...Then...It became time to see what I would do next and I quickly came to realize I had used up my 15 minutes of fame.Because guess what ?I did not have anything left to say . So I still get royalties from prints that I did in editions of 89. And I've got about five posters that provide a steady revenue stream and I'm down here taking nature photographs, trying to apply "my interpretation" to the rainforest. Maybe it will click and maybe it won't but I've got a backup plan that I am absolutely not going to bore you with now.
Anyway, it wasn't long before I stopped hearing from my agent and I soon learned that in the speaking world silence is a form of speech.So I used the last of my wad that I had squirreled away to somehow get revenge or find peace or as I said to you once:everbodies got to be someplace so lets say I used my last little wad to hook up with Benecio and have me a place to be. And I swore I would work to come up with an angle, to find "my interpretation " again...but its just not working out, I'm pursuing other avenues now, maybe someday..."
"But,"tried Dory.
"I'm not a photographer anymore,"he said with an air , "I'm a shutterbug."
A great welling of phlegm rose up from his lungs and he got up from the table and quickly left the cabin through the back door. He could be heard hacking for several minutes. He returned to the table his face pale but picked up the conversation without missing a beat.
"Now, as to the sign language," he blew past her making a magicians flourish with his hands," as to the sign language with Dolores, Benecio and his wife have raised her since she was abandonded at age 4, gladly donated to him by some Basque Separatist Priests from Spain who are Missionising up river. But that's another story, far too complex for me.
So he learned,"he said,poorly, but he learned," now hand signing each word with great exageration and slow motion:"the...hand...lingo..."He stopped signing and looked at his bony hands front and back, laughing, "and needless to say I screw up with Spanish all the time," now he started again racing his hands with the words that came out staccato,"pero. no. es. muy. dificil. para. mi. a hablar. con. la Dolores. que. es. una. de las mujeres. mas.bonita. en el mundo."
Dolores who had apprently stuck her head out of the kitchen squealed like a pig and ducked back inside before any of them could see her and Benecio leaning in perfect Juan Wayne fashion against the door post let out a laugh too.
"Me Alegro mucho,"said Dory and took one of his magical hands in hers.
"Yo tambien,"said Nina.
"Great," he replied,happy and resplendent," now we can go on that hike or start our own Bleeding Hearts Society.I think I've bled enough here now for two societys. let's get the fuck out of here."
The hike began with a paddle , Gustavo and Fernando fore and aft, around the lake to catch the birds who came to the forests edge to warm themselves with the first rays of sunshine after the 12 hour cooling off that was the forest night on the equator. Toucans called to each other from high limbs on opposite banks, seeming to enjoy the echo their shrill song caused, The Paradise Tanager appeared again,The green heron,a small bird, for which the lake was named could be seen at various spots around the water's edge thrusting its bill into the water seeming to have success with its fishing , Cotingas, Trogons,and various more average birds to the girls' untrained eye such as social flycatchers and and the black greater ani's were all pointed out by Gustavo, giving the indian name for each one. A Squadorn of Macaws flew over head already full of rumors and lies which they freely touted to everything that breathed in this forest.
"I know where they are headed,"said Nate, "but we won't get there today. I have tickets for tomorrow's show."
The girls, now acclimated to his brand of humor, only smiled.Appreciative of this inviting, magnificent rainforest and of Nate,who they knew was giving them a gift they could never repay.
They docked the boat and found the hoatzins right near the dock in a large stand of marshy foliage.
Clumsiest of all birds six could be seen in what immediately appeared to be nature's answer to the Vaudeville act, fluttering their nearly useless wings and seeming to be acting in consort to produce some comedic routine that had no beginning and no end. The Hoatzin was the only bird that survived completely on vegetation , had a stomach that worked like a cow's and usually fell when it tried to fly. Its stench was ghastly and with its blue eye patch on naked flesh and its blood shot red eye, the bird, about the size of a turkey with a wobbily, Mohawk crest as a final touch to its costume, was a sight to behold. The birds closest ancestor was said to be prehistoric and clearly it looked like something from the age of dinosaurs with no defensible purpose for its existence.
Shortly after visiting this hilarious contribution to life's grand folly from the Amazon Animal Kingdom which on top of everything had the nerve to draw attention to itself with an often repeated nasal squawk, Gustavo saved the day with his razor sharp machete. Nina had by now regained her composure although she looked all around her as if fer-de-lance snakes came in herds and the troop set off with Gustavo in the lead, laughing as Nina took hold of his shirt tale.
They were headed toward Mandicocha , another lake about a mile behind the cabin and as they climbed back up the hill from the dock, the girls saw the full extent of Benecio's garden which was so abundant with vegetables, vegetables that did not belong in the tropics, in various stages of growth. Everything looked bright and shiny and healthy unlike the natural forest where plants were dying all the time as part of the normal course of life. They saw Dolores in the distance, trimming the growing tips off broccoli and putting them into a basket. The girls tried to get her attention by shouting and waving but she did not look up.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Sunday, December 7, 2008
#8 The Dinner (And Dessert)
Benicio was cooking in the kitchen and Nate went into one of the rooms and closed the door behind him.The native girl they had seen on the dock was nowhere to be found and Gustavo and Fernando ate quietly in the kitchen exchanging grunts with Benecio. The girls rested uneasily in their appointed room.
A few minutes later a door slammed, and Nate could be heard loudly out of the back screen door: "Motherfucker!"
The girls slipped into the dining room to see what had caused Nate's anger.
"For one week, Benny," the girls heard Nate plead,"Maybe two" ,to this surprisingly vain man with slicked hair and a highly labor intensive perfection of a pencil moustache. His hair was colored but the lines in his face and perhaps the extremely thick lensed glasses made him out to be in his late sixties however he projected a dangerous virility usually associated with younger men.
"Estas Jodido!" Came Benecio's bellowing bullfrog of a voice.
He could even be a sociopath for all the girls knew and feared.
"Voor Niets gaat de zon op," whispered Nina,"There is no free lunch".
Dory shushed her and they held each other's hands.
"That's for me to decide,"replied Nate with as much aggression as he could muster . Clearly no match for Benecio.
"Are we not...compadres anymore," said Benecio, in a completely changed tone:that of the wounded soldier about to die. And before Nate could answer he continued: "Did I not tell you what the great Conquistadors called each other? They called each other compadres because they were together because they wanted to be -not because they had to be. Because they believed in the same things...en la gloria.. and nothing could tear them apart. Es un dicho de respeto mutuo! Compadre !"
"And nothing is tearing us apart, Benny."
"Mierda, "he said, "Shit".
"I am leaving and when I am coming back if they are not gone we will not be compadres any more,"he said lethally, "Entiendes."
"Are you threatening me?' asked Nate.
"I never threaten,"he scowled.
The men stood on a walkway leading up a hill in back of the cabin , in a garden where all kinds of common household flowers bloomed, much like you might find in Holland.The girls watched through a screened window in the cabin. Benecio's back was to them but they saw him lunge forward, pushing Nate's chest, causing him to stumble backwards all the while firing off a barrage of words they could only measure by their intensity.They saw him snarl fully in a fit of fury- his dentures tearing the flesh out of Nate's feeble verbal defense like a raging rottweiler-all of which ended with Nate three paces back and nearly falling to the ground.
"All right, All Right, you made your point," said Nate.
Dory thought she heard fear in his voice.
They came back inside. Benecio was smiling like an amiable host.Nate seemed fearful and embarassed but quickly lost the mood and rubbed his hands together in expectation.
"Did I tell you that Benecio owns a restaurant ? All the American oil workers in Agua Dulce, a town about three hours away from Francisco de Orellana along the pipeline, pass up the free food at the canteen to get his world famous ,Gringo Chili.
The girls nodded silently as they had quickly gone to seats at the dining room table and watched this man who exuded malevolence with every breath turn on the transistor radio that rested on a window ledge against the screen in the room.The radio received only one channel HCJV, a Christian Evangelist Station, broadcasting from the Capital, that had the fifth strongest AM signal in the world and so would reach even into the depths of the Amazon. They were playing some light classical, Strauss, which Dory detested.
Benecio returned from the kitchen in short order and professionally served them a bounteous dinner , family style,like the girls could never have imagined.
"Eet ! Eet!" he implored "Very special food. Sir -fried."
"So tomorrow," Nate said, in the same good spirit he had had before their arrival, we'll start our first excurison at sunrise." He smiled again, thoroughly enjoying his meal unaware of any problems in the universe.. The meal was venison of some sort with a flavor like beef but the meat was much leaner and the fibers were short and tender. Vegetables so fresh they must have been picked right before cooking: eggplant, baby carrots ,sugar pea pods, cauliflower, were in bowls down the center of the table. They were perfectly cooked and the girls, at first timid ultimately could not control their desire for this luxury and helped themselves to more and more vegetables. "These are precisely cooked," ventured Nina scooping more baby carrots on to her plate, "and so delicious.Did you cook this meal,she continued bravely trying to make some connection with the man, "Senor Benecio?"
"Yeees," he said , producing the smile of a dentured Cheshire cat.His thick glasses were blotched with fingerprints contrasting sharply with his immaculately trimmed moustache. Dory immediately brought to mind a Latin emulation of John Wayne in the way he moved, and spoke deeply and from the back of his throat. (Juan Wayne she secretly dubbed him.)Only a bottle of rum and a glass sat at his woven thatch place mat.The heavy man must have eaten earlier.He smoked a cigarette and made it clear that he did not want to be involved in any discussion.
"Yes Benicio's a hell of a cook all right ," began Nate .
"And he grows these things here ? " asked Dory.Nate nodded. "Well what about what you told us about this land being of such poor soil quality and the insects that would come to eat these varieties of vegetables. These are not tropical vegetables."
"Remember what I told you about Terra Preta. They think it might be in twenty percent of the Amazon and at least some of it anyway is here."
"Si,"said Benecio,Juan Wayne, the Cheshire with dentures,now more clearly showing the effects of the rum,"la verdad."
After dinner Nina and Dory volunteered to do the dishes in a spotless kitchen few men could ever maintain and Benecio, out cold, head down on his place mat,jarred from sleep by the clatter of kitchen cleaning , lumbered off to a room and closed the door. Nina went into the room that had been designated for the girls with its twin beds and Dory and Nate went out to the veranda and sat on a long bench which Nate explained had once been a canoe that had rotted along one edge beyond repair. It was tradition , he told her, to make canoes that had served the owners well into benches so that one could sit on it at night and relive the great hunts the canoe had led them to. A sympathetic breeze was coming off the lake and made the smoke from the cigarette she had rolled dissipate in all directions. The sough from the nearby palms seemed to fan away the unexplained tensions their arrival had brought. "So what's going on here, Nate? Tell me."
"Just a slight misunderstanding."
"Tell me."
"Well ol' Benecio and I, he's Colombian actually, but he's been in Ecuador forever building jungle camps for oil exploration companies -he built this cabin-and handling the catering- the Jungle is floating in oil you know, just a matter of time till they got a Walmart down here, anyway I met him at the hotel Auca and he told me about this place and there was some urgency to buy it before the Socialist President,Otumbato, gave the Quechuas title to all this land so he brought me down here and showed me how beautiful it was and I fronted him the money to buy it.We own five thousand hectares."
"But why was he so angry ?"
"Because he sees this place as our own private paradise and he thinks that as soon as you start to bring other people here- it loses its magic power. That it will no longer be paradise."
"But so angry- I thought he was going to kill you."
"Yeah he did overreact. I'm learning more things I don't like about the guy everyday."
"I think he has some big plan for this place," said Dory, "that does not include you.Maybe there is oil here."
