Read Online Surviving the Extremes: A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance by Kenneth Kamler - Free Book Online

piranha and weren’t anxious to give them an opportunity to get even. Yet the natives swam about unconcerned. They live here, we reasoned; they must know what they’re doing. And anyway, we were so hot, dirty, and uncomfortable that suicide in the lake was starting to look like an option. Their explanations made sense—or perhaps we were ready to believe anything. They told us that the crocodiles, dangerous as they are, spend the day in the shallow grasses along the shore, only venturing to the center of the lake at night. As for the piranha, they are meat-eaters with razor-sharp teeth that intermesh to close like a bear trap. They’re small but travel in groups of thousands. Piranha sense blood, and when they’re hungry it drives them into a frenzy. They can strip a mammal to a skeleton in minutes. (So far, their words were not too reassuring.) However,they added, during the rainy season the lake expanded, and fruit trees that were on land during the dry season were now standing in water, dropping their fruits into the lake where the fish can reach them. Piranhas much prefer fruit to flesh, so as long as they remained finicky eaters, there was nothing to worry about.
    Several of us hitched a ride on the next bath boat, preparing to dive in before we came to our senses. First the Indians pounded the lake bottom around the canoe with long poles. This was to chase away any stingrays that might be lurking in the mud, we learned. A stingray has a tail longer than its body, and at the end of it sits a rigid stinger lined with barbs and coated with venom. The tail acts as a muscular whip, propelling the harpoonlike stinger deep into whatever disturbs it—such as, for example, the foot of a doctor desperate for a bath. The injected toxin causes severe pain and significant tissue damage. It can even be lethal, though rarely. I had heard that holding a lit cigarette near the wound was very effective in relieving symptoms because the venom is heat sensitive, but no one on the boat smoked and, all things considered, I thought it wiser simply not to step on the bottom.
    The natives didn’t seem concerned about still another inhabitant of these waters—the electric eel. I was determined to swim, so I decided a visitor could ignore it too. The eel can grow to 9 feet in length and is mostly made of muscle. Every animal’s muscles produce some electricity when they fire, but the eel native to the Amazon basin has modified its muscles to produce a lot more. Plus, they’re hooked in series so the voltage is additive. When it’s annoyed, the eel can produce a 500-volt electric field around itself. The Indians say they feel a tingle when one of them swims close by. You don’t have to touch it to be electrocuted—you just have to violate its personal space.
    We were all ready for a carefree swim. Just as we were about to dive in, Bill said, “Okay, no skinny dipping.”
Who asked him?
I thought. Although our canoe was coed, I seriously doubted that anyone would have minded, or even noticed, considering how many other things there were in this lake to occupy our minds.
    I hit the water and it felt great. Amazon water is very soft because the soil through which it runs is mineral-poor. The swim was so refreshing, I couldn’t help but relax. I didn’t want to get out of thewater—until something suddenly grabbed my leg. I recoiled, ready to fight for my life. My first thought was
Can I reach the boat before the crocodile pulls me under?
My second thought was
These Indians are real jokers,
as I saw one surface in front of me, laughing.
    I got back on the boat anyway. Bill was there already. He said he didn’t know how any of us would get our underwear dry. “If you hadn’t said, ‘No skinny dipping,’ ” I pointed out, “we wouldn’t have the problem.”
    “It’s not because I’m a prude,” he replied. “It’s because there’s candiru in this lake.”
    Just the thought provoked a sharp pain in my groin. The candiru is a