Walking The Amazon Update: Life in the Jungle

Another expedition that I haven't updated on in awhile is Walking the Amazon, which has British adventurer Ed Stafford attempting to wall from the source of the Amazon River to its mouth along the eastern coast of Brazil. If successful, this will be the first trek of the Amazon from start to finish ever, and quite an impressive feat. So far, Ed has been out walking for 420 days, and he isn't expected to finish up until sometime next May. In between, there is a whole lot of suffering in the "Green Hell" to endure.

I've mentioned before that I enjoy Ed's Twitter feed, and I still fully recommend it. The former British Army officer, and his companion Cho Sanchez, send daily messages out to the world that keep us informed what is like for them to be traveling through one of the harshest environments on the planet. But Ed also updates his blog with weekly reports that offer a lot more detail on what it is like to be trekking across the Amazon.

For example, the latest entry gives us a bit of insight into Ed and Cho's morning routine, which begins at 7 AM with the boys rolling out of their hammocks and getting the day off to a start with a malaria pill washed down with some water. From there, it's out of the cleaner and considerably dryer clothes and into the wet ones. They only carry two sets of clothes on them, and one of those sets is perpetually wet thanks to the humidity and lack of ventilation in the jungle. After that, it's time to cook breakfast and things underway for the day, which will mostly include hiking through miles of dense rainforest.

From my limited time in the Amazon, I can completely relate to the stories of wet clothes. Literally everything I wore ended up wet, and it would not dry at all while I was in the jungle. When I returned to the air conditioned cabin aboard the boat that served as my home for the two weeks I was on the Amazon, the clothes still didn't dry all that much, and my backpack was often soaked for no real apparent reason as well. The moisture gets into everything, and my camera lenses struggled to autofocus with the humidity causing the glass to fog up. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ed and Cho being able to continue to hike all those miles every day, with the end still a long way off. But through the use of modern technology, we can continue to follow their adventure, which is fascinating to watch.