"No. he doesn't have the cash for an oil operation and besides you have to make a treaty with the government before you can drill for oil."
"He wants something, here," she said.
"Well , he has mentioned some problems back home. No specifics. But I figure everybody is running from a little bit of something. But he loves the forest and I'm sorry you won't have the opportunity to walk through it with him for there is very little he does not know something about and he has imparted that knowledge onto me.
"You are naive or a liar."
"Probably both."
"So you have no plans for this land?"asked Dory.
He took a gulp of rum and then another. "I don't think I have to do anything with it, do I ? Everybody's got to be somewhere and I"m here."
"No," said Dory thoughtfully,an owl hooted nearby. "I don't guess you have to do anything with the land ..."
"This would be a great hideout if I was running from the law," he said with a smile.
"But you're not!"she said and punched him in the shoulder for playing with her.
"No I am not.," he laughed,"And although I'm not sure I don't think Benecio is either.I am running from all the things I did too young in life and all the things I am now too old to do."
"But you are so young"
"Lady, I'm at least ten years older than you maybe more and if you can't read the road map on my face you must be looking at me through rose-colored glasses.I'm a Conquistador just like Francisco de Orellana and I may not find El Dorado but I know I've hit some kind of mother lode." He bent towards her and kissed her. He thrust his tongue and she responded. Their mouths began to glow, capricious and profuse. He took her by the hand past the dimly burning kerosene lantern on the dining room table into what was his room. They helped each other undress unfettered by arousal.
"What is this motherlode?" she asked, knowing with a touch she could bring the level of passion back up.
"It's a source of infinite wealth,"he said panting,"and that's what I have here. You'll begin to see it tomorrow."
She finished undressing him and took him in her mouth.He nearly came pushing her back into temporary confusion. She tasted sweet to him and he thrust his tongue inside her as far as it would go, She let out the tiniest of groans. Finally she mounted him and began to thrust. Fiercely, she gyrated, moving her body from side to side and capturing small pleasures for herself on the road to their crowning glory. She stopped once, breathing heavily. "Too much smoking," said Nate and he thrust upward a half a dozen times reviving her machinations. Still harder she thrust and Nate finally came. She lay on top of him spent, their bodies covered in sweat. He was not quite sure if she had come but he knew he had given her a good ride. His cock disgorged and slipped out of her. She rolled over beside him. "You are so small," said Dory, dreamily.
"What!"he propped to one elbow facing her.
"No sorry. What I meant to say is you are just the right size. With my boyfriend Rene it was always so painful because he was so big but you- I could never have had such good sex with Rene."
"So there IS a future for us pencildicks ?"he asked, still feeling slighted.
"That was the best sex I've ever had,"said Dory.
"And I'm the second guy you ever made love to?"he asked, hopefully.
"No." "Just. The smallest."
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
A few minutes later a door slammed, and Nate could be heard loudly out of the back screen door: "Motherfucker!"
The girls slipped into the dining room to see what had caused Nate's anger.
"For one week, Benny," the girls heard Nate plead,"Maybe two" ,to this surprisingly vain man with slicked hair and a highly labor intensive perfection of a pencil moustache. His hair was colored but the lines in his face and perhaps the extremely thick lensed glasses made him out to be in his late sixties however he projected a dangerous virility usually associated with younger men.
"Estas Jodido!" Came Benecio's bellowing bullfrog of a voice.
He could even be a sociopath for all the girls knew and feared.
"Voor Niets gaat de zon op," whispered Nina,"There is no free lunch".
Dory shushed her and they held each other's hands.
"That's for me to decide,"replied Nate with as much aggression as he could muster . Clearly no match for Benecio.
"Are we not...compadres anymore," said Benecio, in a completely changed tone:that of the wounded soldier about to die. And before Nate could answer he continued: "Did I not tell you what the great Conquistadors called each other? They called each other compadres because they were together because they wanted to be -not because they had to be. Because they believed in the same things...en la gloria.. and nothing could tear them apart. Es un dicho de respeto mutuo! Compadre !"
"And nothing is tearing us apart, Benny."
"Mierda, "he said, "Shit".
"I am leaving and when I am coming back if they are not gone we will not be compadres any more,"he said lethally, "Entiendes."
"Are you threatening me?' asked Nate.
"I never threaten,"he scowled.
The men stood on a walkway leading up a hill in back of the cabin , in a garden where all kinds of common household flowers bloomed, much like you might find in Holland.The girls watched through a screened window in the cabin. Benecio's back was to them but they saw him lunge forward, pushing Nate's chest, causing him to stumble backwards all the while firing off a barrage of words they could only measure by their intensity.They saw him snarl fully in a fit of fury- his dentures tearing the flesh out of Nate's feeble verbal defense like a raging rottweiler-all of which ended with Nate three paces back and nearly falling to the ground.
"All right, All Right, you made your point," said Nate.
Dory thought she heard fear in his voice.
They came back inside. Benecio was smiling like an amiable host.Nate seemed fearful and embarassed but quickly lost the mood and rubbed his hands together in expectation.
"Did I tell you that Benecio owns a restaurant ? All the American oil workers in Agua Dulce, a town about three hours away from Francisco de Orellana along the pipeline, pass up the free food at the canteen to get his world famous ,Gringo Chili.
The girls nodded silently as they had quickly gone to seats at the dining room table and watched this man who exuded malevolence with every breath turn on the transistor radio that rested on a window ledge against the screen in the room.The radio received only one channel HCJV, a Christian Evangelist Station, broadcasting from the Capital, that had the fifth strongest AM signal in the world and so would reach even into the depths of the Amazon. They were playing some light classical, Strauss, which Dory detested.
Benecio returned from the kitchen in short order and professionally served them a bounteous dinner , family style,like the girls could never have imagined.
"Eet ! Eet!" he implored "Very special food. Sir -fried."
"So tomorrow," Nate said, in the same good spirit he had had before their arrival, we'll start our first excurison at sunrise." He smiled again, thoroughly enjoying his meal unaware of any problems in the universe.. The meal was venison of some sort with a flavor like beef but the meat was much leaner and the fibers were short and tender. Vegetables so fresh they must have been picked right before cooking: eggplant, baby carrots ,sugar pea pods, cauliflower, were in bowls down the center of the table. They were perfectly cooked and the girls, at first timid ultimately could not control their desire for this luxury and helped themselves to more and more vegetables. "These are precisely cooked," ventured Nina scooping more baby carrots on to her plate, "and so delicious.Did you cook this meal,she continued bravely trying to make some connection with the man, "Senor Benecio?"
"Yeees," he said , producing the smile of a dentured Cheshire cat.His thick glasses were blotched with fingerprints contrasting sharply with his immaculately trimmed moustache. Dory immediately brought to mind a Latin emulation of John Wayne in the way he moved, and spoke deeply and from the back of his throat. (Juan Wayne she secretly dubbed him.)Only a bottle of rum and a glass sat at his woven thatch place mat.The heavy man must have eaten earlier.He smoked a cigarette and made it clear that he did not want to be involved in any discussion.
"Yes Benicio's a hell of a cook all right ," began Nate .
"And he grows these things here ? " asked Dory.Nate nodded. "Well what about what you told us about this land being of such poor soil quality and the insects that would come to eat these varieties of vegetables. These are not tropical vegetables."
"Remember what I told you about Terra Preta. They think it might be in twenty percent of the Amazon and at least some of it anyway is here."
"Si,"said Benecio,Juan Wayne, the Cheshire with dentures,now more clearly showing the effects of the rum,"la verdad."
After dinner Nina and Dory volunteered to do the dishes in a spotless kitchen few men could ever maintain and Benecio, out cold, head down on his place mat,jarred from sleep by the clatter of kitchen cleaning , lumbered off to a room and closed the door. Nina went into the room that had been designated for the girls with its twin beds and Dory and Nate went out to the veranda and sat on a long bench which Nate explained had once been a canoe that had rotted along one edge beyond repair. It was tradition , he told her, to make canoes that had served the owners well into benches so that one could sit on it at night and relive the great hunts the canoe had led them to. A sympathetic breeze was coming off the lake and made the smoke from the cigarette she had rolled dissipate in all directions. The sough from the nearby palms seemed to fan away the unexplained tensions their arrival had brought. "So what's going on here, Nate? Tell me."
"Just a slight misunderstanding."
"Tell me."
"Well ol' Benecio and I, he's Colombian actually, but he's been in Ecuador forever building jungle camps for oil exploration companies -he built this cabin-and handling the catering- the Jungle is floating in oil you know, just a matter of time till they got a Walmart down here, anyway I met him at the hotel Auca and he told me about this place and there was some urgency to buy it before the Socialist President,Otumbato, gave the Quechuas title to all this land so he brought me down here and showed me how beautiful it was and I fronted him the money to buy it.We own five thousand hectares."
"But why was he so angry ?"
"Because he sees this place as our own private paradise and he thinks that as soon as you start to bring other people here- it loses its magic power. That it will no longer be paradise."
"But so angry- I thought he was going to kill you."
"Yeah he did overreact. I'm learning more things I don't like about the guy everyday."
"I think he has some big plan for this place," said Dory, "that does not include you.Maybe there is oil here."
"No. he doesn't have the cash for an oil operation and besides you have to make a treaty with the government before you can drill for oil."
"He wants something, here," she said.
"Well , he has mentioned some problems back home. No specifics. But I figure everybody is running from a little bit of something. But he loves the forest and I'm sorry you won't have the opportunity to walk through it with him for there is very little he does not know something about and he has imparted that knowledge onto me.
"You are naive or a liar."
"Probably both."
"So you have no plans for this land?"asked Dory.
He took a gulp of rum and then another. "I don't think I have to do anything with it, do I ? Everybody's got to be somewhere and I"m here."
"No," said Dory thoughtfully,an owl hooted nearby. "I don't guess you have to do anything with the land ..."
"This would be a great hideout if I was running from the law," he said with a smile.
"But you're not!"she said and punched him in the shoulder for playing with her.
"No I am not.," he laughed,"And although I'm not sure I don't think Benecio is either.I am running from all the things I did too young in life and all the things I am now too old to do."
"But you are so young"
"Lady, I'm at least ten years older than you maybe more and if you can't read the road map on my face you must be looking at me through rose-colored glasses.I'm a Conquistador just like Francisco de Orellana and I may not find El Dorado but I know I've hit some kind of mother lode." He bent towards her and kissed her. He thrust his tongue and she responded. Their mouths began to glow, capricious and profuse. He took her by the hand past the dimly burning kerosene lantern on the dining room table into what was his room. They helped each other undress unfettered by arousal.
"What is this motherlode?" she asked, knowing with a touch she could bring the level of passion back up.
"It's a source of infinite wealth,"he said panting,"and that's what I have here. You'll begin to see it tomorrow."
She finished undressing him and took him in her mouth.He nearly came pushing her back into temporary confusion. She tasted sweet to him and he thrust his tongue inside her as far as it would go, She let out the tiniest of groans. Finally she mounted him and began to thrust. Fiercely, she gyrated, moving her body from side to side and capturing small pleasures for herself on the road to their crowning glory. She stopped once, breathing heavily. "Too much smoking," said Nate and he thrust upward a half a dozen times reviving her machinations. Still harder she thrust and Nate finally came. She lay on top of him spent, their bodies covered in sweat. He was not quite sure if she had come but he knew he had given her a good ride. His cock disgorged and slipped out of her. She rolled over beside him. "You are so small," said Dory, dreamily.
"What!"he propped to one elbow facing her.
"No sorry. What I meant to say is you are just the right size. With my boyfriend Rene it was always so painful because he was so big but you- I could never have had such good sex with Rene."
