6 days, 21 hours on canoe, 4 communities, 22 alligators

We just got back from a pretty epic trip up and back on the Maniqui River. The end of the trip was a surreal experience.

Day 1

The beginning of the trip got off to a rough start. We were supposed to leave Friday on a 6 or so day trip to visit some communities upriver to decide on a final upriver community in which to work. However, after we bought all of our supplies Thursday and were packed and set to go, we woke up on Friday morning at 4:30 am to a thunderstorm with torrential rain. The room we rent doesn't have glass panes on the windows, only netting and curtains, so when we awoke the rain was coming in the room and even reaching us on the bed by the wall on the other side. We jumped out of bed and moved our stuff out of the rain and duct taped the curtains to the wall, which helped a little, and went back to sleep. When we woke to our alarm at 7 am, we didn't think we had a good chance of leaving that day because of the weather. In the lowlands of Bolivia, where most of the roads are dirt, anytime a very heavy rainfall occurs, things turn to mud and all of the secondary roads become impassable. This is all of our stuff for the trip - two packs, a food sack, a Lifesaver jerrycan water filter, and 11 liters of gasoline.

Day 2

It continued to rain on and off on Friday, but the trip organizer thought we could leave Saturday. We repacked everything and loaded it into a taxi to take us to Puerto Arenales, a Tsimane community, that is the launching point to the Maniqui River. When we arrived (in the rain), the road to the river was impassable, and the conditions were worsening. We left our equipment in a little tienda (store) by the side of the road so we wouldn't have to bring it back again the following day. The translators (and mostly us) seem relieved not to have to travel on a canoe in the cold rain)...

Day 3

On Sunday, we arrived at 10 am to the tienda and walked all of our equipment down to the river (about a 15-20 minute walk one way). It took the whole group 3 or 4 round trips carrying heavy bags and boxes on a muddy road in a slow, cold drizzle. When we got all of our bags loaded onto the canoe and departed, it was 2:30 pm. We traveled by peke peke, which is a small motor, on the back of the canoe. Since Bolivia is close to the equator, the days stay about 12 hours long all year round, which meant that we only had until 6:30 when it gets dark.

Kelly standing in the rain, waiting to get on the canoe at Puerto Arenales. She looks warmer than she is.

Asher and Kelly finally on the canoe:

When it started raining, the rest of the group covered up:

A little after 6pm, we arrived in a community where Asher worked in the summer of 2010 during an NSF field school in anthropology methods and where CBIDSI has a project house with 10 beds. The only problem was that the house was locked, and no one in the community had the key. Two of the translators/field assistants proceeded to go at the lock with a machete for about 10 minutes before the lock finally yielded and broke off to everyone's delight. Everyone quickly set up their mosquito nets and beds, and then we started a fire to boil some water and enjoy tea with plain bread. It was cold, so everyone went to sleep around 9 pm that night.

Day 4

We woke up around 7 am, after a nice 10 hours of slumber, broke down camp, and packed up. There was a bit of confusion as to who was going to be the translator traveling with us when we left the big group. Before we left San Borja, we were told that we'd meet him (Renato) in Santa Maria, but when Asher brought this up with the trip leader, she told him that she thought it was a different person, by the same name, in the next community upriver. Just before we left Santa Maria, the trip leader, Esther, asked Asher again who was supposed to accompany us upriver as one of the old translators (Rosendo) from the field school was standing by the canoe talking to Esther. Since we were splitting from the group and going off on our own, it was important to get this detail right, but things kind of just happen here. After replying again that Asher thought we were supposed to be working with Renato, Esther said that Rosendo said that he was contacted about accompanying us, but he conveniently waited to bring this up until we were already packed up on the canoe and ready to go. We negotiated the rest of the details, like his salary quickly, but the one detail that was giving us a bit of pause was that Kelly and Asher only brought 11 liters of gasoline (per directions) with them and Rosendo, who owns his own peke peke, didn't have gasoline that could make it up to the Anachere, the farthest community we were heading to on that amount of gasoline (not to mention the return trip). So we decided that he would hop aboard the big canoe, and we would ride up together, and then try to find a canoe going back downriver when we were done visiting the communities. In 15 minutes he was on the boats with some supplies, and we were off again.

