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A Private Look at a Public Health Professional |
A Public Health Walk Through the Guyanese Rainforest
My years of environmental public health training came in handy in preparing for a 500 km jungle river adventure… I went for a swim in a pool beside an outdoor, open concept restaurant. I missed the familiar reassuring (red, yellow, green) food inspection disclosure signs scattered across the GTA. The chef appeared, two knives in hand. Near the pool, beside a tree the chef sharpened his knives on a rock. I definitely was not in Toronto anymore!
by Ralph Stanley1
For years I fantasized about getting away from it all – exchanging life in the urban concrete jungle for lands untouched by human civilization – a reconnection with nature and a personal adventure in health promotion. My recent trip to the jungles, savannahs, and rainforests of Guyana – a journey I shared with my brother Roger, and my old friends Michael Lee and Zoran, fit the bill perfectly.
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Ralph Stanley poses with a new-found friend in the rainforests of Guyana, South America |
My years of environmental public health training came in handy in preparing for a 500 km jungle river adventure. Disease prevention and health protection were top of mind as I planned for the trip. Visits to the tropical physician to get all my shots (Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A, Malaria, prophylaxes, Dukoral, etc.), plus trips to Tilley Endurables, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and Bass Pro, added to the anticipation. We bought dry packs for the 500 km of jungle river travel, a Tilley hat, light, long-sleeved shirts and pants for bug and sun protection. Fishing equipment ensured our food supply (protein) as we traveled. Basic medication, medical travel insurance (with medevac flight) guarded against worst case scenarios. But most important was the need for a treatment system to ensure access to safe drinking water.
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Better safe than sorry. A handy pump device helps to ensure a constant supply of safe drinking water… |
On January 20th, 2008, we landed at Cheddi Jagan Airport in Georgetown, Guyana. Traveling by taxi to our hotel I got a glimpse of the local culture – people traveling on horse drawn carriages, the local creek serving as a laundromat …. But the real culture shock for a Canadian public health inspector came at the local market, where fruits, vegetables, meats, and eggs sat uncovered, at ambient temperatures of about 40 degrees Celsius!
At our hotel, directly across the road from the US consulate, we enjoyed one night of urban bliss – electricity, refrigeration, bottled water, cold drinks, and a real bed and mattress – before our three-week trek into the outback.
I went for a swim in a pool beside an outdoor, open concept restaurant. I missed the familiar reassuring (red, yellow, green) food inspection disclosure signs scattered across the GTA. The chef appeared, two knives in hand. Near the pool, beside a tree, the chef sharpened his knives on a rock. I definitely was not in Toronto anymore!
Early next morning we traveled to a local naturalist to plan our 500 km trek to the jungle. We boarded a 20-seat turboprop plane and flew three hours south to a small town called Lethem, near the northern border of Brazil. I bought a hand-made hammock – something to sleep on for the next three weeks as well as a lovely souvenir. From there we traveled by Jeep for three hours across the savanna to Dadanawa Ranch. (In the wet season, the same trip takes eight hours.) Dadanawa Ranch is over 100 years old and is one of the largest cattle ranches (5000 head of cattle) in the country.
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Jungle accommodations fell a little short of the Royal York (or Holiday Inn!) but I eventually learned how rest comfortably in a hammock listening to the rhythmic rap melodies of jungle animals |
With no means of refrigeration, public health practices are antiquated but effective. The locals preserve meats by drying, smoking, and salting. Traditional processes are used by cabraros (cowboys) for leather tanning to avoid contaminating the natural environment. Forests of exotic fruit and large Brazil nut trees added to our food supply. We enjoyed a fresh steak dinner at the ranch – all-natural meat without antibiotics or preservatives – fantastic!! After dinner, we packed our gear (which included significant still and video camera equipment) and retired for the night, covered with mosquito nets for protection from malaria.
At 4 a.m., we loaded five Jeeps with supplies and equipment, and traveled four hours to the south end of the ranch. In a small village – a few wells with hand pumps and no running water – we met the local Amerindians, who would function as our crew and guides, friendly, welcoming and English-speaking, who would be keeping us alive and well during our jungle trek.
Another four hours by jeep to the edge of the rainforest – fresh air, no pollution or smog. Another group of locals – teams of families – husbands, wives and very young children – loaded our supplies and gear on castrated bulls (called “bullocks”) and led us 25km into the jungle on foot over two days to meet our boats. It was extremely hot, over 39 degrees Celsius. The sun was directly overhead. In a small backpack I carried some essentials for the walk – water, power bars and, most importantly, my OPHA pedometer. In total, there were about 30 people on the walk – five adventurers and the support crew.
Our Amerindian guide and I were a study in contrasts. He was bare headed and bare footed: I was bundled up with hat, hiking shoes, long-sleeved shirt, and long pants tucked into my socks to keep undesirable creatures out!! We managed about 15,000 steps on the first day – just over 12 miles of jungle.
We sweated profusely in the high heat and rainforest humidity. Despite my precautions, I picked up two ticks (possible carriers of Lyme disease), one on my neck and the other on my leg. The crew showed me how to remove ticks: twist their heads counter-clockwise.
