Pushing off from the Sand Bar Racing Down Piranha Alley

The channel rolled out ahead of us for a long way before slowly curving to the right, out of sight in the far distance. It appeared to be between 100 to 200 feet wide and it was miles long. Thick jungle grew right up to the water’s edge on both sides of the channel. Although I knew better, there was no visible evidence that human life had ever been there, anywhere that we could see. Truly, it was a primeval sight - a peaceful and beautiful scene. Little did we know, until later, what dangers lurked beneath these “peaceful” waters?

We rode up the channel, one Nitro following the other. Enrico’s boat was in the lead and the motor throttles were set at medium speeds. We must have gone at least 2 or 3 miles in this manner when Enrico found what he was looking for. There was a small side channel entering our waterway, perpendicularly, from the left. We pulled into the opening of the side channel and were immediately forced to turn our boats onto the side shore because the channel quickly became too shallow for the boats. Directly ahead of us, the new channel was only 5 to 10 inches deep. Apparently, Enrico had been expecting this because all of his motions in slowing and steering the boat were deliberate, not surprised. He knew the place. We grounded the boats and got out, taking our fishing gear.

Then, however, there was a surprise. On the shore, near to where we had grounded our boats, there was a small, motorized, Indian riverboat laying there, camouflaged from the main channel with branches. Enrico went over to it and removed some of the branches. This exposed a dampened canvas cover over the boat. When he lifted the canvas we could see into the floor of the boat. It was covered with large turtles!

Enrico re-covered the canvas and camouflage. He said that it was the work of poachers because it was illegal to take that many turtles. It was plain to see that he had ambivalent feelings about it because, as he told us, the people who were doing the poaching were probably just poor Indians who had little other means of obtaining cash money. He indicated that we should leave everything just as we found it because there might be some danger to us if we didn’t. He said he would report it to Phil, that evening.

We proceeded up the side channel, carrying our fishing gear. We were forced to wade in the water, in the center of the channel, because the jungle closed in on both sides and the underbrush was too thick to walk through. Once we got away from the main channel, it became very dark and gloomy because the thick vegetation overhead did not let any sunlight through. We walked this way for several hundred yards and, finally, our channel dead-ended, perpendicularly feeding into another larger cross channel. This new channel was roughly parallel to the main channel that our boats had just traversed. It was approximately 150 feet wide and it went a long way in each direction. We were going to fish along it.