"So there IS a future for us pencildicks ?"he asked, still feeling slighted.
"That was the best sex I've ever had,"said Dory.
"And I'm the second guy you ever made love to?"he asked, hopefully.
"No." "Just. The smallest."
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Friday, December 5, 2008
#7 The Lake
A pair of Scarlet Macaws passed 25 feet overhead as Gustavo cavitated the motor over submerged tree trunks and executed 180% turns with Fernando's help in the bow stabbing a pole at riverbanks and logs to keep the boat on its course.The two young men displayed remarkable skills as they tortured the boat around the twisting tentacle of turns which was the entrance to the Garzayacu (Garza, Quechua for Heron and Yacu from the same language meaning stream ).
It was just about midday and the girls wisely wore bandannas on their heads, Nate, a baseball hat and all of them spf 45. Nina Jumped up and pointed at the birds , but was speechless as they quickly passed from view. The stream was much narrower now and Fernando had armed himself in the bow with a machete, an axe and a chainsaw, prepared to do battle with whatever had fallen into the channel since the last time they had been up this way.
They now motored slowly through what was a more or less straight but narrow channel with Fernando pointing down in the water every time he saw a dangerous submerged log and Gustavo veering the motor to one side according to his brother's hand signals. They had every instinct of a an indigenous to this jungle but they were mestizos of untraceable bloodlines whose family had moved to the forest in the 1950's from a town near the coast to squat on land as luck would have it down river 20 miles from the oil town of Francisco De Orellana and after a generation the ambitious family had learned to become practically self-sufficient.They harvested lumber and shot every animal preserving pelts for the traders who would give them canned goods like peaches in heavy syrup for an ocelot skin.
Then the animals disappeared like bad magic, they thought, and their now ancient fruit trees that Marta their mother had planted when they first came to the area brought them an occasional delicacy and of course the manioc garden would keep them going indefinitely, so resilient and gifted was this tuber as a provider.The chonta dura gave off its fruit only once a year now around Christmastime and one of the boys always managed to get home to harvest it for their parents now that the trees had grown to tall for their aging father to climb and Marta would bottle the leftover fruity sometimes making it last the whole year until the next harvest. They all fished and their father continued to carve out lumber with a chainsaw,the family's most valuable possession, each year going deeper into the jungle for suitable trees. Growing up in the forest with Quechuas for friends they learned many of the jungle's secrets and how to survive there. And they were ambitious.Both boys had worked for La Compania, as the French seismic surveying company that all the oil exploration companies contracted out, was called locally. It was where Gustavo had learned to be a motorista.
"There they are again," shouted Nina,"Why didn't you take a picture of the big blue parrots,"Nina asked Nate, "they were beautiful".
"Macaws" he said, trying to withhold any trace of boredom from his voice, "I actually already have a picture of them. They mate for life you know. Live up to 45 years. I was the official photographer at their 15th wedding anniversary, all the macaws they knew were there. It was quite a celebration."He looked up stream."Now there's something to see!"He stood up bringing Dory to his feet with him.
"Lobos del rio!" shouted Gustavo from his station at the motor, pointing.
"Con Cria !" shouted Fernando.
Nate pulled out a camera that seemed newer than the one with the taped body Dory had seen at the Auca hotel and put a very long lens on it.
"What is it?"
"They are one of the best things you can see in the rainforest,"said Nate."You are very lucky!" Gustavo had slowed the canoe to just about an idle and then shut it off. Ahead of them were 5 giant otters frolicking in the water. Nate drew a bead on a female carrying an infant in its mouth. They looked to be just cavorting but in fact they were fishing together and as their nearly 6 foot length of the adults came into perspective when the boat slid silently ever closer to them, they were elegant and stunning creatures to behold; their gleaming coats glistening in the dappled sun.
"These are the jaguars of the waterworld,"whispered,Nate,"they eat fish mostly and love to play but I saw this same pack devour an anaconda.You see the one carrying a baby in her mouth?"
It was just about midday and the girls wisely wore bandannas on their heads, Nate, a baseball hat and all of them spf 45. Nina Jumped up and pointed at the birds , but was speechless as they quickly passed from view. The stream was much narrower now and Fernando had armed himself in the bow with a machete, an axe and a chainsaw, prepared to do battle with whatever had fallen into the channel since the last time they had been up this way.
They now motored slowly through what was a more or less straight but narrow channel with Fernando pointing down in the water every time he saw a dangerous submerged log and Gustavo veering the motor to one side according to his brother's hand signals. They had every instinct of a an indigenous to this jungle but they were mestizos of untraceable bloodlines whose family had moved to the forest in the 1950's from a town near the coast to squat on land as luck would have it down river 20 miles from the oil town of Francisco De Orellana and after a generation the ambitious family had learned to become practically self-sufficient.They harvested lumber and shot every animal preserving pelts for the traders who would give them canned goods like peaches in heavy syrup for an ocelot skin.
Then the animals disappeared like bad magic, they thought, and their now ancient fruit trees that Marta their mother had planted when they first came to the area brought them an occasional delicacy and of course the manioc garden would keep them going indefinitely, so resilient and gifted was this tuber as a provider.The chonta dura gave off its fruit only once a year now around Christmastime and one of the boys always managed to get home to harvest it for their parents now that the trees had grown to tall for their aging father to climb and Marta would bottle the leftover fruity sometimes making it last the whole year until the next harvest. They all fished and their father continued to carve out lumber with a chainsaw,the family's most valuable possession, each year going deeper into the jungle for suitable trees. Growing up in the forest with Quechuas for friends they learned many of the jungle's secrets and how to survive there. And they were ambitious.Both boys had worked for La Compania, as the French seismic surveying company that all the oil exploration companies contracted out, was called locally. It was where Gustavo had learned to be a motorista.
"There they are again," shouted Nina,"Why didn't you take a picture of the big blue parrots,"Nina asked Nate, "they were beautiful".
"Macaws" he said, trying to withhold any trace of boredom from his voice, "I actually already have a picture of them. They mate for life you know. Live up to 45 years. I was the official photographer at their 15th wedding anniversary, all the macaws they knew were there. It was quite a celebration."He looked up stream."Now there's something to see!"He stood up bringing Dory to his feet with him.
"Lobos del rio!" shouted Gustavo from his station at the motor, pointing.
"Con Cria !" shouted Fernando.
Nate pulled out a camera that seemed newer than the one with the taped body Dory had seen at the Auca hotel and put a very long lens on it.
"What is it?"
"They are one of the best things you can see in the rainforest,"said Nate."You are very lucky!" Gustavo had slowed the canoe to just about an idle and then shut it off. Ahead of them were 5 giant otters frolicking in the water. Nate drew a bead on a female carrying an infant in its mouth. They looked to be just cavorting but in fact they were fishing together and as their nearly 6 foot length of the adults came into perspective when the boat slid silently ever closer to them, they were elegant and stunning creatures to behold; their gleaming coats glistening in the dappled sun.
"These are the jaguars of the waterworld,"whispered,Nate,"they eat fish mostly and love to play but I saw this same pack devour an anaconda.You see the one carrying a baby in her mouth?"
As he pointed the giant otters took note of the humans and seemed to frolic their way into the oblivion around the next bend in the stream using their webbed feet and paddle-like tales to propel them easily from harm's way.
As the Garzayacu narrowed, Nate grew more expansive about the rainforest, impressing the girls with his near encyclopedic knowledge of the jungle.They saw a white tailed deer and Nate pointed out the scar of a close call with a large cat on its back. He told them stories about how a million Army Ants could terrorize a million things that lived in the forest's leaf litter, picking it clean in a matter of hours. They saw a Paradise Tanager with its light green head ,sky blue belly, and black back,considered by many to be among the most beautiful of Amazon Birds, but for the most part, he explained ,wildlife were not active during a sunny day because there was too much contrast in between dark and light making it dangerously difficult to judge the distance of potential predators lurking in deep shade or blinded of their onslaught in bright sun. The boat scraped the bottom of the stream bed.
"All right," said Nate, "end of the line".
The channel had narrowed to just a few feet of width on either side of the boat now and Nate the girls, Gustavo and Fernando, were pushing and pulling the boat with great effort. Nate began sweating profusely and as Screaming Pihas screamed nearby,the gray bird doing its best to shatter an eardrum of anything that would stay close enough for its song, whee-WHEE-WHEE-oh, so emblematic of the Amazon Rainforest (and whose song can be found in every jungle movie ever made), the boat thunked against a sunken log. Everyone freed themselves of their holds on the boat and shook out the duress from their hands. They sat on the streambank as Fernando went to work with the chainsaw while Gustavo stood on top of the log to keep it from spinning. Nate passed around bottles of water but said nothing.
Once through the log they slid the boat with blistered hands ready to complain, but pushed harder instead. Then Nate smiled as the water began to get deeper and he jumped into the boat helping Dory and Nina to get in .It was a straight path of water as if it had been dug, like a canal. Fernando used a pole to push them forward and Gustavo used a paddle and soon they were in a deep channel of many palms and lianas and birds of all types calling which opened up to a large body of water which startled Dory and Nina.
"Garzacocha,"said Nate, It means, Heron Lake in Quechua, for ...."and he looked around the shore of the lake,"well I don't see one at the moment but its a little green heron that is common here."
Now Fernando had a paddle out and slowly in the hot sun they made their way across the lake whose far side they could not see.Gustavo paddled as well.
"Why doesn't he use the motor,"asked Dory.
Nate did not answer her. Instead he pointed to a toucan on a naked tree branch and they watched it give its one-note call. Now no one spoke and all sorts of strange and powerful emotions were summoned by the seeming infinite variety of beauty in foliage species and their shapes and juxtapositions and fruits and flowering bromeliads. A whelming up began which Nate knew well and he could see it in the girl's faces, the blush of those long lost emotions of childhood marvel and wonder returning, returning to a time before they had learned that the world was profane. Of the time when everything was new and interesting and exciting and there was panic too because there was so much and one didn't want to miss any of it.
He took Dory's hand and she squeezed it the way anyone entering Paradise would.He drew her near to him and kissed her deeply transmitting confidence,conveying to her as he devoured her lips that this was his world and she was welcome to it.
The boat rounded a bend in the lake and a hill came into view.It was more than a hill, it was a giant mound that someone who knew the jungle better than these tourists would be curious about because of its almost artificial appearance , great height and somehow purposeful shape and distinction.But it was covered with very tall trees and a neatly built but unpainted cabin on stilts was visible in a small clearing. The cabin had a wooden staircase which lead to a dock where a teenage Indian girl appeared to be fishing, barechested, with a dropline.
Startled by the sight of the boat she ran up the stars to the cabin. A heavyset,slickhaired man wearing glasses and perhaps a pencil moustache appeared carrying a shotgun.
"Benicio!" shouted Nate and the word echoed on the lake.
The man returned to the cabin and then reappeared without the shotgun.
The three of them got out of the boat onto the dock and Nate spun Dory and Nina around to see something he was sure they had never seen. In the distance where a light rain must have been falling behind the setting sun two distinct rainbows appeared and you could see where each one started and ended, perfect half-circles.After a minute they disappeared.
"I am without feeling,"said Nina.
"No,"said Dory,"I don't think you said that right. She means we are like in a dream so all are feelings have become one feeling."
"I gotcha,"said Nate, "It's the old Paradise overload thing. Still get it myself. What you are trying to say is you are so full of feelings that you are numb."
"Yes,"said Nina Dreamily, "I am full of feelings."
"Full,"said Dory and she reached out and took Nate's hand and squeezed it.
