So, we took off north in the rain, and made it about 50 kilometers before it stopped and the sun and humidity came out. We ended up filling our tanks just outside of the reservation. While in the reservation, Ted and I had pulled up ahead of Cristi and pulled over to wait for her. They tell you never to stop in the Indigenous Reservation north of Manaus, but they have never told us why. We figured they were just telling us that there was no gas or amenities there.
Cristi finally came up to us, we took out some sausage and crackers for lunch, and Ted used the jungle facilities. I was joking to Cristi while Ted was position up against a tropical bush, and told her that he will probably get a blow needle soaked in poison shot into his neck while he was over there. Luckily for Ted, but unfortunately for the aesthetic uniqueness of my blog writings, that did not happen. So we continued on.
Up the road, there was a guy on a scooter waving us down. So we stopped and he ended up being from Colombia and on a similar trip as us. His key was broken off in his panel and he could not get it out. He seemed to be very worried. We flagged a pick-up over and the nice gentleman inside took the guy and his scooter to town 100 kilometers up the road. So we continued on, happy and hot, watching the 4 foot lizard that looked like an alligator run out in front of the bike as the parrots cawed in the background of the dense forest.
Towards the very end of the reservation, we came upon another traveler. He was from Brasil and had traveled up to Alaska and all the way back through South America to Ushuaia. A really nice guy and his Spanish was perfect, so we were actually able to communicate with him. We told him about the guy on the scooter and about stopping for lunch, and then his jaw dropped, with eyes wide open. Perplexed at his expression, we asked why. He then went on to explain to us why they tell you not to stop in the reservation. It turns out that the Indigenous people of this reservation like guns, and they also like to kill people that stop on their land. We thought the guy with the shot gun just before we entered the reserve was going duck hunting...oh we are such ignorant tourists. So I was wrong, they would never of shot Ted with a blow gun...they would have just blown his head off with a rifle!
I guess we were pretty lucky, so we said our goodbye to another traveler and headed north to the equator. It was a funny line, about 20 feet off the actual GPS location of 0 degrees, with a hockey stick posted on the side. We took pictures anyways, and then headed north to a nice town with a hotel to camp out for the night.
Over all, the boat did not sink, we had enough gas to make it through, and we were not shot. I consider it a successful day.
Interesting birds, they looked like half flamingo and half vulture, north of the reservation.
A little closer to home.
