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.
