Lost Luggage, No Gear: How I Survived 9 Days In The Amazon Jungle

I leaned over the again of the small riverboat with my underwear in hand, a bar of eco-friendly cleaning soap on the prepared, and hoped the piranhas wouldn’t be attracted by the act of scrubbing out my unmentionables within the Amazon River.

My toes wore low-cost plastic flip-flops I purchased at a thrift retailer within the small fishing village of Maraa, a 24-hour velocity boat journey from the town of Manaus, Brazil. I wore an ill-fitting tank high that I picked up on the similar little retailer, and it appeared the one factor I did purchase that really match proper was the baseball cap.

I had bought 4 pairs of underwear on the similar retailer. They didn’t match in any respect, so I used to be left with one pair of panties and my swimsuit bottoms. Along with a swimsuit, a spare tank high, leggings, and the sundress and lightweight sweater I wore on the airplane to Brazil, these ill-fitting, low-cost garments had been all I needed to navigate 9 days within the Brazilian Amazon jungle.

My baggage — stuffed with the most effective jungle gear and insect-repellent-treated technical clothes — didn’t make it to Manaus in time. All of the name-brand mountain climbing pants, wool socks, long-sleeve SPF 50+ shirts, and photo voltaic chargers had been trapped in customs. All that planning for gear I would wish to outlive these 9 days alongside the Japura River tributary of the Amazon went to naught, and I used to be left scrambling to search out a minimum of one different set of garments to put on within the deep jungle for 9 days.

I had booked this 9-day excessive tenting journey in Brazil’s Amazon as a present to myself for my fiftieth birthday. This was no snug luxurious cruise. Each night time, we might sleep in hammocks and spearfish piranhas for our dinner. We pooped within the underbrush and bathed within the river, and if we had been fortunate, we’d even have espresso within the mornings.

This was the Amazon I wished to see — the wild, untamed, and principally uninhabited wilderness — earlier than clear-cutting, local weather change or industrialization made it unattainable to expertise.

And, whereas I didn’t count on to tough it to that excessive, I did uncover that far-flung and distant unspoiled jungle. I additionally realized that I actually don’t want all these issues I assumed I did — each within the jungle and in my very own life.

Greatest Laid Plans

Once I booked this journey, I searched phrases like “roughing it within the Amazon,” “Excessive Amazon Journey” and “Non-tourist Amazon Journeys.” I stumbled throughout the journey we ultimately booked (extra about that later), and despatched in my cash. I satisfied three of my associates — Emily, Risa, and Rob — to affix me on this wild journey, and we spent the months main as much as it ordering jungle gear, studying concerning the pictures and medicines we would wish, and dreaming of jaguars and howler monkeys.

I not often ever test a bag, however this time I did, due to having to pack utility knives and extra bug spray than I care to confess. By no means once more. Of all 4 of us, solely Emily carried on her gear, so three of us had been left with out the packs of clothes, chargers, bug sprays, headlamps, knives, and god is aware of what else.

We went via customs in Sao Paulo, Brazil, earlier than boarding the flight to Manaus. Someplace alongside the way in which, our baggage did not make the identical flight.

Our tour started the following day promptly at 1 p.m., and the following flight that our baggage was on landed at 3:30 p.m. At that second, whenever you understand nothing might be accomplished about delayed baggage, a form of calm acceptance comes over you. You enter damage-control mode and make an inventory of the naked requirements you possibly can reside off of within the jungle. You snicker about it. You give thanks that you just had the foresight to put on your mountain climbing boots on the airplane and had a minimum of one change of garments in your carry-on. 

For that first day on the 24-hour boat journey from Manaus west to the tiny fishing hamlet of Maraa, I wore the identical sundress I wore on the airplane and the mountain climbing boots. As we pulled away from the bustling noise of Manaus, which is the capital metropolis of Brazil’s Amazonia district, the dismay over our delayed baggage fell away as we caught our first glimpse of the Amazon.

About Japura River

Our journey from Manaus began on a tributary of the Amazon referred to as the Rio Negro (Black River,) which begins in Colombia, and our house for the following 9 days can be on the Japura River, a large flat stretch of water that is still largely uninhabited west of the village of Maraa. 

Our English-speaking information Samir is a jolly fellow with a hyper form of enthusiasm for the Amazon, however as we huddled behind the speedboat taxi, which incorporates 48 seats and a big open deck space, he warned us of the risks on this untamed nation.

“In some components, you possibly can’t even wash your fingers within the river. Too many aggressive fish are attracted by motion and, if it’s a piranha, he can simply take off a finger.”

With that dire warning, we settled in for a 24 hour journey to Maraa, and the scents of the jungle wavered between the cloying fragrance of flowering bushes to that murky odor of mud and lifeless fish.

The additional away we traveled from Manaus, the extra distant the realm turned. Strains of fishing huts dwindled to solely a handful right here and there. Dolphins breached as an orange fireplace sundown peaked, and I already felt soiled and mossy from the humidity.

