He saw something I couldn’t as he launched his spear into the murky water. I did not know what he had hit but I knew was big.
I first met Nixon a week earlier. He had been my guide in the Amazon rainforest and I had got to know him well. He was a short, stocky chap who always had a smile on his face. He had lived his entire life a small village in the middle of the rainforest, the closest city to his house was over 2 hours away by speed boat. He had a short, stocky chap who always had a smile on his face.
But after the spear hit his target, he momentarily turned to me with a huge grin I hadn’t seen on his face before.
Earlier that day, we had left the main lodge just after sunrise as we planned to spend the night in the forest next a large lake. All we carried was camping gear, a box of matches, two fish hooks with no rods and two bottles of water. Nixon also carried a machete and his trusted spear. // We had left the lodge earlier that day with camping gear, a box of matches, two fish hooks with no rods and two bottles of water as we planned to sleep in the forest that night. Nixon also carried a machete and his trusted spear.
Nixon looked for anything we could eat as we slowly trudged through the forest. After several hours, we arrived at the lake but had no food. All the fruit we found was unripe or half-eaten.
Nixon told me this wouldn’t be an issue, as we could catch fish.
Before setting up camping, pointed out some hoatzin, a strange bird that looked like a blue faced turkey with a Mohawk. But we couldn’t stay for long. The camp needed to be setup and mosquitoes had started swarming around us.
We returned to the lake for some fishing after the camp was setup. We tried to use the fishing rod but the lake was covered in sprouting vegetation so the lines kept getting stuck.
It felt like we were going to go hungry that night. We were getting desperate.
With no fruit and no fish, Nixon decided to change our plan. Now we would go hunting. When I say “we”, I mean he went hunting, I just followed trying to stay out of his way and not fall over. We slowly walked around the lake in search for something but there was nothing.
And then his eye darted towards so bubbles in the lake.
Nixon was a fisherman before he became a guide. I had seen him catch many fish in the murky Amazon River throughout the week. It was always impressive no matter how many times I had seen him do it.
But this time was different.
Usually, the spear would hit the fish and the spear would gently vibrate for a few seconds before stopping as the fish tried to escape. This time the spear vibrated violently as the creature tried to get away.
Nixon temporarily paused before running into the swallows of the murky water to retrieve his prize. He slowly dragged the beast from the lake. To my amazement, he had caught a small caiman.
His accuracy with the spear was just as impressive as the animal. We had been on the river for two nights looking for camen. Nixon had told me to catch a camen, the spear must land just behind its eyes. As I stared at the animal, I released the spear landed exactly where it needed to. An inch in any direction and we would have gone to bed hungry.
As we returned to our campsite, there was a huge splash. There were true monsters in the lake – caiman up to 3 meters long. A reminder that we could become dinner for someone else if we weren’t careful.