They mounted the cabin steps and were greeted by the cackle of a beautiful Scarlet Macaw who seemed to have a railing all its own, equipped with a food tray , to walk up and down on.
"She's...It is a she?"Asked Nina.
Nate nodded.
"She's beautiful,"she shouted and the bird squawked.
Watch it, said Nate, "that's Viva,and she takes orders from no man. You see that beak she has. say one wrong thing even if by accident and if you are close enough she'll break off your finger without mercy."
"Why does she not fly away?"
"Her wings have been clipped."
"Oh that's terrible,"
"What do you mean, all's she's got to do is eat all day and order people around."
"Oh ,she so beautiful."
"Yeah I fell for her too, but watch this ,"and from inside the screened in window ledge Nate recovered a shiny object which became a pocket watch.
"Look into my eyes , Viva" he told the bird who at first tried to bite the watch, I know that you love me.Look at this object of our desire."
And slowly the bird became entranced by the watch moving its head back and forth back and forth, Finally it shut its eyes and keeled over falling from the railing.
"Is it dead?"
"It's hypnotized."
"That's so cruel."
"Watch."
Nate picked up the bird and even before he could put it back on the railing it tried to peck. It ruffled its feathers and squawked, mildly out of sorts.
"That's our watch bird,"said Nate.
They entered the cabin and neither the girl who they had seen fishing or the man Nate had called Benecio seemed to be there.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
As the Garzayacu narrowed, Nate grew more expansive about the rainforest, impressing the girls with his near encyclopedic knowledge of the jungle.They saw a white tailed deer and Nate pointed out the scar of a close call with a large cat on its back. He told them stories about how a million Army Ants could terrorize a million things that lived in the forest's leaf litter, picking it clean in a matter of hours. They saw a Paradise Tanager with its light green head ,sky blue belly, and black back,considered by many to be among the most beautiful of Amazon Birds, but for the most part, he explained ,wildlife were not active during a sunny day because there was too much contrast in between dark and light making it dangerously difficult to judge the distance of potential predators lurking in deep shade or blinded of their onslaught in bright sun. The boat scraped the bottom of the stream bed.
"All right," said Nate, "end of the line".
The channel had narrowed to just a few feet of width on either side of the boat now and Nate the girls, Gustavo and Fernando, were pushing and pulling the boat with great effort. Nate began sweating profusely and as Screaming Pihas screamed nearby,the gray bird doing its best to shatter an eardrum of anything that would stay close enough for its song, whee-WHEE-WHEE-oh, so emblematic of the Amazon Rainforest (and whose song can be found in every jungle movie ever made), the boat thunked against a sunken log. Everyone freed themselves of their holds on the boat and shook out the duress from their hands. They sat on the streambank as Fernando went to work with the chainsaw while Gustavo stood on top of the log to keep it from spinning. Nate passed around bottles of water but said nothing.
Once through the log they slid the boat with blistered hands ready to complain, but pushed harder instead. Then Nate smiled as the water began to get deeper and he jumped into the boat helping Dory and Nina to get in .It was a straight path of water as if it had been dug, like a canal. Fernando used a pole to push them forward and Gustavo used a paddle and soon they were in a deep channel of many palms and lianas and birds of all types calling which opened up to a large body of water which startled Dory and Nina.
"Garzacocha,"said Nate, It means, Heron Lake in Quechua, for ...."and he looked around the shore of the lake,"well I don't see one at the moment but its a little green heron that is common here."
Now Fernando had a paddle out and slowly in the hot sun they made their way across the lake whose far side they could not see.Gustavo paddled as well.
"Why doesn't he use the motor,"asked Dory.
Nate did not answer her. Instead he pointed to a toucan on a naked tree branch and they watched it give its one-note call. Now no one spoke and all sorts of strange and powerful emotions were summoned by the seeming infinite variety of beauty in foliage species and their shapes and juxtapositions and fruits and flowering bromeliads. A whelming up began which Nate knew well and he could see it in the girl's faces, the blush of those long lost emotions of childhood marvel and wonder returning, returning to a time before they had learned that the world was profane. Of the time when everything was new and interesting and exciting and there was panic too because there was so much and one didn't want to miss any of it.
He took Dory's hand and she squeezed it the way anyone entering Paradise would.He drew her near to him and kissed her deeply transmitting confidence,conveying to her as he devoured her lips that this was his world and she was welcome to it.
The boat rounded a bend in the lake and a hill came into view.It was more than a hill, it was a giant mound that someone who knew the jungle better than these tourists would be curious about because of its almost artificial appearance , great height and somehow purposeful shape and distinction.But it was covered with very tall trees and a neatly built but unpainted cabin on stilts was visible in a small clearing. The cabin had a wooden staircase which lead to a dock where a teenage Indian girl appeared to be fishing, barechested, with a dropline.
Startled by the sight of the boat she ran up the stars to the cabin. A heavyset,slickhaired man wearing glasses and perhaps a pencil moustache appeared carrying a shotgun.
"Benicio!" shouted Nate and the word echoed on the lake.
The man returned to the cabin and then reappeared without the shotgun.
The three of them got out of the boat onto the dock and Nate spun Dory and Nina around to see something he was sure they had never seen. In the distance where a light rain must have been falling behind the setting sun two distinct rainbows appeared and you could see where each one started and ended, perfect half-circles.After a minute they disappeared.
"I am without feeling,"said Nina.
"No,"said Dory,"I don't think you said that right. She means we are like in a dream so all are feelings have become one feeling."
"I gotcha,"said Nate, "It's the old Paradise overload thing. Still get it myself. What you are trying to say is you are so full of feelings that you are numb."
"Yes,"said Nina Dreamily, "I am full of feelings."
"Full,"said Dory and she reached out and took Nate's hand and squeezed it.
They mounted the cabin steps and were greeted by the cackle of a beautiful Scarlet Macaw who seemed to have a railing all its own, equipped with a food tray , to walk up and down on.
"She's...It is a she?"Asked Nina.
Nate nodded.
"She's beautiful,"she shouted and the bird squawked.
Watch it, said Nate, "that's Viva,and she takes orders from no man. You see that beak she has. say one wrong thing even if by accident and if you are close enough she'll break off your finger without mercy."
"Why does she not fly away?"
"Her wings have been clipped."
"Oh that's terrible,"
"What do you mean, all's she's got to do is eat all day and order people around."
"Oh ,she so beautiful."
"Yeah I fell for her too, but watch this ,"and from inside the screened in window ledge Nate recovered a shiny object which became a pocket watch.
"Look into my eyes , Viva" he told the bird who at first tried to bite the watch, I know that you love me.Look at this object of our desire."
And slowly the bird became entranced by the watch moving its head back and forth back and forth, Finally it shut its eyes and keeled over falling from the railing.
"Is it dead?"
"It's hypnotized."
"That's so cruel."
"Watch."
Nate picked up the bird and even before he could put it back on the railing it tried to peck. It ruffled its feathers and squawked, mildly out of sorts.
"That's our watch bird,"said Nate.
They entered the cabin and neither the girl who they had seen fishing or the man Nate had called Benecio seemed to be there.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Thursday, December 4, 2008
#4 gezellig
"Here's some good old American food,"said Nate, using the tallest head ,which was his own, as a tent post to prop up the plastic sheet that covered them from the rain, as he carefully unscrewed first the peanut butter jar and then the jelly.
Even with Fernando bailing out the water in the back beside his brother who had taken off his sunglasses and whose hair-coif he still tried to mend through wind and driving rain as he drove the outboard with the tiller between his legs, still a good inch of water passed over their rubber boots unnoticed by the three about to have lunch. Nate gave a carefully made sandwich to each of the girls and they both eyed the concoctions suspiciously. He took a bite of his own and smacked his lips.
"It's perfection on bread,The mango jelly is my own invention. Gives the recipe an international flair.C'mon, try it! I was raised on these !"
Dory took a bite,chewed it carefully and managed a smile: "Lekker". she said."Lekker", chimed in Nina.
Even with Fernando bailing out the water in the back beside his brother who had taken off his sunglasses and whose hair-coif he still tried to mend through wind and driving rain as he drove the outboard with the tiller between his legs, still a good inch of water passed over their rubber boots unnoticed by the three about to have lunch. Nate gave a carefully made sandwich to each of the girls and they both eyed the concoctions suspiciously. He took a bite of his own and smacked his lips.
"It's perfection on bread,The mango jelly is my own invention. Gives the recipe an international flair.C'mon, try it! I was raised on these !"
Dory took a bite,chewed it carefully and managed a smile: "Lekker". she said."Lekker", chimed in Nina.
"Now I know it's not pickled herring ,"boasted Nate, "the way you cheeseheads are accustomed too, but here we are, all gezellig and all-"
The girls let out a howl. "How do you know this word," asked Dory. This is like the most Dutch word there is.There is not even a proper way to translate it. It goes to the heart of our culture."
"I always thought it meant cozy , said Nate.
"Yes, said Nina," it is ...cozy, but a lot more than that. It is when you are with a group of family and friends and everything...everything is perfect....cozy? yes but so much more."
"I know. Iknow. I know. It's an ambience. A Warmth. A state of being three steps closer to Nirvana than cozy.Gezllig was one of the first words I learn when I arrived in Amsterdam. Yes, it was a Dutch Girl, my first true love, I planned to stay for the rest of my life .I was young and stupid and hopelessly romantic.Still am. Stupid anyway. But I ended up using the word like my Dutch friends countless times to describe moments such as: a group of friends sitting around a table laughing, clearly enjoying each others company or lounging with my girlfriend in her dingy on a warm summer's day reading together.Although you two specimens don't seem to be good eamples of the breed--
"What!"
"Your countryman do seem to have master the way of gezellig as something like a religious ritual that ultimately reflects kindness,openness and a kind of enlightenment that the rest of the world would do well to learn from.
And gezellig is the only word I can use to describe how you celebrate your birthdays. You guys know :you walk into the house and you not only greet the birthday person with a congratulations, but you also congratulate their family members, and even their friends. You then proceed to greet each person in the room with either three kisses on the cheeks or a good firm handshake if you don't know them or if they are men in my case.. And its those three kiss jobs when you greet doubling up on one cheek!" He demonstrated kissing the air "Moowa! Moowa! Moowa! Then you have to kiss the dog !" The girls laughed wildly.
"And The birthday person will have set out hors d'oeuvres and a torte and you spend this wonderful evening sitting in a circle, munching on appetizers and the torte having tea and sometimes booze and getting to know new people and enjoying one another's company.
"I know. Iknow. I know. It's an ambience. A Warmth. A state of being three steps closer to Nirvana than cozy.Gezllig was one of the first words I learn when I arrived in Amsterdam. Yes, it was a Dutch Girl, my first true love, I planned to stay for the rest of my life .I was young and stupid and hopelessly romantic.Still am. Stupid anyway. But I ended up using the word like my Dutch friends countless times to describe moments such as: a group of friends sitting around a table laughing, clearly enjoying each others company or lounging with my girlfriend in her dingy on a warm summer's day reading together.Although you two specimens don't seem to be good eamples of the breed--
"What!"
"Your countryman do seem to have master the way of gezellig as something like a religious ritual that ultimately reflects kindness,openness and a kind of enlightenment that the rest of the world would do well to learn from.
And gezellig is the only word I can use to describe how you celebrate your birthdays. You guys know :you walk into the house and you not only greet the birthday person with a congratulations, but you also congratulate their family members, and even their friends. You then proceed to greet each person in the room with either three kisses on the cheeks or a good firm handshake if you don't know them or if they are men in my case.. And its those three kiss jobs when you greet doubling up on one cheek!" He demonstrated kissing the air "Moowa! Moowa! Moowa! Then you have to kiss the dog !" The girls laughed wildly.