Luckily, on the 3rd day, the sun started to shine a little behind clouds, so the canoe ride was pleasant. The sun brought out all sorts of wildlife, which was awesome to see, including 8 alligators. Kelly kept close count of all the alligators we saw, and pointed out each time that this was the reason she insisted on buying the shower bag instead of bathing in the river.

Asher had never been beyond Santa Maria (4 hours on motorized canoe), so all of the sights from that community on were pretty incredible to see. We passed 4 communities while on the canoe for 6.5 hours. At each community, we saw lots of Tsimane' on their canoes in the water, cleaning dishes, washing plates, gutting fish, and fetching water.

The long canoe ride was very conducive to having a long conversation/interview with the school teacher of the farthest community, Cuchisama (3 days upriver), which is where the rest of the group was going. The profe gave Asher some great insights into the lifestyle and diet of the more distant communities that are more traditional.

We arrived in In'anare, one of the 3 communities Asher was visiting as a potential fieldsite, at 6 pm, and met the teacher from the community, who is from San Borja and let us stay in the school. We, again, quickly rearranged the school, set up the mosquito nets, therma-rests, and sleeping bags, and then got to dinner. The profe gave us smoked fish to enjoy with some pasta that we cooked. After talking a bit about potentially meeting back up with him to head back to San Borja, we went to sleep. Again, it was a cold night.

Day 5

We woke at 6:30 am, and after a quick breakfast, found out that Esther was negotiating on our behalf to get us a ride back to San Borja. Since the profe from In'anare was getting a ride back to San Borja from his neighbor, we arranged for his neighbor to come pick us up the following day at Anachere (2 more hours upriver from In'anare) at 9 am. We would then to stop in a community in between and reach Inanare at noon to pick up the profe and head back to San Borja.

We got on the Maniqui by 9 am, it was a beautiful day, sunny and by 11 am we were in Anachere. The view of the river at Anachere:

The rest of the group helped us bring our things up to the school where again we were greeted by the sight and smell of freshly smoked fish by the profe in Anachere. The sun was shining - the first hint of warmth in a few days.

We put our stuff down, ate lunch, and snapped a few photos. Inside the small school house in Anachere:

The rest of the group bade us adieu and then departed for another 6 hours in canoe to the farthest community upriver.

We unpacked our things in a small house (behind us in the previous photo) that the profe let us stay in for the night, and then we went on a sobaqui, or visit. We visited with several families in the community including one abuelo, one of the eldest surviving Tsimane' who still dons traditional clothing (a long white shirt that goes all the way to his shins) although this was supplemented with a Columbia jacket.

Surrounding his house were tons of fruit trees, including grapefruit, mango, papaya, and orange. He also had dozens of pineapples growing. It was pretty clear he still uses a very traditional hydration strategy to meet his water needs - through lots of fruits.

We walked to the beach to cross the river after interviewing him. As you travel further upriver, the water becomes clearer as there are more rocks in the river which keep the soil from creating a lot of turbidity and less suspended solids in the water. Apparently in Cuchisama, the water is almost completely clear. At Anachere the water is clearer, but not quite at the level of Cuchisama.

We visited several other families, held a couple of interviews, and discussed the possibility of working in this community long term to which all of the families were very eager to have us.

While visiting one family who had a very old lemon tree with huge lemons, we saw 3 children using the lemons for water. In Bolivia they say chupar, which means to suck, to describe sucking on a grapefruit or orange to get the water and juice out. In Tsimane' that word is chuneja (choo-ne-ha). Interestingly during several interviews about hydration, many participants have stated that fruits are more hydrating than water. If you want to know more about this, you'll have to read Asher's dissertation ;).

Around 6 pm we started dinner and made a delicious quinoa based soup with onions, potatoes, carrots, green beans, pasta, and of course, beef spam. A group of small children were gathered around us as we were preparing dinner. They were fascinated by the vegetable peeler and also the water filter and followed us around as we made dinner. Kelly said she never felt so privileged in her life eating spam soup.

We were in bed by 8:30 pm.

Day 6

We awoke at 3:30 am to the sound of dogs fighting on and off for an hour or two. We got up a couple of hours later, boiled some water, and had delicious Avena instant oatmeal for breakfast with some NesCafe coffee (breakfast of champions). We broke down our camp for the 5th day in a row, and then negotiated the price of building a house in the community with a couple of the leaders of the community. We came to an agreement of 3,000 bolivianos for the house, 3 days time to build it, 5 workers, 60-70 bs/day per worker. By 9 am we were on the river bank waiting for our ride, which didn't end up showing up till 11 am. In the meantime, Rosendo gave us a lesson in Tsimane' and taught us several phrases and words.

