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Published: July 30th 2008
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Amazon 3.0 -- Part 6 -- Culebra
July 1-6 Tepuis and Mountains It rained all night. With the first morning light I could make out the main features of the area - the 1700 meter high
tepui Huachamacare across the Rio Cunucunama and the 2890 meter peak of Marahuaca in the distance behind the Culebra camp. Usually partially shrouded in mist or clouds, sometimes with a cloud layer clinging to the roofs of the tepuis, it is easy to imagine, as did Conan Doyle in
The Lost World, that creatures from the world’s distant past still live there.
Encampeamento Culebra Culebra camp is about twenty minutes upriver from the village of Culebra - twenty minutes by bongo blasting up the rapids if Francisco is running it, longer if someone more timid is at the helm. There is no trail connecting the village and the camp, the river is the only route. Francisco is a village elder. His son is a school teacher in the village. The Culebra camp was developed by Francisco and he was with us on Iguana from the day we left Samariapo.
When we were on Iguana, Francisco was talking about some
Amazon foods and I told him about how close I had come to either eating monkey or possibly offending my hosts in the Peruvian Amazon in 1982. From that day on Francisco would rib me about monkey, joking that he would hunt one down and serve it to me, showing me how to suck the brain out of its skull. Fortunately he was joking.
Close-ups Until now we had been on a boat the entire trip and my tripod and macro lens lay unused. Now on land I broke them out for some macro photography. The leaf-cutting ants that marched along their trails throughout the camp were a good subject. And an important one: these ants can fairly quickly destroy anything one might plant and are one reason that agriculture and horticulture in this region of seemingly luxuriant vegetation are so difficult.
Problems Four other travelers were to join us at Culebra, flying by small plane to the village airstrip. Lucho brought the radio from Iguana for any necessary communication, and there was far more of it than envisioned. In this frontier area Lucho had to secure permission of the
Guardia Nacional and of local communities
for everyplace we entered. The Army, however, whose major enemy seems to be the Guardia Nacional at times, claims the authority to deny entry permission or even to override permission granted by the Guardia. And they did. The pilot who was to bring the four travelers to Culebra was denied permission to land there with tourists aboard. It did not matter that three of the tourists are Venezuelans and that the fourth is a diplomat stationed at the Finnish embassy in Caracas and travelling on a diplomatic passport.
The Army did permit them to land at Esmeralda, several hours up the Orinoco from the mouth of the Cunucunama. Lucho then had to arrange transportation by fast boats from Esmeralda to Culebra. With all the back-and-forth over landing permissions it was late in the day when they landed in Esmeralda, so they were taken to Iguana for the night. There were several motor breakdowns the next day and they arrived at the camp very late and very wet.
Hikes Lucho said there were several trails in the region. One started at the village of Culebra and ascended to a waterfall on the side of the mountain. Now I
Before the Hike
When your guide has to sharpen his machette you know it is going to be a tough hike. realize that when the first thing the guides do at the start of a trail is sharpen their machetes it is going to be a tough hike. It started easily enough - across a grassy plain then through a few areas that villagers had cleared to plant manioc, yucca, and other things, including pineapple. But the trail soon narrowed and steepened. With the jungle closing in on both sides the hot humid air seemed stagnant - certainly there was no breeze to keep the heat down. And the insects came after us. At least my glasses kept the sweat-seeking bees out of my eyes.
Too steep and hot for me. Harrison, Lucho, Natalia and the kids went on, Nilo guided me back to the village. While waiting for Francisco to bongo us back to the camp I met Francisco's son, the teacher, and watched some of the village kids kick a soccer ball around.
The other hike started farther downriver, well past the village. It was just as thick and steep as the first one, but shorter. And muddier. The monopod in my day bag was there to stabilize the camera, but spent more time stabilizing me. We arrived
at a delightful small waterfall on a peaceful stream. It was not, however, the end of the trail. But it was for me - photo ops galore. I stayed there while the others crossed the stream and hiked a bit farther up.
Kayaking With heavy rain every night the Cunucuma rose about a meter in the time we were there. And it was running fast. Great conditions for a little kayaking. There were three sit-on-top type of kayaks at the camp. And this is not the Pacific Northwest - wetsuits are not needed. There may be plenty of things to be cautious about - hitting rocks, anacondas (Culebra means serpent), caimans, etc., but not hyperthermia. Still, with my shortened esophagus I can't be upside down, so I opted to ride in the bongo and photograph the kayakers.
Nilo took Harrison and Lucho took Jose - one of the four who had just joined us. None of the other travelers wanted to kayak so Natalia took Kamil. Lucho and Jose were the first to flip over. Before we could pull them into the bongo Natalia and Kamil flipped. Kamil was sitting on the upside-down kayak which had caught in
The Bongo Ride Back
The new travellers may prefer the volador, but we are obviously comfortable with the bongo. some trees on the side of the river. Natalia was swept downriver pretty rapidly. Still we managed to collect all of them, along with kayaks and paddles. Within a few minutes of being pulled into the bongo Kamil wanted to get back on the kayak and was soon paddling with Lucho. Only Nilo and Harrison avoided capsizing.
Returning to Iguana Due to the army-induced permission problem we were one day off the original schedule. As we started to load gear into the bongo, one of the new travelers refused to ride in it, claiming it was terribly overloaded. Another delay as Lucho managed to borrow a volador from Culebra. So we set off downriver with two boats. The new travllers went in the volador, we now old-river-rats had more confidence in the weight and stability of the bongo. The only stop was in Guarinuma, where the problem outboard had been left. Lucho and crew were the entertainment for the village children that day as they switched motors and fuel barrels around. The camp was a delight, but Iguana was a welcome sight.
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