7-9-2012: Constant rain out poured all night and the river we camped next to rose almost 20 ft. If it would have risen up another 10 ft we would have all been washed away along with our gear. We trekked a little down river until we came to a vast forest of balsa trees. I decided this would be a good location for us to construct our raft to help us get through this vast swampy terrain. Balsa wood is some of the lightest wood on the planet. It is also the faster growing tree in the jungle. In Spanish, balsa literally means raft. We started by chopping down six of the biggest balsa trees we could find. This took some time; we started this whole process at about 09:00. After we cut down all the trees we needed we sectioned off its branches so we would have just the straightest part of the trunks. We then remove the bark from the trunks; this makes the balsa logs more than 30% lighter. This in turn adds to their buoyancy.
While we were stripping the bark, I found a huge snail! It was much larger than my hand! The indigenous explained to me how this is really good for eating and how great of a find it is. The snail has a big green shell and large orange slimy body. It was very interesting and a neat discovery here in the jungle.
After we stripped all of the logs of their bark, we used the bark as a slide to help us get the logs to the river. We flattened out the bark and rolled the logs over it, one by one. The inside of the bark is very slippery and made the job much easier. Once we had all the logs in the river, we floated them all together and organized them to begin our building process. We started by cutting out harder tree that grows near by the shoreline, sharpening it onto wood nails and pegging 4 wood nails in a crisscross method on each balsa log over a center pole for stability. Repeating these nails installation on both ends of the raft, we wrapped it around in several layers using our climbing rope for additional stability. We do not know what kind of rapids or obstacles may turn up down the river. We lashed everything together very tightly as it must be as strong as possible since it must carry six people and our gear, weighing over 1000 pounds!
With the raft now completed we loaded all the backpacks and did a quick float test. It seemed stable, however I decided we should add another two balsa logs on the outside for stability. At this time it was 15:00, it took us a total of six hours to build this monster raft! Everyone hopped in the raft and we were off down the river. The raft was very stable and held up nicely as we cruised through calm water for the first few minutes steering her with a bamboo poles we all cut in advance. Very soon we came up to our first rapid. We cruised through it quickly as I yelled directions at the guys while they navigated the raft with much reliability.
Born and raised in the tropics of the Amazon by river banks my indigenous support team was now in their comfort zone. Finally! They know the river and they love it! I was very impressed with the raft and knew it was not going to have any problems.
We rode the balsa raft down the river for another few miles before I decided it was time to stop and camp for the night. We pulled over to the side of the river and unloaded. We quickly set up our camp and ate a nice dinner. It is about 19:00 now and we are all getting ready for bed.
7-10-2012: Wake up, wake up! Move faster, rapido! Shouting orders quickly I tried to save the day. Wow! We got a nice surprise this morning at exactly 05:00! But it all started with us setting up camp last evening and parking our shiny new balsa raft at the river bank using two braided strands of 550 paracord to anchor it down to a tree base. The raft has been anchored strong! I recall seeing my indigenous support team as they began prepare camp less than 5 ft away from the river and only at elevation of 3 ft above it. I knew this was a bad idea and was breaking my number one rule right there, right then. However the indigenous swore up and down that this was the dry season and since it did not rain much during the day we did not have to worry about the river flooding. Wishing to put a trust in them as they are the indigenous River people of the Amazon region I went against my better judgment and we set up the camp in their original position.
It started pouring buckets of rain at 20:00 last night! I woke up again at midnight to checked the river to make sure it was not rising since it was still raining very hard, it had risen maybe six inches. This was completely normal and nothing alarming. I talked with the indigenous and they said it was okay and that we were high enough above the water and did not need to pack and prepare to move. I knew this was a bad idea but for some reason I made the mistake of listening to them and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 03:00 to check the river, it was still raining fairly hard, but less than it was before. It was pitch dark by the river and the river was humming. Aimed with my Princeton tech head lamp I glazed into the water. It has now risen a foot. I knew in my head, and I cannot believe I did not listen to my guts, that we needed to prepare to move. I just had the feeling that things will go wrong from this point. I talked to Delfin again, he said he could not sleep and was going to stay up and keep watch. I thought okay, he’s going to watch, he says "the river act normal and all is okay", so I went back to sleep.
