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One of our crew was bitten by a huge ant called a "24 hour ant" whose bite can cause a 24 hour high fever. The man was physically strong and in good health so he recuperated well enough to travel the next morning.
In the pictures taken the next morning, we looked "rode hard and put up wet!" Breakfast was coffee, scrambled eggs mixed with tomatoes and onions, arepas (like fried water cornbread patties), jam, slices of cheese and ham, and fresh oranges. In the daylight, we could see the camp better.
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Off to one side was a propeller graveyard for damaged props.
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The area around the shelter was raked and landscaped.
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We took one last look at Angel Falls in the morning mist as we boarded the boats to leave. Clouds enshrouded some of the mountaintops and the temperature was still fairly cool.
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The trip back was much quicker as we sped along with the current while simultaneously descending in elevation. Our main guide took the position at the bow of the boat with a monster paddle since we were now taking the rapids at a fast clip, whooshing around bends, plunging several feet down steep rapids, blasting through the rushing water, following the "Y" if you have ever done white water rafting or canoeing. We were instructed to keep our hands in the boat and realized this was sound advice as the boat sideswiped boulders.
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The bottom of the boat scraped in the shallows and a few times the huge paddles were used both front and back to help steer the long narrow boat through tight places and around sharp curves. At times, it felt like a water ride at an amusement park. What a rush! After the worst of the rapids, when we reached deeper water, the outboard died. We turned to see what was happening and the guy had the engine cocked and was changing the propeller. Apparently on the way up, we thought he had run out of gas, but he actually changed the prop both on the way up and on the way back, using a dented prop for the shallows and the rapids and using a better prop for the deeper smoother water. They carry two extra propellers, just in case.
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