"And The birthday person will have set out hors d'oeuvres and a torte and you spend this wonderful evening sitting in a circle, munching on appetizers and the torte having tea and sometimes booze and getting to know new people and enjoying one another's company.
"Well aren't we gezellig", asked Nate smiling broadly and he gave them both fraternal kisses on the cheek."Moowa! Moowa! Moowa!"
"Yes,now we are ,"said Dory still laughing and pretending to wipe sloppy kisses off her cheeks.
"You see that peanut butter and jelly will do it every time- even better than Coca Cola teaching the world to sing. And certainly much better than your pickled herring or french fries with mayonnaise- disgusting."
"You see that peanut butter and jelly will do it every time- even better than Coca Cola teaching the world to sing. And certainly much better than your pickled herring or french fries with mayonnaise- disgusting."
And how is it again that you know so much about Holland? asked Dory.
"You show no mercy do you ,my darling Amazon Queen? ? I misspent a year of my youth in Amsterdam awhile back. I thought I was in love."
"Oh yes," said Nina," in love with Paradiso and Fantasia."
"Oh you know those places?" asked Nate.
"If I want to smoke hash," said Nina, "I buy it from a friend and smoke it in my house with my boyfriend or even my family. Just because it is legal we Dutch do not make, do not make...
"A public spectacle?" chimed in Nate .
"Yes, a public Spectacle."
"So you take it home and have a few toots and make everything gezellig with your friends and family.
I don't smoke hash , said Nina, well...when... except sometimes when I am not studying and for sex."
"I knew we'd find something in common , Nina,," said Nate, suppressing a gigantic detonation of laughter.
"I do not think you study," said Nina,tossing her blond head with a superior air.Then realizing the size of the foot she had put in her mouth began to laugh hysterically which was instantly contagious and the three of them giggled on the wooden bench for several minutes.
"No I don't study,Nina,said Nate with a quiet serious air, "And I only do it, just like you, when I am not studying and when I am having sex."
"I understood this joke of mine the first time," she protested but again they began to cry with laughter ;Nina with her fair white skinned face turning so red she now looked like she belonged to a different race of mankind.
"I understood this joke of mine the first time," she protested but again they began to cry with laughter ;Nina with her fair white skinned face turning so red she now looked like she belonged to a different race of mankind.
The rain let up around four that afternoon and they found a very large sandbank to sleep on. No chance of the river rising and sweeping them away. They were on the equator so nightfall would come at exactly 6pm leaving them 2 hours to set up camp. Nate pulled tents from under the tarpaulin as if he had an unlimited supply, chucking them to Gustavo who set them on the beach, He removed a propane cylinder and a thermos and slowly forsake the boat with a a deep groan as he alighted .He began to plod then prance around the sandbank island stretching out stiffness like a high jumper readying himself to break the world's record. The girls too each set off in different directions exercising but with less exaggeration.Nate could be heard coughing and they saw him stop several times and grab his nose as if trying to clear his ears.
Gustavo and Fernando choreographed the camping scene to perfection. Tents went up. Something was cooking on a small stove connected by a long tube to the big propane tank.A campfire had been built and while the three bathed in their swimming suits in a small pool of slowly flowing river water where the sandbank met the bank of the river, the girls were vigorously scrubbing their bodies, odd pieces of clothing , and the handkerchiefs they wore as bandannas ,all with the same locally made coconut soap that Nate recognized by its scent and between scrubs he watched Dory bring the round bar to her nose and inhale its scent with smiling pleasure.By the time they had dressed in their tents the flavor of seared meat and onions filled the air.A large aluminum pot sizzled on the camp stove. Near the driftwood campfire the girls laid out their washed clothes on branches that they found. Sparks in great showers shot up from the gasoline produced campfire and the night was dark with only momentary spots of weak moonlight filtering down when the cloud cover thinned briefly now and then.
Nate sat down in the sand near the campfire where the girls were sitting. Fernando brought them each a plate of food : some delicious meat that none of them could recognize in a stew like concoction with rice ,which was quite tasty, and a large Pilsener beer ,in its enormous bottle, to drink.He handed each one a piece of sliced white bread from its bag as if he was dealing cards.
"Well ,"said Nate , mocking great satisfaction, "nothing like the Amazon, right girls ?"
He only let their silence last a few seconds.
"We're still on the main highway you see. Nothing but road signs out here. But tomorrow I promise you, we break camp at sunrise and by midday we'll be heading into town."
"I don't want to go to a town ," said Nina.
"Just a figure of speech Nina. What I meant to say is that by midday tomorrow you will begin to see the things you came here to see after we get off the main river and turn onto a smaller tributary of this river."
"Oh.That is good. Please to excuse me I am going to sleep".
"So far we have to travel," said Dory, tiredly, as she watched Nina enter their tent.
"It is not down on any map , " replied Nate," true places never are...Herman Melville. He wrote--"
"I know your Melville"snapped Dory,"And right next to that quotation put this American: "I met a lot of people when I traveled, I even encountered myself. Thats your James Baldwin."
"They teach him?"
"I'm studying for my Masters in Modern American literature."
"You mean you don't have some deep-seeded hatred for Americans like most Europeans?"
"You mean because of your imperialist military industrial complex, your lack of regard for the suffering of third world peoples, your weapons of mass destruction?"
"Yeah...something like that."
"Nina and I have traveled a lot in our young lives. We threw out our preconceived notions about countries and now only view the people we meet, each one as a nation. And we are not tourists we are travelers. We are not sight seekers but... how can I explain this we put on the people and places we meet like they are costumes and we see how they fit. We take journeys within the journey which is our lives and the biggest journey for me, it was much shorter for Nina but now we are together on the most important journey that we will take for the rest of our lives and that is the trip where you know you must reach out to people not to governments or ideologies but to each person and find the little spark of enlightenment that is within almost every person. It is the journey to meet people halfway because therein you find the important things a traveler needs to know."
"They teach him?"
"I'm studying for my Masters in Modern American literature."
"You mean you don't have some deep-seeded hatred for Americans like most Europeans?"
"You mean because of your imperialist military industrial complex, your lack of regard for the suffering of third world peoples, your weapons of mass destruction?"
"Yeah...something like that."
"Nina and I have traveled a lot in our young lives. We threw out our preconceived notions about countries and now only view the people we meet, each one as a nation. And we are not tourists we are travelers. We are not sight seekers but... how can I explain this we put on the people and places we meet like they are costumes and we see how they fit. We take journeys within the journey which is our lives and the biggest journey for me, it was much shorter for Nina but now we are together on the most important journey that we will take for the rest of our lives and that is the trip where you know you must reach out to people not to governments or ideologies but to each person and find the little spark of enlightenment that is within almost every person. It is the journey to meet people halfway because therein you find the important things a traveler needs to know."
"Yeah,"said Nate, looking deeply into her eyes with an admiring smile," I believe you might be right about that..But how much of that spark of enlightenment did you find in Francisco De Orellana?"
"I found you didn't I ?"
"Well,"he blushed,"thanks for the compliment."
"It's not a compliment-"
"Thanks for the insult then-"
"It's not an insult. This discussion began about how I feel towards North Americans. You now belong to that group of people from the United States that I have met each an individual nation but when viewed collectively help me begin to understand along with my readings a nation who's size and diversity can not be compared with Hollands. So I could never say that the United states is Gezellig, but I can say I have met many more Americans who are enlightened on various levels, travelers on the same journey as me, than the so - called ugly American.The biggest difference for me is that Americans seem to have no beginning and no end. It is hard to explain but they just seem to move through the landscape of our planet with less tying them down than even a gypsy.Many know or care so little about their ancestors and even their family because when they reach a ceratin age teh cast themselves up to the winds and reinvent themselves. I am sure what I am saying is a gross generalization, but that is what comes to my mind. One day I will visit the country and I know how racially diverse it is and culturally and religiously mixed and I know I will never capture what it is to be an American. Am I wrong to think that Americans do not know what it is to be an American ?"
"On the level you are talking every American knows that if they stand behind certain political and religious icons which must be the same in most countries they are in harmony with the rest of the country. So if the majority are proud of of our flag and like to watch football on television every sunday and get the family together for thanksgiving then they know they are part of the one giant american tribe. But virtually every American because of his race, religion, country of origen, socioeconomic background, feels disenfranchised on some level and it is the politician who recognizes and exploits each niche of disenfranchisement who ultimately wins the elections. Like everywhere else it is rarely about the best man. In poor countries like Ecuador, the man who can unite the poor and the poor indians behind him will win the election always. That's why this country never goes forward, but using your meet-them-half-way theory I have met some of the nicest people ever here. But how do you factor corruption into your equation. Nearly everyone is corrupt. It is a system and a cycle that has existed here since colonial times.
And once you learn how it works as I finally did. I have learned to use it to great advantage. So I'm answering my own question. I'm meeting them halfway. I don't really approve of paying for bribes but since that's how the system works I bribe everyone and everyone is bribable so I am meeting them halfway."
"You can't get things done any other way ?"
"That's what I thought too !"
"What a pity. It tells so much about a society."
"And what does it tell about an individual ?"
Dory faltered."You... would know better than I but if you found something wonderful in this person and the system still corrupted them to take bribes then I guess you would somehow have to reconcile the system within your own system of values and-
"Pay the money?"
"Pay the money and not let it interfere in the beauty you have found within them..." Dory shook her head like she had bugs in her ears and Nate found a bottle of Rum and passed it to her.
"Listen, he told her, "don't let this shake your beautiful ideals.I like what you said and I think we're pretty close to being on the same path but I always look for chance, the unexpected in my photography and in my meetings with other people and in what you would call my journey and the minute things become predictable I try to shake them up because for me life is all about the unexpected. It's the place where I want to be and I've found that most of the time I must act in unexpected ways or else nothing unexpected happens. That's my mantra."
"Tha's why you decided in the end to bring me and Nina'".
"Probably. Ive been acting like this; side-stepping serendipity so long, for my own pleasure,that I don't really examine that closely why I act the way I do anymore."
"That's crazy,"she said and gulped the rum from the bottle.
"God loves a moving target!'
The fire had all but died as they kissed three times on the cheeks and she avoided his awkward attempt at her lips. He gave her his flashlight so that she could find her way in a drunken stumble back to her tent. He rested his head back in the sand and nodded off. Gustavo awoke him after a half hour and helped him to his feet saying something about vampires. It was Vampire Bats he was referring too and while there were none in the area Gustavo like many river dwellers had a deep respect for the rainforest at night.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
"I found you didn't I ?"
"Well,"he blushed,"thanks for the compliment."
"It's not a compliment-"
"Thanks for the insult then-"
"It's not an insult. This discussion began about how I feel towards North Americans. You now belong to that group of people from the United States that I have met each an individual nation but when viewed collectively help me begin to understand along with my readings a nation who's size and diversity can not be compared with Hollands. So I could never say that the United states is Gezellig, but I can say I have met many more Americans who are enlightened on various levels, travelers on the same journey as me, than the so - called ugly American.The biggest difference for me is that Americans seem to have no beginning and no end. It is hard to explain but they just seem to move through the landscape of our planet with less tying them down than even a gypsy.Many know or care so little about their ancestors and even their family because when they reach a ceratin age teh cast themselves up to the winds and reinvent themselves. I am sure what I am saying is a gross generalization, but that is what comes to my mind. One day I will visit the country and I know how racially diverse it is and culturally and religiously mixed and I know I will never capture what it is to be an American. Am I wrong to think that Americans do not know what it is to be an American ?"
