SkunkHunter,

This is what I live for. I am not a full time missionary, although the bug has bitten. My kids have 4 yrs left of high school, and mom is not interested in going anywhere until they graduate. I work all year to be able to afford one or two trips.

These folks in the Amazon are hard core survivalists. They truly make due with what they have. I believe strongly in the work we are doing, although I try not to push the religious aspects on the boards like these.

Someone mentioned the stories that were told after we left, I can only imagine. When one of the women saw my pack, she asked if I had planned to stay 4 months instead of 4 days!!

Doc

Thanks for the great pics, Doc. The way our interdependent civilization is heading, the Amazon may need to send us missionaries to teach us how to survive.
Poison frogs, snakes, and shrunken heads are what I think of when I picture the Amazon.

lol, Touche HD, too true. Great pics! The monkey's toungue is sticking out just a teensy bit. If I didn't know it was... umm, deceased, that would be a very funny pic.

whoa very cool trip! i would love to do something like that.

any pics of the darts for the blow guns<

Bushman,

In the first picture, the man in the middle (without his shirt) is holding the dart. They are little bamboo spikes that have cotton wrapped around the back. They score the tip so that it breaks off in a bird or monkey and the poison from the tip has time to work. The poison they got from a plant or the dart frogs (although they said the frogs were very rare in the area we were in.).

Doc

That sounds like an awesome trip Doc, and great pics as well. Thanks for sharing! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Doc, do you know how long the poison takes to work, on average? I have read about this before and of course seen it on TV, but never have heard how long it takes. I know that the bigger the animal shot the longer it would take, but lets just say for an animal the size of the monkeys he shot with the shotgun.

Thanks for any information.

We did ask them this, and the poison they use from the plant (he called it Curar - don't know if it is related to curare or not) worked in minutes. He said birds and such drop pretty quickly, but monkeys took 5-6, maybe 8 minutes. That is why the score the dart so poison continues to soak in.

Doc

I saw the last picture, and thought....Oh cool that guy has sleeping pet monkeys. Then I looked closer, and saw that they were tied up, and did'nt look too happy. I then realized that they were'nt sleeping. Sucks for the monkeys. Kind of like eating small children. Were they at least tasty?

Culture. I have had food that would make a lot of americans say YUK! but it was tasty.

If the taste of small children is an indicator, they should be delicious <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

But seriously, I too am interested to know what they tasted like (I'm an adventurous eater <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

For me, it wasn't that big of a deal. We grew up squirrel hunting. Kinda had that same gamey, red meat taste. I could have cooked them better....everything was boiled with no seasonings. Definitely better than hollow-belly though.

Doc