Chapter 11: The morning after
Karl slowly opens his eyes as he feels a cool breeze gently wafting across his face. Tilting his head back, he sees a woman fanning him with a giant leaf.
“Am I in heaven?” Karl asks in confusion. The woman smiles, not understanding a word he has said, and walks out of the hut. Karl looks over to where Emilio is sleeping, snoring loudly with his mouth wide open. Karl sits up abruptly as reality dawns.
“Oh God, I’m not dead. It’s worse, I’m still in the land that time forgot!”
An immense pain floods through his head. As he puts his hand to his brow Valencia walks into the hut.
“You poisoned us!” Karl groans.
“It’s just a mild hallucinogenic.” Valencia laughs.
“Mild! Mild! My fringing ass that stuff is mild, it knocked us the fuck out! I threw up a week's worth of burritos.”
“I must admit you boys did react unusually to it.”
“Unusually! I was tripping my balls off”
“Relax, you’re ok! There is nothing to worry about. In fact, I think the tribe are enjoying you guys being around.”
“Oh great, yeah, get the stupid boys high on drugs, let’s laugh as they stagger around like performing monkeys losing their minds.”
Emilio stirs at the sound of their voices.
“What happened? How long have I been asleep?”
“You guys have been out for 18 hours.” Valencia smiles.
Karl watches as his friend grabs his head, mirroring his own pain.
“Emilio, did you have any vivid nightmares?”
“Yeah, it felt so real! I mean I’ve never experienced anything like it, what a rush.”
Karl shakes his head in dissatisfaction at his friend’s endless exuberance and enjoyment of everything.
“You’re telling me you’re cool with this horse crap! These people were trying to fry our brains!”
Emilio reaches across and places his hand on his pal's shoulder and smiles wickedly.
“Karl buddy, I don’t think you have anything in there that’s not already fried.”
Karl pushes Emilio’s hand away with disapproval.
“Shut up, Emilio. What the hell are we doing here? We don’t belong here and you know it. This Amazon detour was supposed to last one day. This is our third. I’ve been shot at, nearly eaten by a frickin river shark and drugged by a bunch of cannibals.”
Valencia, although amused by Karl’s rant, gives jesting daggers in his direction. Seeing Valencia’s piercing look, he quickly tries to backtrack and rectify his comment.
“Ok, maybe not cannibals, but definitely witch doctors.”
Emilio focuses in front of him for a moment, staring at the far wall as he pulls his arm across his chest, stretching his shoulder muscle.
“Yeah, we should crack on and wrap this thing up.”
“How far have we got to go now?” Karl feels dishevelled and worn out.
“It shouldn’t be too much further."
“Are you sure about that? You said we were lost yesterday. Look Emilio, we gotta turn around now and get back to Lima. I just don’t see the point in continuing, I really don’t.”
Emilio looks up to the ceiling, as if imploring the heavens to give him strength.
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Valencia is skeptical, but fascinated.
“Well, if your gonna go looking for this plant then you’ll need my help. Otherwise, you guys have no chance. I’ll ask my friend Elmanda if he’ll help us out as well. The rainforest is a dangerous place, he can guide us safely, and then we will return here to get some rest before we take you back to Iquitos.”
Karl agrees enthusiastically.
“That’s a fantastic idea! Right, Emilio?”
“Yeah, that would be amazing! So, who’s this Elmanda guy?” Emilio enquires.
“Elmanda is a carpenter from Iquitos. He is an excellent bowman and what he doesn’t know about the jungle isn’t worth knowing. He’s been coming out here for as long as I can remember. He has a good relationship with our people; he’s built many of the shacks in this village. He loves to help people and be close to nature.” Valencia speaks proudly of her lifelong friend.
Emilio is inspired by the idea of Elmanda helping them, and is intrigued by the thought of meeting him.
“That’s fantastic! I must admit the rainforest is proving more difficult than I had anticipated.”
“Ok, I’ll ask Elmanda to help us. We should get going as soon as possible so that we can return here before nightfall.”
Valencia gets up slowly and provocatively from the end of Emilio’s bed in an attempt to draw his attention. Emilio is too caught up wondering what Elmanda will be like to notice. Karl on the other hand has been staring directly at Valencia the whole time. He sits in a trance with his mouth wide open. Valencia walks out of the hut and up to a group of villagers.
“Has anyone seen Elmanda this morning?”
One of the women points to a path leading away into the forest. Valencia follows the path to the lagoon. A beam of light breaks through the dense rainforest canopy and cuts through the shallow turquoise water. Standing beneath a gently flowing waterfall stands a well-built man with jet-black hair. Valencia stares at the water running off his muscular back with approval. After a few minutes she crouches down, collects a big handful of mud and throws it at his freshly washed back.