I still had the bad feeling, my guts tried telling me something…. and I ignored it like an “Ahabal” (idiot). I fell asleep shortly and the next thing I knew was waking up by the screams of Augusto! He was yelling frantically. I didn’t have much time to think as as soon as my eyes opened a wave of water rushed over my tent rapidly. I was immediately wide awake and sprung into action grabbing all the electronics stored nightly in my tent and hanging them in the trees. It was still pouring rain at this time so everything around was soaked. There was no high ground to be seen so we had no other choice but to pack everything into anything and get on the balsa raft to escape with our lives!
This thought process took place over a 60 second period. During this time I realized Matt Saxman was nowhere to be seen, I thought what the heck!? Where could he be at a time like this!? Was he swept into the water? I yelled his name and heard a strange mumble coming from inside his bevy tent which was submerged in about six inches of water. I was absolutely shocked! I could not believe it! Everyone was up and frantically trying to save all the gear and especially our lives and this guy was sound asleep, in the water, probably feeling like rocking in his mommy’s womb. I screamed at him to get up quickly and moving and shouted his way that we were in a flash flood.
Disconnected from reality Matt slowly got out of his tent and then it hit him. He finally realized what was going on and he hopped into action, but not too fast. It was obvious he is confuse and not made out of first responders’ material. He grabbed some electronics hung them in a tree and stood there. I urged him to quickly get into filming. "Capture the moment!" I yelled. The other camera men were collecting our gear and hanging it up on the trees and salvaging everything possible. Matt was the only one who did not initiate any rescue. “Aim the video cam and shoot” I yelled. It was not time for babysitting this grownup. “I was sure you all were playing a prank on me” Matt said later. “That’s why I acted slow…” Endless excuses this guy has. I am not impressed any more with his excuses and white lies. It might work at the classroom facing his teacher, but not here, not in an emergency situation. When it’s time for action no excuse can excuse you!
I continued to grab anything and everything I could find, all of my thousands of dollars of gear were floating by me headed off down the river! The other guys were scattered around grabbing everything as well! Delfin went to try and get the raft. We needed to move it closer to us since the river was so high. He was not able to move it since we tied it down so well with braided strands of 550 paracord. We had to walk in raging current up to our necks, but were still too far away from the raft, we had no other option but to swim for it. We all had our adrenaline rush which helped at that point. We all loaded up our gear and ourselves on the raft and just as we were up it started to sink due to the strong current and our anchor line pulling it down. We had to cut the line quickly or lose the raft. Bartelo, one of my guys was still in the water a little away from the raft, the second we cut the line the raft popped up wildly from its submersion and began breaking the trees holding it back from rolling down the raging river. These trees gave Bartelo the extra seconds he needed to get on the raft or he would have been stranded! Once on the raft the situation got even more dangerous!
We were now in fast moving rapid water in pitch black darkness with giant trees raging down the river alongside with us threatening to crash into our raft. This was no place to be on a jungle built balsa raft! The rapids, fueled by rains and by steep descents of the Andes, were intense, and the raft propelled over tumbled tree trunks and around giant rocks with grinding roar aiming to drown us as we all hollered to hold on. We navigated around river bank trees, giant Bamboo logs, and the massive waves of the rolling river. It was not the right time for whitewater rafting but we were trapped stranded on a makeshift balsa raft and needed to survive this ordeal. The trees along the river bank were very dangerous! Each one we went through tried to sweep us off the raft like dust on a door mat. The river waves reached two feet high and were rolling over us and the gear. We even had to navigate around other broken boats. We ran into and rolled over several busted up dugout canoes. I was amazed and very impressed to see that the balsa raft could stand up to these extreme and unforgiving conditions!
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