The vast basin of the Amazon River with its numerous tributaries (area - 7180 thousand sq. Km) is often called the Amazon. Many dangers await an unprepared tourist here. At any moment here you can lose your life from the bite of a huge wasp or snake, fall into the jaws of a crocodile or become a victim of an electric eel.
Turn into a skeleton in seconds
Once a Brazilian soldier was fishing from a boat. And then some large fish suddenly pulled hard on the line, and the soldier fell into the water. Clinging to the boat, he began to scream desperately, and the water around him boiled, as if a huge electric boiler had been thrust into it. When the boat with the soldier clinging to it was dragged to the shore, they found that he was already dead: his hands still continued to hold on to the gunwale, but below the waist, all the meat was as if cut off from the bones … the Amazon River and its tributaries.
Often the piranha is the culprit of various scary cases on the water. According to the Swedish traveler Georg Dahl, piranha is a cross between crucian carp, rudd and bream, only its scales are smaller and denser. Most piranhas are no more than a palm in size, but some species reach 1-2 kilograms.
The piranha is distinguished by its bite and the habit of walking in schools, numbering from several tens to hundreds, even thousands of specimens, and all fish are of approximately the same size: the undersized, apparently, simply do not survive. The teeth of different species are different, but they all make one involuntarily recall the words spoken by the old man Kipling at the sight of a living tarantula: "This is, without a doubt, the creation of the devil himself."
The jaws of these fish can be compared to miniature razor blades. In the past, the Indians used piranha jaws inserted into wood as knives.
The worst thing is if you have even a tiny wound on your body and somehow find yourself in the water. The smell of blood drives the piranha into a rage, and, having begun to bite, these predators do not calm down until one skeleton remains from the victim.
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Locals willingly use piranha for food, they say that this predator is quite tasty. As for the creepy stories about this bloodthirsty fish, some seasoned travelers consider them to be grossly exaggerated.
Redeemed? Under the surgeon's scalpel
Piranha is by no means the only terrible creature that lives in the waters of the rivers of South America. Rivers are often teeming with electric eels. The largest eels produce a current of 600-700 volts. This is quite enough to paralyze a person and send him to the bottom, especially since electric eels have a habit of repeating blows in order to hit the victim for sure.
Poisonous stingrays lurk in ambush on the sandy bottom of rivers. Although small in size, the deep wounds they can inflict with their mucus-coated, serrated spines are painful and even life-threatening.
The most vile fish that lives in the rivers of the Amazon is called kandiru. These are parasitic catfish, thin as a thread, which are said to penetrate the anus of a bathing person or animal and cause them terrible torment, even kill victims if they are not removed, and this requires a surgical operation. This creepy fish has a long bony snout and sharp teeth, the skin is covered with small jags directed to the tail. It is clear that just pulling the tail will not remove it.
The famous traveler Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in the wilds of South America, recounted in his notes that when he was in Riberalta, an Austrian doctor cut out two such fish from a woman, and a Japanese surgeon at Astillero, on the Tambopata River, showed him a special kind of candiru. taken out of the male member. This species sometimes reaches 5 inches in length and looks like a newly hatched eel.
Among the more famous predators of the waters of the Amazon, besides the piranha, of course, the crocodile should be mentioned. These armored monsters can grab a gaping fisherman, attack you while crossing the river. Bathing children often become victims of such monsters.
The dangers that lie in wait for the traveler on the water in these parts are numerous, and they must be taken seriously, especially since the rivers in South America are often the only transport arteries (apart from helicopter and airplane) through which you can get into the little-explored areas of the Amazon. However, on land, those who ventured into the jungle of green hell will also have hard times.
Here Russian mosquitoes seem like angels …
The first thing you will surely come across are insects. Little bees will stick around you, as if smeared with honey. They will not sting, but they will crawl into the nose, eyes, ears, swarm all over the body and crunch disgustingly under the hands. Much more dangerous than the killer wasp. They are about three times the size of our regular wasps. One bite from this insect can be fatal.
At a halt, you will especially be bothered by mosquitoes, from which, of course, you will pull on the mosquito canopy. But, alas, the smallest species of mosquitoes, almost invisible to the eyes, will calmly make their way through the fabric. The bites of these mosquitoes cause such unbearable itching that the mind becomes clouded, and the combed bite will fester and hurt for several weeks.
“Ticks can fall on you from tall grass and trees, they dig into your body and become engorged. Flies are also annoying: the bites of some leave black spots on the body, similar to bruises
Ants, termites, and venomous spiders also cause a lot of trouble in the night.
The creepiest thing is the stoop, the larvae of some kind of flies or gadflies, which, according to Percy Fawcett, hatching from eggs laid on a shirt, immediately penetrate the skin, usually on the back. These little monsters cannot be removed until the sores that they form "mature", but even then it takes a lot of skill to pull them out, the larvae immediately grab the meat with their sharp jaws.
Snakes, jaguars and fugitive criminals
The Amazon is a snake paradise. There is a rattlesnake and a bogeyman with two rows of teeth, known as the pacaraya, or bushmaster. There is also a taya - a grayish-light brown snake, which, during the period of laying eggs, rushes at a person, as soon as it envies him. There are many other types of snakes that are also dangerous to humans. Although the giant anaconda was shown in two horror films as a rather malevolent beast, in essence, it is quite harmless, although it is sometimes credited with attacks on a person.
Of the large animals, the jaguar is the most dangerous, because this cat, even mortally wounded, in the last jump can tear a two-legged enemy to shreds.
Of course, the stories about the bloodthirstiness of the Amazonian Indians are greatly exaggerated. Now a more real danger is posed by various gold seekers, escaped criminals and other rabble armed with firearms, which often take refuge in remote areas, where they do illegal affairs and exploit Indians.
To all these "delights" of the Amazon add impenetrable jungle, heat at forty degrees and almost 100% humidity. Even just moving around here is a rather laborious task that requires great endurance.
All the dangers listed in this article threaten, of course, not civilized tourists who travel in organized groups to South America, but only those who want to go alone or in a small group at their own risk and risk to delve into the little-explored areas of the Amazon.
Fyodor PERFILOV