Sitting and teaching in the middle of the Amazonian Forest near
the village of Rewa (current population 284) where the Rewa and Rupununi rivers
meet, Dicky, one of the part time managers of the local eco- lodge, stops our
conversation abruptly and puts a finger to his lips. Silence…… We halt talking
about the finer details of international sales and marketing and how to prepare
for higher gas prices in 2015.
Normal sight in the forest |
“ I smell the rains”, he says. “ It’s gonna be wet tonight”. Overhead, not a cloud
in the sky, the sun is relentlessly beating down on us. We don’t see, hear or
smell a thing. We don’t doubt him
though, we can’t, we have to believe him. We have learnt very quickly here that
the people who inhabit the rainforests and have lived here for generations,
know, smell and see things we can’t even begin to think of. As a result, they
are excellent guides; they have this uncanny ability to see or detect wildlife
before we even hear it, know where the fish are (do they love fishing) and spot
birds and monkeys in the trees, where we only see branches and leaves.
Riverside quiet |
Not so
long ago, some of them were poaching for a living but , now, most of them have
turned that habit around and provide their services to tourists who
want to see the giant anteater, the capybara, the spotted jaguar or the super
sized arapaima. The rain-forest is in their veins and, on many occasions, we have
been the lucky beneficiaries of their skills to detect animals, good and bad. When
one goes into the forest with a group of people, there is one guide up front
and one in the back. They both carry razor sharp machetes which they use to cut
the trail when necessary. The front-man
keeps an eye out for animals to spot (the good ones) and to chop (the bad ones).
The evil bushmaster (a snake with a notorious venomous bite) will be hacked to
pieces if it shows its heat seeking head; there is not a lot of patience here
for venomous snakes or other poisonous creatures. Living in tune with nature
also means killing for a living. The guide in the back is making sure there are
no attacks from the rear or straggling tourists. All alone or lost in the
forest is not a pleasant experience when you are more used to an urban jungle
with only Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts or Dominos Pizzas to contend with.
Rewa, the office |
There are of course those, who want to prove themselves in
spite of their upbringings in urban centers like London, Amsterdam or New York.
They can be serviced….. A Tour Operator here (aptly named Bushmasters) does
good business with his survival tours. For a considerable amount of money, he
preps you to survive in the jungle for 72 hours. The tour includes an
introduction into the forest, lessons on how to prepare your food (that you
have to catch yourself) and how to build a shelter against the rains. The tours
are organized during the rainy season, when mosquitoes and the dreadful
kabouras are ubiquitous and survival seems to be more fun. We spoke with a few of those survivors after
they returned from the forest and they sounded more relieved than happy to have
made it out. None of them had caught anything to eat and very few managed to
light a fire, which is pretty essential when you want to cook or want to keep
away the biting insects at night. 72
Hours in the rain forest without a proper lifelong preparation turned out to be
no easy feat, even for the most hardened and prepared European or American die
hard camper.
On the river to Rewa Eco Lodge |
Ask the contestants of “Naked and Afraid”. We were not
familiar with this nature-reality show but it seems to get high ratings in the
States and is currently, we believe, in its fourth season. The show features a man and a woman, who,
having never met before, are supposed to live in the wild for a number of weeks
only using their survival skills, whatever those are. The fact that they have
to be naked seems to add to the excitement. The Rupununi is a good place to
shoot this show because the wild rain forests are (relatively) easy reachable
and the film crews can set themselves up not too far from where the real action
is supposed to take place. We visited a few of the places, which were used as a
base for the production of the show (Saddle Mountain and Surama). When the
contestants arrive on site, they are, by contract, not allowed to talk with the
local Amerindians, who would very easily make it through the whole series
without batting an eyelid and could offer good survival advice. That wouldn’t
be too exciting though now would it…..
River otters seen at the Rewa Eco Lodge |
It seems that the
first contestant made it for 48 hours in the forest, after which a new victim
had to be shipped in quickly. What happened to the other contestants we do not
know but, when we heard the stories from the locals, they were highly surprised
that this was even a contest. For them it is still daily life and they really
do not have any issues with living in and off the forest. Although they are
used to some of our luxuries and comforts, the rainforest is still the place
they call home and where they farm and live, without even realizing other
tribes (like us) see it as an extraordinary form of survival. Go figure.
As it's always been |
So, Dicky, the manager of the Rewa Eco Lodge, was right of
course; that night it was raining cats and dogs, which brought out the
mosquitoes and the bêtes rouges, but that’s another story, which we are itching
to talk about another time.
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