After we arrived in Maraa, the final village earlier than we actually entered the distant space of the Japura Amazon, I managed to scrounge up one other tank high, a stained lengthy sleeve shirt, a pullover sweater, an inexpensive pair of plastic flip flops, a hat, and a bundle of underwear. Fortunately, my good friend Emily had an additional pair of lengthy pants I might put on and a lot of the bug spray and toiletries which might be obligatory.

We left Maraa on a tiny open-air chug boat and watched as small grey dolphins bobbed alongside the river whereas macaws flew overhead as we puttered two hours to our first campsite.

Days Of Discovery

I woke that first morning to search out our guides Bibi and Macais cooking up the small fish they managed to spear for us the night time earlier than. We arrange our hammocks at midnight that night time, noticed a small tree boa close by, and loaded up in canoes to observe our guides spearfish at midnight. Samir, our English-speaking information, defined that we might spend the morning fishing for piranha earlier than heading out to a lake deep within the jungle that, till two years in the past, didn’t exist on a map.

Fishing for piranha isn’t as laborious as one may suppose. Utilizing cane poles that Bibi and Macais carved out of normal outdated tree branches, attaching a fishing line and baited hook, all one has to do is slap the water with the tip of the pole. After two or three good slaps, you agitate the water and await these aggressive toothy monsters to take the bait.

At first, we seven adventurers had been afraid of the jungle, particularly as we arrange camp at the hours of darkness, imagining caimans and jaguars and fer-de-lance snakes lurking all over the place. By mid-day, I had eschewed a budget flip flops to wade barefoot alongside the shores to fish for piranha.

The remainder of our journey introduced us to Parica Lake, an enormous physique of water practically 100 miles from the Colombian border that was solely included on a map two years in the past, the place we spent a number of days with Mr. Jose, the final of the Katukina tribe to reside historically on the lake. We climbed acai bushes to assist harvest the berries, hiked via deep jungle to drink water from vines, and peer at jaguar prints within the mud, and on daily basis, we lured piranha to our bait.

To bathe, we jumped from the again of the boat into the lake solely to scramble out as quick as we might earlier than curious piranhas got here to nibble at no matter was making such a commotion. 

Mr. Jose instructed us tales about Brazilian myths and the way he killed a jaguar as we ate river fish in his giant hut, the partitions coated in silent, unmoving Brazilian wandering spiders. We rescued small little caimans from fishing nets and woke to the sounds of braying canine and the eerie roar of howler monkeys within the distance.

We realized to steadiness on half-submerged logs or dig holes within the jungle to alleviate ourselves, and after a number of days, even the nasty, unrelenting biting black flies weren’t as torturous as they as soon as had been.

I wore the identical garments for 3 days at a time, washing my underwear or bikini bottoms every day. The bundle of underwear I purchased in Maraa didn’t match, in order that they had been ineffective. Most days I used to be barefoot, my toes turning as dirt-caked and tough as our guides’ toes.

My hair lived in a ponytail and braid. My pores and skin was crusty with bug spray (a should within the Amazon!) and I smelled like one thing moldy and dank most days. In some ways, I used to be happier than if I had 10 days price of clothes and kit to fret about and lug round.

What I Didn’t Want

Inside a day or 2 of our Amazon journey, I felt surprisingly free. That acceptance that I needed to navigate this unusual and feral jungle with solely the barest of clothes and kit was virtually euphoric, and the reminiscence of all that technical, bug-treated clothes and photo voltaic chargers appeared laughably pointless. It’s humorous how an individual can adapt to what they don’t have, and, on the flip facet, recognize a lot the little they do have.

In these days, I reveled within the easy issues. The texture of freshly-river-cleaned socks and the very fact a minimum of one in every of us had bug spray took on the enjoyment akin to having a brand new automotive. It made the truth that I had simply ended a 26-year relationship, offered the home I had lived in for 17 years to maneuver to a small two-bedroom house, and beginning over not so unhappy or scary. In any case, if I might survive and luxuriate in 9 days within the Amazon with solely the naked requirements, I might survive this new chapter in my life too.

After we lastly returned to Manaus, soiled and exhausted, our baggage and kit had been ready for us on the airport… simply in time to fly house.

Professional Tip: All the time carry a minimum of one further change of garments and sneakers in addition to your obligatory medicines in your carry-on. If doable, don’t test a bag in any respect and plan to purchase objects like knives or bug spray whenever you attain your vacation spot. I’ll by no means once more test a bag on a global flight except I completely should. 

If You Go

I’m undecided I might suggest the tour operator we used. The entire expertise with him was shady and unorganized, and our tour guides relayed disappointing details about his firm, Amazon Deep Jungle Tours. I didn’t thoughts the haphazard group of the tour, however in the event you’re on the lookout for a strict itinerary and extra professionalism, this firm is probably not the one for you.

Nevertheless, in the event you do need to do a deep Amazon journey, there are different tour guides I might suggest, like Off Roads Travel, Southern Cross Tours and Expeditions, or Nat Geo Expeditions.

For extra rustic “survival-style” excursions, Joshua’s Amazon Expeditions additionally will get excessive opinions.