Elmanda feels the impact and pivots on the spot, running his hands through his long hair. He sees Valancia laughing and begins to wade towards her, smiling at her audacity. He is particularly fond of Valencia, who is like a sister to him. She has given up much of her free time to help teach him English, enabling him to create new business contacts in Iquitos. Elmanda is a small-time entrepreneur, spending the majority of the week dredging up mud and sediment from the Amazon River, searching for flecks of gold. As the price of gold continues to rise thousands of gold hunters are laying siege to the country's rivers to devastating effect, tearing down acres of forest and polluting the rivers with toxic mercury. Elmanda is different. He is fiercely protective of nature and his heritage. His ancestors, like Valencia’s, hailed from the tribes of the rainforest.
“Hey Elmanda!”
“Buenos días, Cómo estás?” Elmanda greets her, with a broad accent.
“I’m feeling good, thank you. I was wondering if I could ask you a favour?”
“Ok, what is it?” Elmanda flicks into English.
“ Our visitors could do with some help getting through the rain forest. I’m going to try and help them myself, but obviously they are strangers, so we have to be careful, although they do seem harmless.”
“I will help you, but I will be leaving for Iquitos tomorrow.” Beams Elmanda.
“That’s great, maybe you could take them back with you?” Elmanda nods his agreement.
“Of course, that’s fine! I can practise my English!”
“Thanks Elmanda. They haven’t a chance of surviving out here on their own.”
Back at the hut, Emilio and Karl are being presented with their own clothes, which have been washed, cleaned and hung out to dry by the doting women looking after them.
“You see, Karl, you see how they’ve looked after us.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not haunted by killer monkey frogs!”
Emilio looks at Karl kindly.
“Monkey frogs! There’s no such thing as monkey frogs Karl.”
“Obviously, you asswipe!”
“Just calm down and get a grip.” Emilio pats Karl on the head. “I know this is a lot for you to take, but try and keep it together.”
Karl sticks his middle finger up and begins to get dressed
. Emilio jumps up from his bed and pretends to box an imaginary opponent, psyching himself up.
“I’m pumped and feeling good, Karl. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.”
Karl watches Emilio as he bounces about the hut.
“Check me out, Karl, this is how you dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”
“You mean prance like a ballerina and sting with a bitch-slap.”
Valencia walks into the hut, followed by Elmanda, who feigns concern as Emilio continues to destroy his invisible foe. Valencia stands with her hands on her wide hips sizing Emilio up, then begins to spar with him, bobbing, weaving and pretending to uppercut. Karl gazes at her long legs, which keep her upper body balanced with a graceful ease.
“Boys, I’d like you to meet Elmanda.”
Emilio slowly grinds to a halt and extends his hand to Elmanda for a formal handshake. Karl eagerly stretches his hand out for the same gesture.
“Nice to meet you Elmanda, I’m Emilio and my buddy here is Karl. Valencia’s been telling us all about you.”
“Valencia was telling me you need some help getting through the jungle. Do you know exactly where you are headed?” Elmanda asks. Emilio walks over to his backpack and pulls out a laminated map. Elmanda looks at it closely and tries to get his bearings.
“This is a strange area, but we can go most of the way on my boat, and then maybe a few hours on foot, so maybe it’s not so difficult to get to! I must warn you, though, that the land out there can be unstable, and it’s a breeding ground for anacondas and alligators.”
“So, can you guide us there?” Emilio asks bluntly.
“Probably, but I need to get back to Iquitos within the next couple of days!” Elmanda sounds hesitant.
“I could pay you!” Emilio fires back.
Elmanda hadn’t considered charging, but now there was an offer on the table he could certainly rethink how quickly he needed to get back to Iquitos.
“How much are you willing to pay?” He asks carefully.
“Two-hundred American dollars.” Emilio responds.
“Give us eight hundred and you have yourself a deal!” Elmanda tries his luck. Valencia wasn’t intending to charge, but the prospect of taking her share of eight hundred dollars suddenly seems very appealing.
“Done!” Emilio reaches out to conclude the deal with a handshake.
“What are you doing, Emilio? You’re supposed to negotiate!”
Karl is fuming with frustration, wishing desperately that the whole trip will be over with as soon as possible.
“Right! Well, I’m ready to go as soon as you are.” Elmanda beams.
“That’s great! We’ll get our asses in gear and be with you shortly.” Emilio returns his smile.
Karl is slightly embarrassed changing in front of Valencia and puts his clean clothes on in the corner of the hut as swiftly as possible, concealing himself as best he can. Once changed, the group leave the hut and join Elmanda, who is surrounded by curious villagers. He has a rucksack full of survival equipment and a machete in his hand, which puts Karl on edge.
“They're here to send you off. They know you're leaving.” Valencia explains, mistaking Karl’s expression for confusion.
“Val, could you tell these good people that we're thankful for their hospitality.” Emilio asks.
Valencia roughly translates Emilio’s thanks as Elmanda leads the group out of the village. Emilio puts his hands together, assuming a prayer position and bows to the villagers around him in appreciation. Karl forces a smile and mutters under his breath.
“Yeah, thanks for not eating us!”
Chapter 12: The Amazon River