"On the level you are talking every American knows that if they stand behind certain political and religious icons which must be the same in most countries they are in harmony with the rest of the country. So if the majority are proud of of our flag and like to watch football on television every sunday and get the family together for thanksgiving then they know they are part of the one giant american tribe. But virtually every American because of his race, religion, country of origen, socioeconomic background, feels disenfranchised on some level and it is the politician who recognizes and exploits each niche of disenfranchisement who ultimately wins the elections. Like everywhere else it is rarely about the best man. In poor countries like Ecuador, the man who can unite the poor and the poor indians behind him will win the election always. That's why this country never goes forward, but using your meet-them-half-way theory I have met some of the nicest people ever here. But how do you factor corruption into your equation. Nearly everyone is corrupt. It is a system and a cycle that has existed here since colonial times.
And once you learn how it works as I finally did. I have learned to use it to great advantage. So I'm answering my own question. I'm meeting them halfway. I don't really approve of paying for bribes but since that's how the system works I bribe everyone and everyone is bribable so I am meeting them halfway."
"You can't get things done any other way ?"
"That's what I thought too !"
"What a pity. It tells so much about a society."
"And what does it tell about an individual ?"
Dory faltered."You... would know better than I but if you found something wonderful in this person and the system still corrupted them to take bribes then I guess you would somehow have to reconcile the system within your own system of values and-
"Pay the money?"
"Pay the money and not let it interfere in the beauty you have found within them..." Dory shook her head like she had bugs in her ears and Nate found a bottle of Rum and passed it to her.
"Listen, he told her, "don't let this shake your beautiful ideals.I like what you said and I think we're pretty close to being on the same path but I always look for chance, the unexpected in my photography and in my meetings with other people and in what you would call my journey and the minute things become predictable I try to shake them up because for me life is all about the unexpected. It's the place where I want to be and I've found that most of the time I must act in unexpected ways or else nothing unexpected happens. That's my mantra."
"Tha's why you decided in the end to bring me and Nina'".
"Probably. Ive been acting like this; side-stepping serendipity so long, for my own pleasure,that I don't really examine that closely why I act the way I do anymore."
"That's crazy,"she said and gulped the rum from the bottle.
"God loves a moving target!'
The fire had all but died as they kissed three times on the cheeks and she avoided his awkward attempt at her lips. He gave her his flashlight so that she could find her way in a drunken stumble back to her tent. He rested his head back in the sand and nodded off. Gustavo awoke him after a half hour and helped him to his feet saying something about vampires. It was Vampire Bats he was referring too and while there were none in the area Gustavo like many river dwellers had a deep respect for the rainforest at night.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
Monday, December 1, 2008
#3 The River
It would be mid- morning of the next day before Nate could get Gustavo and Fernando Rodriguez finally organized for the trip.First they forgot to buy the propane tanks. Then they disappeared for half a day and Nate knew they were using the boat as a taxi service for the local river dwellers to pick up some petty cash. When put in perspective with the king's ransom they would gain when he finally paid them off,it seemed ludicrous for them to steal a few hundred dollars, but Nate suspected that they had probably blown the advance he had given them in the chongos and card games; tempted like all who had folding money in their pockets in this frontier town.
He preferred not to make accusations before a big trip. The Brothers Rodriguez had the best boat around (actually an enormous parted tree , 20 feet long or more and 4 feet wide,which would make the boat technically a canoe with the sides built up with lumber and a keel installed). With Nate's 4ohp Yamaha,they could make 20 miles an hour going down river. Depending on the height of the river. The River Napo was one of the largest of the Amazon's 1100 tributaries, from swerve of shore to bend of bank, over 600 miles beginning in Ecuador, and ending up swallowed by the Amazon herself about 60 miles before Iquitos, Peru.
In a boat with a 40hp motor,about 15 to 20 minutes down the Napo from the town which bears his name ,Francisco de Orellena ,one reaches the confluence of the river Coca with the River Napo . It is at this point that Orellana, his brigantine cruising down the river fast enough to breeze his hair must have realized that the current was too strong to ever turn back with food for Gonzalo Pizarro and his starving noblemen as had been planned- if that really was Orellana's plan. Gonzalo was later to proclaim him "The greatest traitor who ever lived."
By land, not ten minutes in a bumpy car ride from the present shabby settlement which is his only namesake, Orellana had travelled after many months with Gonzalo Pizarro as his leader, directionless and brought to their knees by the unfamiliar tropical climate and terrain, to the banks of the rapidly flowing Coca River . Gonzalo Pizarro, the most ruthless of the Pizarro brothers who together sacked the Inca Empire of Athualpa of Seven tons of gold. Still these conquistadors only became more thirsty for blood and more greedy for riches.
Gonzalo was now leading the most important Conquest of the New World :the search for El Dorado.To the place where the Indian chief brushed himself with oil every morning and then covered himself with gold. In the evening he would dive into a small lake and wash off all the gold and his followers would throw gold and emeralds in after him as tribute.
It existed he was sure.To his palace in Quito a Quechua Indian was brought with a bag of emeralds and even with torture all the Quechua could say is that he had traded for them with a tribe whose language he could not speak in the Andes to the east, a view that Gonzalo could see from the roof of his royal residence. He seethed with greed and the lust for conquest .Rumors persisted. Given all the other Glorious Conquests in the New World why should he doubt it ?
Around Christmas of 1541,near starvation,Gonzalo and Orellana and their ragtag men built a boat, and Orellana volunteered to take it with 50 men and return with food. He never returned. Orellana told the King of Spain upon his return that it was the the current; too strong and the men;too weak. Gonzalo who ate his horses while waiting for Orellana, said it was treachery.
In exchange for an unknowable truth comes the existence of an unfathomable River,The Amazon.A river that is approximately 4000 miles long, in some places as wide as 120 miles,emptying 20% of all the fresh water that the oceans receive,navigable by ocean going vessels for approximately 2/3 of its length,with dozens of tributaries like the Napo , which Orellana rode down moments after leaving Pizzaro, many of them 600 miles long or longer.
As a Conquistador whose voyage of marvel and wonder must have seemed endless ,of necessity, he became a diplomat along with the warrior in him to survive.Throughout his voyage but especially with the friendly tribes and nations like the Aparians he was a clever linguist who copiously wrote down words in the Indian tongues that he learned.Almost always near starvation, he and his men could still fight when necessary as viciously as the many vicious tribes they passed during their 8 month voyage...but although shown riches and roads to riches along the way he took nothing of value from these cultures, except the cultures themselves.
So Orellana and his small band shoved off from the banks of the Coca River where it has been written by Father Carvajal who chronicled the mission, that Orellana, seeing Gonzalo's desperation after marching around in circles for months and now without slaves because he had starved 4000 of them to death, Orellana volunteered to take a ship forward and look for food.
The Conquistadors who stayed behind with Gonzalo ate their horses and then their shoes and waited for months for Orellana's return.
Finally, nearly dead, but still filled with the blind rage that has been bred out of most modern men Gonzalo stumbled into Quito. Quickly revived,he went back to Peru where he was killed in battle.
But the men on board the brigantine could not make it go backwards against the current if that indeed had been their intent, having sailed many leagues in a few days and having seen many Indians and supposing them dangerous although no arrows were fired in the first weeks of their voyage. Orellana approached the Indians who fed them bounteous meals.No fools,The Orellana Explorers, they swore an oath of allegiance to Gonzalo stipulating the impossibility of return and Father Carvajal witneessed it.On they went.
And Orellana did find El Dorado, but no one took much notice. He found the potential Salvation of Humankind if only our modern day scientists can learn its mysteries.Terra Preta is the Brazilian name for it and Father Carvajal, Orellana's chronicler made indirect reference to it in his journal noting:"the abundance of fruits and vegetables here is greater than the best growing fields of Europe. The plants grow in black earth." It is a manmade earth that regenerates itself and is hundreds of times richer than rich planting soil. Scientists have not been able to duplicate it in a laboratory.
Nate,ever the student of history, liked to compare himself to Orellana and he knew, in fact was in a business arrangement with, what he was coming to believe was a modern day Gonzalo and the similarities were beginning to become too obvious.
It bothered him greatly that he was in business with a man who probably had no qualms about taking his blood and the call to India he had made the night before was part of his plan to be as brave as he thought Orellana had been upon being confronted with evil incarnate in the form of Gonzalo Pizarro.
He banished the thought as he pointed the way for the girls to head down the gangplank of the makeshift dock which floated precariously held above water by many thick balsa wood tree trunks. The girls,wore their rather small backpacks with the Dutch flag sown in. Nate jumped in behind them and laid his arm on Dory's shoulder with a pointed finger to identify which boat was theirs.A number of boats, perhaps 8, loading or unloading supplies, had been tied off at the wooden railing .
"What is that tune you keep whistling," he asked Dory in mock exasperation.
"It's Brahm's Romanian Rhapsody, She replied,"Very happy music can't you tell ?"
Gonzalo was now leading the most important Conquest of the New World :the search for El Dorado.To the place where the Indian chief brushed himself with oil every morning and then covered himself with gold. In the evening he would dive into a small lake and wash off all the gold and his followers would throw gold and emeralds in after him as tribute.
It existed he was sure.To his palace in Quito a Quechua Indian was brought with a bag of emeralds and even with torture all the Quechua could say is that he had traded for them with a tribe whose language he could not speak in the Andes to the east, a view that Gonzalo could see from the roof of his royal residence. He seethed with greed and the lust for conquest .Rumors persisted. Given all the other Glorious Conquests in the New World why should he doubt it ?
Around Christmas of 1541,near starvation,Gonzalo and Orellana and their ragtag men built a boat, and Orellana volunteered to take it with 50 men and return with food. He never returned. Orellana told the King of Spain upon his return that it was the the current; too strong and the men;too weak. Gonzalo who ate his horses while waiting for Orellana, said it was treachery.
In exchange for an unknowable truth comes the existence of an unfathomable River,The Amazon.A river that is approximately 4000 miles long, in some places as wide as 120 miles,emptying 20% of all the fresh water that the oceans receive,navigable by ocean going vessels for approximately 2/3 of its length,with dozens of tributaries like the Napo , which Orellana rode down moments after leaving Pizzaro, many of them 600 miles long or longer.
As a Conquistador whose voyage of marvel and wonder must have seemed endless ,of necessity, he became a diplomat along with the warrior in him to survive.Throughout his voyage but especially with the friendly tribes and nations like the Aparians he was a clever linguist who copiously wrote down words in the Indian tongues that he learned.Almost always near starvation, he and his men could still fight when necessary as viciously as the many vicious tribes they passed during their 8 month voyage...but although shown riches and roads to riches along the way he took nothing of value from these cultures, except the cultures themselves.
So Orellana and his small band shoved off from the banks of the Coca River where it has been written by Father Carvajal who chronicled the mission, that Orellana, seeing Gonzalo's desperation after marching around in circles for months and now without slaves because he had starved 4000 of them to death, Orellana volunteered to take a ship forward and look for food.
The Conquistadors who stayed behind with Gonzalo ate their horses and then their shoes and waited for months for Orellana's return.
Finally, nearly dead, but still filled with the blind rage that has been bred out of most modern men Gonzalo stumbled into Quito. Quickly revived,he went back to Peru where he was killed in battle.
But the men on board the brigantine could not make it go backwards against the current if that indeed had been their intent, having sailed many leagues in a few days and having seen many Indians and supposing them dangerous although no arrows were fired in the first weeks of their voyage. Orellana approached the Indians who fed them bounteous meals.No fools,The Orellana Explorers, they swore an oath of allegiance to Gonzalo stipulating the impossibility of return and Father Carvajal witneessed it.On they went.