At nightfall, the crew helped me set up camp with my hammock and bug safety net. I learned quickly how to lie comfortably in a hammock. I fell asleep to the distant roars of troupes of Red Howler monkeys echoing around me. Each troupe would chorus for five to eight minutes, or until a final roar or bark from an alpha male silenced them all. I fell fast asleep, completely done in by the 12-mile walk.
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A very good reason to shake your clothes and shoes before putting them on in the morning, after a night in the jungle… |
The sun rises early in South America. At around 5 a.m. I got up and shook my clothes and shoes to remove scorpions, spiders, and their kin.
The rainforest canopy stretched upward an awesome 180 - 200 feet (60 meters) high. The smell of exotic flowers and the chirping of different birds – Scarlet and Blue-Yellow Macaws, Amazonian Kingfishers, Martins, Muscovy Ducks, Ospreys, Parakeets, Red-Billed Toucans and Red-Fan Parrots – and the distinctive “screaming Piha” created a uniquely unforgettable feeling impossible to replicate in any city. On about Day 10 of our trip we viewed very rare Harpy Eagles and their nesting sites.
The absence of North American urban sounds – tires screeching, radios blaring, car horns honking, and the wailing of police and ambulance sirens – made me realize how much I had missed listening to the sounds of nature. These Amazon lands are mostly intact but have been slowly changing over the centuries. The current pace of civilization is endangering the pure beauty of these lands.
Many prized hardwood trees that help to fill the canopy are used by the local natives for furniture, huts, bows and arrows, and dug out canoes. I hope that these largely untouched rainforests (some of the last on earth) escape the logging companies currently cutting the nearby Amazon basin in Brazil.
As we continued our walk, we passed many creeks and viewed amazing wildlife including monkeys, beautiful, brilliantly stenciled butterflies (moth family: Urania fulgens), turtles, and an army of ants carving a path through the jungle vegetation.
At last, after walking two days, over 25 miles, we reached our destination at the Rewa River. We did at total of about 30,000 healthy OPHA walk paces and over the two days. I sweated several litres and lost ten pounds!
On the second half of the jungle walk we met Captain Dwain and a river crew at Bryan's Landing. The Rewa River water was inviting, and I desperately needed to cool down after a sweaty rainforest trek. But diving headlong into a jungle river was too much of a leap of faith, so I settled for wading in up to my knees. It was great to be refreshed and clean again.
The next day, we started our 500-mile river trip with our 17-person support crew in five, 23-foot aluminum Amazonian boats and some technology – a hand-held GPS unit.
Fishing in the river was fantastic. We had to catch our daily fish for protein. Our daily catches included Lukunani, Piranha, Awawana, Tweezer-Jawed Swordfish, Saber-Toothed Blara, Tigerfish, Red Pacu, and my favourite, the “Cichlid”, know to local fishermen as “Peacock Bass”.
We varied our protein source with “beef taso” – dried, salted and reheated beef jerky.
Along the many rivers (Rewa, Kwitaro, Rupununi, and the Essequibo), reptiles such as lizards, turtles, and snakes were a common sight. Large river otters, freshwater stingrays, Black Caiman – a type of alligator up to 12 feet long – and 20-foot long Anacondas (snakes) provided many awe-inspiring moments.
But the highlight of my trip was when our crew landed a very rare and prosodic fish, the “Arapaima” – the largest, scaled, freshwater fish in the world. It has gills and can also breathe air. We landed a young one weighing about 80 lbs, but adults can weigh over 400 lbs. We practiced good conservation – catch, photograph and release. This conservation approach is being promoted to natives so they don't over-fish this large, rare species.
I felt like Indiana Jones as we ventured into rarely explored sections of the Rewa River area and found ancient petroglyphs – etchings in rocks – believed to be over 500 years old.
The local Amerindians would dive in and swim in the jungle rivers and also drink untreated river water and use it to make juices. As much as I wanted to blend in, the public health training in me would only allow me to drink safe, treated (iodine resin, activated carbon, hand-pumped water filter) water and use boiled water for coffee and tea. I guess after thinking about the lack of indoctrination and absence of human contamination, the water may have been safe, but I was unwilling to take unnecessary risks.
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Holding a a very rare and prosodic Arapaima |
Towards the end of our jungle trip, we saw villages of natives in dugout canoes, fishing and gathering food. We stayed overnight in “Rewa Village”, a small native community with a population of 220. The village is equipped with an eco-tourist centre, a local medical clinic, and a school. (The school principal was fundraising to build a small kitchen at the school to give the children hot meals at lunch time.) I really enjoyed the tour of the village, particularly the school, and meeting the wonderful people living there. I was particularly interested in the water supply which consisted of a few hand-pumped wells, that were surprisingly fairly well protected and some outdoor pit privies.
I thoroughly enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime wilderness adventure, getting down to life's basics, living off the untouched land with fresh air instead of chemicals, pollution, and smog. I hope this experience will still be available for future generations to enjoy and that these rainforests remain protected from destruction. We need to continue efforts to protect such ecosystems in the interests of human survival and the future of our world.
1 Ralph Stanley is a longstanding Member of OPHA who works for the Region of Peel as a Supervisor of Environmental Health. |
