Storytime! I participated in what is called the Amazon River Raft Race. I flew to the jungle, to a city called Iquitos, with three of my friends and took a van for several hours until we reached an entry point of the Amazon River. We took a boat to cross the river and were dropped off on the other side with materials to build a raft. We had wooden posts, some wire, nails and basic tools. But we thought, "What were we thinking?" We had no experience building a raft. We quickly realized that we should ask the locals for advice or help, but we would need to do everything by hand. Would our raft float? We hoped so!
After building our raft to the best of our abilities, we pitched a tent that night and camped on the side of the river. We woke up to a big sandstorm blowing the tent, and some of the materials for our raft even flew away! At 8 AM, we put our raft in the water for the big test, and it miraculously floated! We began the race for the day against 6 other teams, and we had to paddle with wooden oars for 8 hours down the river!
The sun is beating hot in Peru, and you don’t know what animals live in the river. So when you jump in the water to cool off, you better hope there aren't any piranhas that will bite you!
