Connecting the Dots: Tubing in the Amazon Rainforest

We were gliding up the Arajuno river, green foliage rising on each bank and the sputtering of our canoe’s engine cutting through the insect and bird induced racket, when we wrapped around the final bend and beached near a large fallen tree that resembled an anaconda more than a piece of wood. We piled out of the raft, organized ourselves on the rocks and ignored the guide as he demonstrated “proper” tubing techniques.

We plopped into our tubes and began floating down the refreshing river, flashbacks of summer days in the hills of central Texas flooding my mind. Although in a completely different country, continent and hemisphere, the familiarity of tubing a river with friends served once again as a reminder to the similarity of the different parts of the world. While far wider, far fewer people and far less country music resonating around the bends, the scene could have been a reenactment from many past experiences from home. However, the backdrop of the Amazon Rainforest, with its overpowering greenery, its colorful birds swooping down around you, and the consistent worry that there may be undesirable guests swimming in the water with you, cause each moment to remain memorable, special and unique.