These past five days have been so long. Since I had the fortune to join the Row the Amazon team I kind of pressed pause on my life in Iquitos so I could spend more time with Mark and Anton. My English is very limited to express (in writing) what I feel about them, I couldn't reply to Anton's words about me it would not make justice.

In short, I feel embraced and welcomed, and that is what matters at the end of the day. I felt comfortable among these total strangers a few days ago, and now we will be sharing the same space in couple of days for weeks to come.

I have asked them several times:

"do you have any idea of what you are going into?"

they answer:

"not really..." " maybe..." "yes, once thing we know once we start rowing that is it, we will stop at the Atlantic."

And that is more or less what I would like to hear. When you are innocent at heart it is easier to face the unknown.

I have travelled the Amazon by boat (not rowing) several times and I don't have the exact idea what to expect (especially from them ha ha ha). The Amazon river is huge and the sun, the rain and the wind will be more of a threat, than the pirates, thieves, malaria, mosquitos etc...

But on the way to the Tapiche Reserve we went through a super tropical storm and we were driving in my speed boat as fast as we could and they seemed very comfortable about it. Also when we hit the sandbank and literally parked the boat on dry land, they helped to carry back (drag) into the water at least 500kg (boat and cargo). Hitting logs and flying engine in the darkness was not a great deal for them.

I think I'm in good hands.