7-1-2012: We have now been walking more than 11 days crossing the Eastern Andes at the Sumaco National Park looking for the foothills of Volcano Sumaco. We are now going downhill towards San Jose de Payamino. We have been trekking through dense, dense, dense vegetation. We are soaked from head to toe and are still very cold! We are also covered in mud due to the loose ground. What I am describing here is nothing compared to reality, the conditions are so incredibly miserable and tough that there is no word to describe it. I seek for another word that is worse than hell to describe how miserable the situation we are in is. We are also very hungry! We have no energy from no food and the long cold sleepless nights. Worst of all there is no way to make a fire since everything is so wet. We are trapped at the point of no return with only one way to go, forward. We must continue towards Sumaco. The indigenous quit on me a couple of days ago, but they have had no other choice but to continue along side of me. Their options are to continue with me or risk their life going alone, as they are now not certain of the way back. So we are together again for bad or good despite our disagreements of few days ago. It was defiantly a clash between two worlds, between modern technology world and old tradition of “father to son” methods of the jungle world. Being caught in the tangled mountains at cold weather and high elevation, my indigenous support team – Indians from the tropical flat Amazon jungle, have lost trust in the satellite communication devices I carry. They got panicked as they realized we cannot follow the directions our GPS devices suggest. The high elevation mountains have basically blocked us. The deep gorges surrounded us, rapid rivers beneath us, winds and downpours above us, and the life threaten situation has become obvious! They insisted to navigate their way, the only way they know, thought by father to son. With much respect I let them do it. I had to give them the confident that I trust them. I know them for many years and witnessed their great navigation skills at their tropical jungle of flat land. Could they suggest a way to penetrate these mountains?
No, they couldn’t. These high elevation mountains are not their typical land and the survival codes here are far from the ones they know. Leading us blindly they pulled west rather east with no way to recover. It was Sunday afternoon when we descended half way a 3000 meter mountain and found ourselves in a lower valley locked in between deep gorges. I have ordered a retreat to Friday’s camp so we can head east from there. The mutiny became now obvious. They refused to climb up back to the mountain ridge we just left 2 days ago. I didn’t blame them. That is a tough terrain! Add to it the constant rain, low temperatures and high gusting winds, none of us could adjust to the cold climate. It hurt our bodies and kill our spirits. We are heading back to Friday’s camp! We must find our way to the lower tropics soon!
Norma, one of my indigenous videographers, is very sick with a high fever. She is constantly shaking and can barely move. She seems to suffer from dehydration and we treat her with fever reducers and with jungle “Shamanic” methods she is accustomed to. It is so cold and raining all the time and people forget to maintain hydration. This can be fatal for her if not dealt with immediately. I encourage my expedition team to push forward rapidly so to get to a point where I can evacuate her. Nixon, one of my other indigenous videographers, has severely injured his ankle. These illnesses have really slowed us down and prolonged our descent back to warmth at a low elevation. I have injured my knee and ribs badly, every step is a struggle for me at this point but we must continue. There is no trail, and each inch must be opened by machete. We are constantly fighting off saw grass, as it cuts every exposed inch of our body. Our faces, wrists, and especially our hands are covered in cuts and scrapes. There is also other thorny vegetation that we sometimes grab by reflex as we slip in the mud. Every person falls almost every other step, it is impossible to count how many times a day we all fall since the number is so high.
All of us feel that this Cloud-forest jungle wants to kills us and keep us here. Everything is holding us back and trying to keep us from moving forward. I feel like this place wants to keep me here forever! I am constantly tangled in webbing bamboo, and it is always trying to pull me down to the ground. Another dangerous part to this is that everything the indigenous cut with the machete is at an angle, making it like a spear sticking out of the ground. It is like the bamboo traps from Vietnam War! I have almost been impaled by the bamboo spears several times, one time it would have gone through my shoulder if it weren’t for my backpack strap deflecting the blow. We have had to cross several rivers that are rushing rapids! Very dangerous, they rise very high from all the constant rain. Some of them are rushing so powerfully that we cannot even maintain our footing, we have to hold on to a rope and pull ourselves across as our bodies are dragged through the water.
Yesterday, Matt had a mental break down. He has injured his ankle and has become the slowest of all of us. He fell further behind than usual and when he finally caught up he told me he was crying because it is so tough! He said he hasn’t cried like that in at least ten years. He is exhausted from this extreme and difficult terrain. To top all this off we are all still carrying our 50lb packs. All these packs have our state of the art tech equipment, for satellite communication. We haven’t been able to use these communication devises for the last few days due to the dense canopy. The signals are not able to penetrate through the canopies and other over head vegetation. Some of the trees here are over 200 ft tall with incredibly thick canopies, so if the rain ever does let up which it only has once or twice, there is no way for us to charge our electronic equipment. All of our batteries are charge by solar, and since we have no sun, we have no power. This place really wants to get the best of us and is doing its best to make us quit, however I will not quit! I will push everyone to keep going on and make it through this hell! This is my Amazon 5000 expedition, and I am here to make the Impossible Possible!
