AMAZON 5000 Expedition Blog: September 2012

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

A short blog from Mickey Grosman: A TALE OF AN AMAZON FRUIT

Yesterday we found a fruit tree in the jungle, fruit I have never seen before. The indigenous collected the fruit and explained me that the locals use it as sun block (sunscreen)

My curiosity kicked in. My supply of sun block cream made in America is getting low and finding a natural remedy to protect my skin appealed to me. Dr. Wayne, My cancer doctor is watching me all the time looking carefully at my pictures I post to make sure I follow his orders: Nose face and ears must be protected with sun block at ALL TIME. My Melanoma cancer cells, if still developing in my body are hungry for food. I must prevent it…

So I wanted to test this remedy. A month ago while still up the Curaray River I have used natural clay as sun blocker. You take what mother Earth gives you when you are away from the nearest CVS.

Santa, a Peruvian guy who just joined my expedition team began preparing the mix. He squeezed the white juice first and then removed the white color gooey pulps out of it. Mixing it all well we have had now a nice white creamy paste. Santa smmired the paste carefully over my face, forehead and neck, in nice layers, perfect coding that suppose to provide me with protection from the sun.

Only 20 minutes to my facial treatment and I see all my Amazon 5000 indigenous team guys watching me and cracking up with huge laughter! What? What’s the story Delfin??? Delfin is my translator in situations where my Spanish is to no avail… No one, not Delfin can speak. They are holding their tummies so not to explode and laughing their lungs out. I look behind me. Is it something there that I don’t see that cause them to tear from laughter? No, they say and point their fingers at my face. I touch my face. Still feel creamy… remove my fingers and look at them. Oy Vey! IT’S ALL BLACK!

What? I must find a mirror and see what they see – but I quickly understand. They prank me…these busters! They knew this white fruit turn black in only 15 minutes. They are happy now big time like kids who prank their teacher. As for me….? this fruit, although a real sun block, actually stained the skin. My skin is now dyed black and will stay like that for at least two weeks. Luckily my beard is still reddish blond – my identity is saved!

And as for Delfin, Timothy, Santa, Nicky and the rest – revenge is coming your way guys… be aware!

On a small note…in only two days I am to meet Kyle Ver Steeg and Aaron Sheldrick who are flying from Minnesota and Iowa to the jungles of Peru only to join me aboard Amazon 5000 expedition. I am wondering….is this the man they are expecting to see?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Amazon 5000 improvised shipyard

It has been three days since we found the dugout canoe that was sent to us by the river current. All bitten up by the elements, all cracked open, missing its bow and stern, this once a beauty, looks like no more than a tree bark resembled a carved canoe. But to me this ship wreck looked like a yacht! It has had a long body and could fit us and our gear all, if we could just fix it somehow. Surrounded by deep swamps and rising water up to our necks I could not move the expedition forward. I had to use the river to keep east and for an unknown stretch of leg until I find a dry land again, and I had to keep going. Being in this lagoon for several days and in one spot was dangerous and I knew I will be better off if moving deeper into the jungle. It all motivated me to find a way to fix this beauty. So what did I have in my possession that could fix such? Looking for my survival gear that I carry through I pulled out of my backpacks all that could play a role in fixing this old lady canoe; Duct tape, paracord, hammer, handsaw, multitool, knives and machetes. Suddenly all this gear that me and my team carried all along proved to justify the backache we all suffered from.

We dragged the wrecked “once a canoe” to the shore rolling it over bamboo rails. With each push or pull she made crushing noises and seemed to totally fall apart. We needed to be focused and handle her with lots of care. Landing her finally on solid ground we started building nails using local wood to carve wood-nails Indian style. Cutting, assembling, duct taping; we worked for two days to put her all together again. What needed now was to seal her somehow. Here came handy again what nature provides - a method used by the Amazonian Indians throughout all generations; Clay! Excavating with our hands the reach mineral clay along the riverbank we stuffed this green thick paste first into the canoe cracks, and then covered the interior canoe, layer after layer, making sure we get a solid body of sealed surface.

Not only that we used the clay to seal the boat we also used it to seal our face skin from the exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays that beamed on us with no mercy. Looking as if we just spent a time at a cosmetic salon wearing a green mineral mask we made sure to capture this treatment method in our cameras. Do I look like a clown or like my dear wife in one of her beauty treatments…? Feeling protected as our grandmas always ordered and also as our cancer doctor does… we continued our job till we had a proud dugout canoe ready for us to jump in and continue the Amazon 5000 expedition. How many days will this improvised canoe hold? I still don’t know. For now it rocks! We all are in, our gear is in and we are heading southeast down the river deeper and deeper into the Peru’s jungle plains.

***One of the most common uses to the Amazonia clay is made by the parrots that lick it daily in order to clean their digestive system from poisoning elements exist in the fruit they eat.