And Orellana did find El Dorado, but no one took much notice. He found the potential Salvation of Humankind if only our modern day scientists can learn its mysteries.Terra Preta is the Brazilian name for it and Father Carvajal, Orellana's chronicler made indirect reference to it in his journal noting:"the abundance of fruits and vegetables here is greater than the best growing fields of Europe. The plants grow in black earth." It is a manmade earth that regenerates itself and is hundreds of times richer than rich planting soil. Scientists have not been able to duplicate it in a laboratory.
Nate,ever the student of history, liked to compare himself to Orellana and he knew, in fact was in a business arrangement with, what he was coming to believe was a modern day Gonzalo and the similarities were beginning to become too obvious.
It bothered him greatly that he was in business with a man who probably had no qualms about taking his blood and the call to India he had made the night before was part of his plan to be as brave as he thought Orellana had been upon being confronted with evil incarnate in the form of Gonzalo Pizarro.
He banished the thought as he pointed the way for the girls to head down the gangplank of the makeshift dock which floated precariously held above water by many thick balsa wood tree trunks. The girls,wore their rather small backpacks with the Dutch flag sown in. Nate jumped in behind them and laid his arm on Dory's shoulder with a pointed finger to identify which boat was theirs.A number of boats, perhaps 8, loading or unloading supplies, had been tied off at the wooden railing .
"What is that tune you keep whistling," he asked Dory in mock exasperation.
"It's Brahm's Romanian Rhapsody, She replied,"Very happy music can't you tell ?"
"Yeah, Very happy music, of course :Brahms !"
One man , his canoe tied up next to their boat, was throwing bloody untreated cowhides onto the dock from his canoe and there was a furious swarm of flies all around them.
A British scientific delegation of six professorial looking men were blocking their way as they boarded their boat. They all wore variations on the classic Hollywood safari suit with the leader overheard to say"Oh come on Harry just choose a goodamn seat. You know for your sake I hope what they say about the Amazon is true.
"What's that Roger?"
"That the bloody place just might change your life and god knows you could use it."
"I tell you I don't know why I am so fucking paranoid,whose got the bloody gin?"
"I envy you Harry,"roared Roger,""you stupid bloody paranoid wanker .It's the paranoid's who actually really and truly think someone, everyone in fact is paying attention to them. I hate to disappoint you mate but I don't care about your paranoia. Spencer doesn't care. Allan doesn't care. And John over there would let you spit into the wind all day."
"Sorry Roger its just a passing thing. Never you mind. Don't get all bent out of shape.I've got balls really I do. I'll show you."
"Hey Spence the paranoid thinks I'm interested in seein' his bloody balls what do you think?"
"Get on the fucking boat," shouted one of those already seated.
"Fuck's sake!" screamed another.
The men finally boarded and Nate and the girls hurried onto their boat sighing in relief as they escaped the flies and stench of the putrefying cowhides.They settled into their single bench seat and Nate ,his face aggravated , ordered Gustavo with a hand-gesture to pull away from the dock.Gustavo fired the motor on the first pull and guiding by the motors control arm, they were off looping around in a wide arc to change directions from upriver to downriver.
One man , his canoe tied up next to their boat, was throwing bloody untreated cowhides onto the dock from his canoe and there was a furious swarm of flies all around them.
A British scientific delegation of six professorial looking men were blocking their way as they boarded their boat. They all wore variations on the classic Hollywood safari suit with the leader overheard to say"Oh come on Harry just choose a goodamn seat. You know for your sake I hope what they say about the Amazon is true.
"What's that Roger?"
"That the bloody place just might change your life and god knows you could use it."
"I tell you I don't know why I am so fucking paranoid,whose got the bloody gin?"
"I envy you Harry,"roared Roger,""you stupid bloody paranoid wanker .It's the paranoid's who actually really and truly think someone, everyone in fact is paying attention to them. I hate to disappoint you mate but I don't care about your paranoia. Spencer doesn't care. Allan doesn't care. And John over there would let you spit into the wind all day."
"Sorry Roger its just a passing thing. Never you mind. Don't get all bent out of shape.I've got balls really I do. I'll show you."
"Hey Spence the paranoid thinks I'm interested in seein' his bloody balls what do you think?"
"Get on the fucking boat," shouted one of those already seated.
"Fuck's sake!" screamed another.
The men finally boarded and Nate and the girls hurried onto their boat sighing in relief as they escaped the flies and stench of the putrefying cowhides.They settled into their single bench seat and Nate ,his face aggravated , ordered Gustavo with a hand-gesture to pull away from the dock.Gustavo fired the motor on the first pull and guiding by the motors control arm, they were off looping around in a wide arc to change directions from upriver to downriver.
"Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe," Nate said,pointing with his thumb back at the British canoe," That's a quote from Frank Zappa, A famous American composer."
Passing now this famous confluence of the Coca River with the Napo River the boat makes a small wave as Gustavo Rodriguez who wears his hair like Elvis Presley in his Viva Las Vegas Period and combs it this moment elaborately as he does about every half hour or so without removing his sunglasses.. His brother Fernando spoke very little and as Nate's Spanish improved he came to think that Fernando was slow because they could understand each other so well. Fernando's hair was just growing out after his stint in the military and as his brother was all smoke and mirrors and larcenous hair ,Fernando was clean cut and styless and maybe simple-minded.
Nate glanced at his pair of Amazons on either side of him, their hair caught by the breeze, eyes aglow with anticipation and recalled his readings.
Fierce warriors, the ancient Greeks considered the Amazons their most fearsome opponents, defenders of an ancient sisterhood which had to be defeated so that male dominance could triumph.It is Penthesilea who leads her Amazons in defense of matriarchal Troy. The name "Amazon" comes from a-mazos, that is, "without a breast." And so the rumor has come down to us and perhaps ,fancifully, to Orellana in a vision of ferocious women warriors who cut off their right breast, so that it does not hinder their use of the bow.The Greek Amazons fought and sometimes defeated the greatest of the Greek heroes; but ultimately retreated to Anatolia and Armenia and Bactria,to the safety of their mountains enshrouded in mist as wave after wave of patriarchal warriors invaded their lands.
Passing now this famous confluence of the Coca River with the Napo River the boat makes a small wave as Gustavo Rodriguez who wears his hair like Elvis Presley in his Viva Las Vegas Period and combs it this moment elaborately as he does about every half hour or so without removing his sunglasses.. His brother Fernando spoke very little and as Nate's Spanish improved he came to think that Fernando was slow because they could understand each other so well. Fernando's hair was just growing out after his stint in the military and as his brother was all smoke and mirrors and larcenous hair ,Fernando was clean cut and styless and maybe simple-minded.
Nate glanced at his pair of Amazons on either side of him, their hair caught by the breeze, eyes aglow with anticipation and recalled his readings.
Fierce warriors, the ancient Greeks considered the Amazons their most fearsome opponents, defenders of an ancient sisterhood which had to be defeated so that male dominance could triumph.It is Penthesilea who leads her Amazons in defense of matriarchal Troy. The name "Amazon" comes from a-mazos, that is, "without a breast." And so the rumor has come down to us and perhaps ,fancifully, to Orellana in a vision of ferocious women warriors who cut off their right breast, so that it does not hinder their use of the bow.The Greek Amazons fought and sometimes defeated the greatest of the Greek heroes; but ultimately retreated to Anatolia and Armenia and Bactria,to the safety of their mountains enshrouded in mist as wave after wave of patriarchal warriors invaded their lands.
But like all the strange stories Orellana and his faithful Chronicler Father did profess ,new evidence of a civilization of Amazons was found recently by Jesco von Puttkamer, a German photographer and ethnologist who was studying the Galkeras Indians, a primitive people who live in the largely unexplored rain forests of Brazil's Rondonia territory. After Von Puttkamer had befriended the tribesmen and learned their language they led him to three secret caves decorated with mysterious markings. Recognizing the possible significance of the site, he decided to call in expert help: Anthropologist Altair Sales of the Catholic University of Goias. After exploring the caves and questioning the indians about them, Sales emerged from the jungle with the astonishing conclusion:the caves were inhabited long ago by warlike women remarkably similar to those described by Orellana.
Among the strabnge matrkings om the cave walls sales discovered a recurring theme: a triangle marked by a deep cut running from one apex to the center obvious to sales as a symbol of female genitalia. It is the same symbol the Father Carvajal reprts on the barcelets worn by the women warriors he and Orellan saw, At least on e of the caves has a smaller triangle inside that Sales speculates might indicate pregnancy. Another triangle adorned with two stripes might have symbolized a tribal leader. Still others positioned interconnected suggest lesbianism. The caves were also decorated with masks that sales thinks were worn by Amazons during manhunting raids on nearby villages. To produce a suitavble hypnotic effect during mating rites the Amazons apparently played flutes, which are also carved into the cave walls. To thius day local indians forbid their women to play flutes lest they take to reviving their Amazonian ways.
In one of the caves, Sales found a rovck with a large basin-like hole gouged out of it there were also grovves running into the basin. That brought to mind one old account of the Amazons drinking the blood of their slaughtered male off-spring,the basin designed to catch the blood ogf the slaughterd offspring.
Some five minutes from the caves still more evidence a Copulatorium. A huge stone with stairs carved into its side. The top of the rock artificially smoothed and used as a platformon it side by side carvings of athe triangle and the phallus, the only male symbol found in the area. This was the ritual mating site.Amazons.
Amazons.The women between him on the boat's only bench, Nate knew by their smiles and head jerks and straining eyes that they thought that the great maw of the rainforest had opened wide for them and they were sliding right in on its tongue, the Napo River. Large white egrets pecked away at tiny fish trapped in the shallows of the sandbars they passed and mealy parrots passed overhead shouting out the day's top stories and even a great blue heron ventured up from the bank once and the girls pointed. Nate did nothing to disillusion them for even for him this river's- edge- growth, mostly uninteresting and repetitive foliage ,was paradise compared to where they had been.
After about three hours of zig-zagging the shallows between sandbars and trying to find sights of interest for himself in what had become his "Green Hell" of boredom during this butt-aching ride, Nate motioned to Gustavo and,adjusting his sunglasses for the maneuver, Gustavo slowed the boat to a stop and slid it softly into the riverbank. Fernando hopped out and tied off the bow to some gnarly roots of a tree that had broken off long ago when the river had flooded its banks leaving only this deformed reminder as testament to its existence.Nate fished some toilet paper out of one his many canvas bags that were under a tarpaulin. Nina seized it and headed up the river bank in a charge.
"Watch out for chiggers!" Nate hollered after her.
"What is this?"asked Nina, wide-eyed.
"Can you pee standing up?' "No. That's too bad. Well then stay away from the tall grass. It is a little bug that burrows under your skin and you will not soon forget it. You might try making a trough with a piece of bamboo and pissing into the bamboo and letting it roll down to-"
"Ah," Dory swatted him," you are having too much fun."
"I've also had my share of chiggers."
She looked at him tenuously.
"No lie. No Lie. I never crap in high grass anymore. If you'll excuse my English."
Nina appeared again very quickly and ran back to the Boat.
"Running won't help you ," he laughed.
"Ha," she said defiantly, "you and your niggers. You won't get my coat Nate."
"Goat," said Dory, Chiggers and Goat You wont get my Goat".
They had a heated discussion in Dutch of which Nate understood only Nigger and Goat and You...won't get..my Goat. and he had to marvel at how well the girls had almost mastered this obscure American idiom.
Nate left the boat and disappeared from view taking a piss and laughing so hard it was difficult to keep from wetting himself. He returned to the bank, machete in hand and wiped it against his trousers.
