156 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



The port of Maipures is on the Rio Tuparo, about half a 

 mile above its mouth. This river, some two hundred yards 

 wide, comes rushing out of the interior of Colombia down a 

 rocky river-bed. Where the landing was effected we found 

 only the parched plain, a trail leading away from the river 

 to the settlement of Maipures, a good three miles away. 

 We pitched camp near the water, and the canoe and two 

 men were immediately sent back for another load of the 

 equipment. There was not much life along this part of the 

 river. Numerous iguanas spent the hot hours burrowing 

 in the sand, and if disturbed either ran away in the brush 

 or plunged into the water. Both green and blue kingfishers 

 clattered noisily on the opposite side, and a few large gray 

 herons flapped up and down over the centre of the stream. 

 We could constantly hear the loud roar of the Maipures 

 Rapids, and the water rushing down the course of the main 

 river was covered with foam. 



Five days after our arrival the second load, in charge of 

 my assistant, arrived. They had met with a mishap in the 

 rapid of Guajibo, and one man and the canoe were lost. 

 For nearly two days they had been stranded on an island 

 and besieged by a party of Indians from the Sipapo; the 

 occupants of a passing canoe, seeing their plight, came to 

 the rescue, and brought them on to the Tuparo. While the 

 borrowed canoe returned for the remaining members of the 

 party, we busied ourselves transferring camp to Maipures, 

 above the head of the rapids. The intervening country is 

 level and covered with a sparse growth of clumps of wiry 

 grass and patches of low woods; near the watercourse the 

 trees are taller and the vegetation more dense. The town, 

 consisting of six adobe houses with thatched roofs, nestles 

 in a little grove of mango and tonca-bean trees, and from a 

 short distance away is very picturesque; but like all the 

 rest of the plain it is insufferably hot and the myriads of 

 sand-flies quivering like heat-waves in the air make life 

 almost unbearable. 



While waiting for a boat of ample size to take us up the 