By noon, we were back in In'anare. We waited for an hour for the profe, Javier, and the neighbor Cecilio from In'anare to get ready. We already thought we'd be cutting it pretty close because everyone has told us that you really should not be on the river after 7 pm at the latest because when it gets dark you can't see many of the sunken trees and logs (palos) that you can crash into and tip you over. We heard one story the day before from a man who told us that his wife died in March when her canoe hit a big palo at 8 pm at night and sadly she drowned (a child was navigating as the adults were all drunk and drinking).

Just as we set off, Rosendo asked if he could stop in the next community down to see his wife and kids.  We were tight for time, but how can you say no to someone who hasn't seen their family in a little while. After 30 minutes, we were back on the boat and making good time moving with the river (travel takes about half the time to go downriver as it does upriver). We spotted 14 more alligators, including this guy:

Two hours later, around 4 pm, Cecilio tells us that he's out of motor oil. We proceed to stop at a few houses along the river and ask if we can buy or have some oil with no success. We then stop at Yaranda, where the profe disembarks and goes off on foot, while we continue to travel on canoe for 25 minutes. Kelly and Asher were both kind of dumfounded. We knew that the river meanders a lot, but it seemed like a stretch that he could meet up with us. Fortunately though, we only had to wait about 5 minutes once we stopped at the agreed upon location right around 5 pm when the Profe showed up with a half liter of motor oil that he was able to buy in the community for 20 bs (quite the surcharge).

At this time, we ran into a commerciante, a river trader who travels up the Maniqui going to communities to trade market items and foods, like cooking oil, charqui, and sodas for jatata, a palm thatch from the forest used in roofs:

The commerciante was traveling with two Tsimane' from Santa Maria, where we were dropping our translator off. The two men boarded our canoe with a bottle of grain alcohol that they had been drinking. Even our navigator partook in the drinking.

We were not too pleased about this, but we dropped them off just as the sun was setting an hour later. We still had about 2 hours or more to go in good conditions, but as it was getting dark, we had to go much slower. The Profe sat in the front of the canoe and was the lookout, while the navigator watched him for signals.

The next 3 hours traveling on the canoe were a mixture of emotions. Exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating, amazing, frightening, and very chilly. By 7 pm it was dark, and we had to use flashlights to navigate. The Profe stood at the healm of the canoe and vigilantly examined the water for the sunken trees and logs as well as sand banks. Several times he feverishly signaled to the navigator by quick flicks of the wrist that a log was ahead, to the right, or to slow down. We had been traveling all day, sitting on little wood tablets, and we were unsure of our navigator's mental state so we were appropriately on edge especially after the stories we'd heard. We were ready at any moment to hit a log and swim for the nearest bank, not the funnest idea in the cold... dark... Amazon. We had a few close calls. Once we hit a small log and the canoe started tipping, but the navigator slowed the canoe down enough to avoid tipping. Three other times we got stuck on a sand bank and were able to dislodge by shaking the boat and using the motor. We ran out of gas around 8 pm. As the navigator was refilling the gas tank, we turned off all the flashlights and looked at the sky. It was one of the most incredible sights. An infinite amount of stars were visible, Mars was brightly red, and the Milky Way seemed like a cloud above us. It was awe-inspiring to say the least.

Once the navigator filled up the gas tank, we were moving again and by 9 pm we had finally reached Puerto Arenales, just 21 canoe hours later over four days. Yet, one more challenge remained. No one knew we were getting back, so we didn't have a ride to pick us up. We went to a house, borrowed a phone, and called up our trusty cab driver Don Choclo, who is straight out of a comic book. He has chattering silver teeth and will drop anything and come get you. San Borja is about an hour away from Arenales and within an hour Don Choclo was there to take us back to San Borja. By midnight or so we were back. It seems kind of crazy, that you can start out so far upriver and on the same day be back in San Borja. After a whole day of traveling on a canoe - some of it in pretty bad conditions - we were so excited to discover that the HOT WATER in the shower was working at our house in San Borja.