"It's ok now," he said frankly, "I've killed them all."
The girls looked at each other not sure what to think.
A cecropia tree angled its thin white- ringed trunk and smooth skin out from the bank at about a 70 degree angle, its many giant leaves spattering the ground with shade, near that were several chonta dura, the tall palm that was apparently indigenous but easy to plant and had a multitude of uses including strong alcoholic beverages from the fruit if not eaten, and the living sap could be tapped as well for the same purpose. Bed springs were fashioned from the bark once you removed the spines,and the wood in the right hands was very decorative but hard to work.Besides crafts the wood was excellent for bows and arrowheads and more ambitious utilitarian uses that the docile Quechua Indians of the region rarely aspired to.
Just beyond the chonta dura was a manioc field whose ease of growth, Nate thought, encouraged the river dwellers comatose attitude toward life.. You could fill your belly on yuca and ferment it in a day and get high on it all night. With a little protein from hunting or fishing which they truly, instinctively enjoyed as long as it was not too frequent there was protein to be had so what more did one need in life?
Nate chopped a limb from the cecropia.
"Where did you get that," asked Nina as they waited for Dory to return from fertilizing the manioc field.
"The man who we are going to visit gave it to me. It's from Colombia. See the two roosters fighting on the side of the blade?"
"You said nothing about visiting a man,"said Dory, walking up to them, carrying the toilet paper, a look of relief on her face.
"I have many secrets," he said in evil self mockery,"oh let me turn you on to my one of my two phrases of latin: alea iacta est.. The Die Has Been Cast."He laughed, "Now be quiet while I give you your first biology lesson. This tree , in a place where nothing is common, is common, so I call it a trash tree. It's name is cecropia. It grows fast as hell in light gaps when trees fall in the forest or on river banks, its got those humongous leaves so that nothing can get sunlight around it.It could live 30 years and grow to be maybe 50 or 60 feet tall. There are males and females. I don't know how to tell one from the other...Now if I start shouting ouch, ouch.. 'he kept repeating as he moved the branch from one hand to the other, "ouch..The cecropias interaction with azteca ants, ouch... you see them... I can't hold this thing much longer is a classic case of defense mutualism in the tropics. The tree provides the ants with a nest made of many chambers... see them along here ? ouch! The ants burrow into the soft tissue within the stems. Food is also provided for the ants that the tree produces at the base of its leaves. Ants patrol these areas and prevent insects from damaging the plant." He tossed the branch in the river and little red welts were appearing all over his hands and arms from the azteca ants."Those bastards were just doing their jobs. Ouch. But there you have it Defense Mutualism. You watch my back and I'll watch your back. There's a lot of that going on down here in the jungle."
"So there is a settlement or village downriver or something? Why you haven't told us anything about this man before now?"asked Dory.The she added dryly:"Maybe you are trying to watch his back."
"That's rude, said Nate flatly.What do you think I am some kind of criminal ? All right now listen up , " he said as if talking to fifty people," "the way I figure this thing is that I picked up some hitchhikers who begged me to take them along without bothering to ask,"he held up his hand to stop Dory, "and I'm glad you didn't- why I was going into the Jungle.I am a photographer that is true and I have been down here for quite awhile and made some acquaintances and what business is it of yours if I stop off to see someone as long as I show you the beauty and majesty of Primary Amazon Rainforest in a place and in a way you could never have imagined in your wildest dreams. Yes I will take photographs but I will also visit whomever I choose and as of this moment I am officially declaring myself Chief Asshole of this vessel and that means that I get to give the orders...Capiche?"
The girls looked at each other and Dory piped in first:"I believe you say: Aye-Aye ,Asshole.Sir."
"You're damn right that's what you say now huddle up."
"What is this huddle up ?" asked Nina.
"It means get close to me while I put this plastic over our heads and find a bottle of rum because look out there, he said pointing with his chin, his hands already clutching the plastic.
And the girls , in shining sun,could see a quarter mile in front of them the rain in solid heavy sheets headed their way. He pulled the plastic completely over them and opened the bottle of rum, "Welcome to the Rainforest," he said and drew the first gulp.
Dory snuggled up to him as the boat took off and the rain hit loudly against the plastic,"Where did you learn so much biology?"she asked.
"I'm not a complete idiot," he said softly, "How many languages do you speak?"
"Counting Greek and Latin?"
"Yeah."
"I would say six fluently and eight passably and with a few more weeks practice in Spanish..."
"No.No.No. "he said," Spanish is the only one I may have over you , I"m the Chief Asshole and if I see you practicing your Spanish it will be Adios for you."
"Lo que tu ordenes Asshole Jefecito!"
"Did you say what I think you just said ?"He asked and held the bottle to her lips and forced her to chug. She smiled and passed the bottle across him to Nina who she caught with a contented look on her face.
Amazons.The women between him on the boat's only bench, Nate knew by their smiles and head jerks and straining eyes that they thought that the great maw of the rainforest had opened wide for them and they were sliding right in on its tongue, the Napo River. Large white egrets pecked away at tiny fish trapped in the shallows of the sandbars they passed and mealy parrots passed overhead shouting out the day's top stories and even a great blue heron ventured up from the bank once and the girls pointed. Nate did nothing to disillusion them for even for him this river's- edge- growth, mostly uninteresting and repetitive foliage ,was paradise compared to where they had been.
After about three hours of zig-zagging the shallows between sandbars and trying to find sights of interest for himself in what had become his "Green Hell" of boredom during this butt-aching ride, Nate motioned to Gustavo and,adjusting his sunglasses for the maneuver, Gustavo slowed the boat to a stop and slid it softly into the riverbank. Fernando hopped out and tied off the bow to some gnarly roots of a tree that had broken off long ago when the river had flooded its banks leaving only this deformed reminder as testament to its existence.Nate fished some toilet paper out of one his many canvas bags that were under a tarpaulin. Nina seized it and headed up the river bank in a charge.
"Watch out for chiggers!" Nate hollered after her.
"What is this?"asked Nina, wide-eyed.
"Can you pee standing up?' "No. That's too bad. Well then stay away from the tall grass. It is a little bug that burrows under your skin and you will not soon forget it. You might try making a trough with a piece of bamboo and pissing into the bamboo and letting it roll down to-"
"Ah," Dory swatted him," you are having too much fun."
"I've also had my share of chiggers."
She looked at him tenuously.
"No lie. No Lie. I never crap in high grass anymore. If you'll excuse my English."
Nina appeared again very quickly and ran back to the Boat.
"Running won't help you ," he laughed.
"Ha," she said defiantly, "you and your niggers. You won't get my coat Nate."
"Goat," said Dory, Chiggers and Goat You wont get my Goat".
They had a heated discussion in Dutch of which Nate understood only Nigger and Goat and You...won't get..my Goat. and he had to marvel at how well the girls had almost mastered this obscure American idiom.
Nate left the boat and disappeared from view taking a piss and laughing so hard it was difficult to keep from wetting himself. He returned to the bank, machete in hand and wiped it against his trousers.
"It's ok now," he said frankly, "I've killed them all."
The girls looked at each other not sure what to think.
A cecropia tree angled its thin white- ringed trunk and smooth skin out from the bank at about a 70 degree angle, its many giant leaves spattering the ground with shade, near that were several chonta dura, the tall palm that was apparently indigenous but easy to plant and had a multitude of uses including strong alcoholic beverages from the fruit if not eaten, and the living sap could be tapped as well for the same purpose. Bed springs were fashioned from the bark once you removed the spines,and the wood in the right hands was very decorative but hard to work.Besides crafts the wood was excellent for bows and arrowheads and more ambitious utilitarian uses that the docile Quechua Indians of the region rarely aspired to.
Just beyond the chonta dura was a manioc field whose ease of growth, Nate thought, encouraged the river dwellers comatose attitude toward life.. You could fill your belly on yuca and ferment it in a day and get high on it all night. With a little protein from hunting or fishing which they truly, instinctively enjoyed as long as it was not too frequent there was protein to be had so what more did one need in life?
Nate chopped a limb from the cecropia.
"Where did you get that," asked Nina as they waited for Dory to return from fertilizing the manioc field.
"The man who we are going to visit gave it to me. It's from Colombia. See the two roosters fighting on the side of the blade?"
"You said nothing about visiting a man,"said Dory, walking up to them, carrying the toilet paper, a look of relief on her face.
"I have many secrets," he said in evil self mockery,"oh let me turn you on to my one of my two phrases of latin: alea iacta est.. The Die Has Been Cast."He laughed, "Now be quiet while I give you your first biology lesson. This tree , in a place where nothing is common, is common, so I call it a trash tree. It's name is cecropia. It grows fast as hell in light gaps when trees fall in the forest or on river banks, its got those humongous leaves so that nothing can get sunlight around it.It could live 30 years and grow to be maybe 50 or 60 feet tall. There are males and females. I don't know how to tell one from the other...Now if I start shouting ouch, ouch.. 'he kept repeating as he moved the branch from one hand to the other, "ouch..The cecropias interaction with azteca ants, ouch... you see them... I can't hold this thing much longer is a classic case of defense mutualism in the tropics. The tree provides the ants with a nest made of many chambers... see them along here ? ouch! The ants burrow into the soft tissue within the stems. Food is also provided for the ants that the tree produces at the base of its leaves. Ants patrol these areas and prevent insects from damaging the plant." He tossed the branch in the river and little red welts were appearing all over his hands and arms from the azteca ants."Those bastards were just doing their jobs. Ouch. But there you have it Defense Mutualism. You watch my back and I'll watch your back. There's a lot of that going on down here in the jungle."
"So there is a settlement or village downriver or something? Why you haven't told us anything about this man before now?"asked Dory.The she added dryly:"Maybe you are trying to watch his back."
"That's rude, said Nate flatly.What do you think I am some kind of criminal ? All right now listen up , " he said as if talking to fifty people," "the way I figure this thing is that I picked up some hitchhikers who begged me to take them along without bothering to ask,"he held up his hand to stop Dory, "and I'm glad you didn't- why I was going into the Jungle.I am a photographer that is true and I have been down here for quite awhile and made some acquaintances and what business is it of yours if I stop off to see someone as long as I show you the beauty and majesty of Primary Amazon Rainforest in a place and in a way you could never have imagined in your wildest dreams. Yes I will take photographs but I will also visit whomever I choose and as of this moment I am officially declaring myself Chief Asshole of this vessel and that means that I get to give the orders...Capiche?"
The girls looked at each other and Dory piped in first:"I believe you say: Aye-Aye ,Asshole.Sir."
"You're damn right that's what you say now huddle up."
"What is this huddle up ?" asked Nina.
"It means get close to me while I put this plastic over our heads and find a bottle of rum because look out there, he said pointing with his chin, his hands already clutching the plastic.
And the girls , in shining sun,could see a quarter mile in front of them the rain in solid heavy sheets headed their way. He pulled the plastic completely over them and opened the bottle of rum, "Welcome to the Rainforest," he said and drew the first gulp.
Dory snuggled up to him as the boat took off and the rain hit loudly against the plastic,"Where did you learn so much biology?"she asked.
"I'm not a complete idiot," he said softly, "How many languages do you speak?"
"Counting Greek and Latin?"
"Yeah."
"I would say six fluently and eight passably and with a few more weeks practice in Spanish..."
"No.No.No. "he said," Spanish is the only one I may have over you , I"m the Chief Asshole and if I see you practicing your Spanish it will be Adios for you."
"Lo que tu ordenes Asshole Jefecito!"
"Did you say what I think you just said ?"He asked and held the bottle to her lips and forced her to chug. She smiled and passed the bottle across him to Nina who she caught with a contented look on her face.
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