Over the River and Through the Woods

Though this is not representative of most of the Chaco, there was an article earlier this week about how an expedition to the Paraguayan Chaco was cancelled so as to not disturb an uncontacted tribe that lives there. Interestingly, it is the only place other than the Amazon in which uncontacted tribes are known to live in South America. (Remember the article a few years ago with the uncontacted tribe in the Amazon shooting arrows at an airplane??) I sent the article to my friend Drew, who commented that his favorite line is:

"Anthropologists and indigenous campaigners fear that accidental contact with the expedition would put the Ayoreo at risk of infectious diseases that could wipe them out, and drastically disrupt their traditional lifestyle."

As Drew said, "yes, I imagine if I was 'wiped out' that would 'drastically disrupt' my lifestyle." Perhaps...

Anyway, I went to a very different part of the Chaco this past week. My closest PC neighbor lives about 5 miles away as the crow flies. The problem is that Rio Paraguay separates us. This is not an especially wide river, but in order to get to my friend's site, I have to go south, then west, then back north. It takes a bit over an hour by bus. BUT, I can go by boat and it takes about 30 minutes with a short walk, quick bus, and very pleasant boat ride. I'll remind you that it is getting to be summer here. It doesn't seem like it has been nearly as hot here, but it makes me want to spend as much time as possible on boats.

I went down to Piquete Cue, which is on Rio Paraguay, but still in Limpio, and started talking to the water police. They had given me a ride across a few months ago and I was hoping for the same free taxi service. I chatted with them for a while as the boat came back and then waited while they went to get gas. They claimed that the river was clean enough to swim in, as long as we didn't go too far down river towards the factories. I finally boarded the row boat with a motor on the back with a guy dressed all in camouflage (despite it being 95 degrees or so) and another guy who seemed to do handy work for the cops. They insisted I wear a lifejacket that looked and felt as though it wouldn't save a small child, even after I explained that I know how to swim. We chatted as we went along; I took the lifejacket off as we approached the shore of Villa Hayes where people were fishing from the beach and an old abandoned boat. I thanked them and said goodbye as I stepped off the boat and knee-deep in mud. I just totally sank. I'm sure I screamed--or at least yelped. I was sitting on the bow of the boat, with my left leg totally plunged in mud, but refused to pull my leg out and lose my flip-flop. (I have huge feet and it is impossible for me to find women's shoes here--these are the leather flip-flops I wear daily.) The man in camo jumped to action, holding my shoulders as I attempted to pull my foot and flip-flop out of the gross mud while cracking up at my luck. Although near Limpio we are upstream from the factories, in Villa Hayes we were not. I finally got it out of the mud, realizing I had quite the crowd. The man in camo took my flip-flop and washed it in the river. There was no way I could get out of the boat at that part of the shore. My flip-flop was clean but I was still covered in mud. Not to worry--the camo-clad man had found a bailer (a cut off jug), and was filling it with water. He told me to hang my leg off the boat and washed my leg--even between my toes--as I balanced there, laughing at what a scene I had created and the fact that my PC friend had shown up on the beach at this moment, looking pretty confused. With my leg and flip-flop mostly cleaned and the boat re-parked in a sandy spot, I departed, still laughing and thanking my camo-clad friend for the pedicure and the mud treatment.