Open Sores
Martin suffered through another 85 km, ending the day a little early due to some open wounds on the backs of his legs.
The constant rubbing of his wetsuit on skin has eaten away at the flesh behind his knees. There is really no effective remedy for this problem; it will get progressively worse as the swim continues, eventually spreading to every crease on his body.  

Anchoring for lunch along some thick vegetation proved to be a big mistake today. The team returned from the mess hall to find the ground floor of the Cassiquari teeming with swarms of red ants. 

All of the rooms along the bottom left floor of the boat, including Martin’s had to be emptied and fumigated, but there are still stragglers making their way around the boat and some of our equipment bags are infested. Most of us have little welts all over our ankles from the tiny little ferocious biters which are more aggressive than their North American cousins and inject a more troublesome poison. 

One team member made the mistake of asking the tired swimmer as he exited the water, “Martin, how do you feel today?”

“I’ve been swimming 12 hours a day every day for the last month. How do you think I feel?” We’ve learned to give Martin a little space after he comes out of the water at the end of each day as he’s exhausted and usually not in a very sociable mood.

Martin is still being followed by pink dolphins, and some sort of freshwater stingray or jellyfish looking creature surfaced near the swimmer late in the day.

More about the Amazon 2007  www.amazonswim.com

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Friday, 13. Dec 2024
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