i just got back from a two week trip on the passimoni river deep in the venezuelan amazon. the passimoni is just off of the cassaqueri which is a tributary of the rio ***** that runs into the amazon. the area (rio *****) borders columbia.
while any trip to the amazon is a true adventure, this area is is even more so. first, the area (rio *****) borders venezuela and columbia. because of the difficult relations between them, the border is very tense and heavily militarised by each. consequently we were stopped regularly by soldiers from each and inspected and questioned-very disconcerting. secondly, there is no electricity and thus no radio nor land line phone contact, and the satellite phone was not working.
our guides come from the handful of extremely remote and small indigenous tribal villages in the area. none of them speak a lick of english and their spannish is very limited to non existent. but, they know the river and where and how to find fish. they took us for a visit to one of the most remote/stoneage tribes in the world-the yanomami, where the women are topless and wear bones in their noses. the men are likewise naked for the most part and all adorned themselves with "war" paint upon our arrival. they still hunt with bows and arrows and blow guns. i saw a young man shoot a monkey out of a tree using the blow gun. i traded him a small knife for the blow gun which i took home along with a bow and two 7' arrows and a bunch of other stuff which i also traded for.
as for the fishing, we had high water which is generally a problem because the peacocks chase the bait into the flooded jungle. the passimoni and its tributaries, (the baria the yatoui) and the emoni which are renowned for big fish, did not dissapoint. though we caught less fish than normal, we had a very high percentage of big ones. (10lbs or more). additionally we caught many piranha and bicuna(fresh water barracuda) both of which the peacocks prey on. i caught a 5-6'cayman which the guide "hog tied" by using a vine from a tree and brought back to his village to eat. there were six fish caught which were over 20 lbs, the largest being 23 lbs. my largest was 18lbs, and i had a couple of them. all in all i had 24 fish over 10lbs for 8 days of fishing-about average for the 9 guys on the trip. however i was the only one fly fishing which makes catching peacocks more challanging because the retrieve must be very fast and the flies huge 7"-10". i had 10 fish on the fly over 10lbs including one at 16 lbs.
while there were a number of draw backs- long running times-up to 2.5 hours and horrible food which we ran out ofand therefor were forced to eat lots of the fish we cought and trade for game, including a lacma, which is a large (@25lb) jungle rodent (and actually quite delicious). hopefully the outfitter will do what it can to make it right.
i hope to post some pictures later today when my son can give me a hand.
while any trip to the amazon is a true adventure, this area is is even more so. first, the area (rio *****) borders venezuela and columbia. because of the difficult relations between them, the border is very tense and heavily militarised by each. consequently we were stopped regularly by soldiers from each and inspected and questioned-very disconcerting. secondly, there is no electricity and thus no radio nor land line phone contact, and the satellite phone was not working.
our guides come from the handful of extremely remote and small indigenous tribal villages in the area. none of them speak a lick of english and their spannish is very limited to non existent. but, they know the river and where and how to find fish. they took us for a visit to one of the most remote/stoneage tribes in the world-the yanomami, where the women are topless and wear bones in their noses. the men are likewise naked for the most part and all adorned themselves with "war" paint upon our arrival. they still hunt with bows and arrows and blow guns. i saw a young man shoot a monkey out of a tree using the blow gun. i traded him a small knife for the blow gun which i took home along with a bow and two 7' arrows and a bunch of other stuff which i also traded for.
as for the fishing, we had high water which is generally a problem because the peacocks chase the bait into the flooded jungle. the passimoni and its tributaries, (the baria the yatoui) and the emoni which are renowned for big fish, did not dissapoint. though we caught less fish than normal, we had a very high percentage of big ones. (10lbs or more). additionally we caught many piranha and bicuna(fresh water barracuda) both of which the peacocks prey on. i caught a 5-6'cayman which the guide "hog tied" by using a vine from a tree and brought back to his village to eat. there were six fish caught which were over 20 lbs, the largest being 23 lbs. my largest was 18lbs, and i had a couple of them. all in all i had 24 fish over 10lbs for 8 days of fishing-about average for the 9 guys on the trip. however i was the only one fly fishing which makes catching peacocks more challanging because the retrieve must be very fast and the flies huge 7"-10". i had 10 fish on the fly over 10lbs including one at 16 lbs.
while there were a number of draw backs- long running times-up to 2.5 hours and horrible food which we ran out ofand therefor were forced to eat lots of the fish we cought and trade for game, including a lacma, which is a large (@25lb) jungle rodent (and actually quite delicious). hopefully the outfitter will do what it can to make it right.
i hope to post some pictures later today when my son can give me a hand.