Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FERRYING MANCHA ACROSS THE RIO LEMPA
In Salvador, Central America. This is the only river where a ferry
was used for the horses; when bridges failed, they swam.
BeforeproceedingIgreasedmysorefeetwiththefatofthelastchickenandpatchedupmy
boots the best I could. The mud and the roots were terrible and we waded up to our knees in
many places. After what seemed an eternity we came to the first habitations, two lonely huts,
and from there the trail was much better until we hit the first outpost of civilisation, a village
consisting of a few houses.
Not far from there we met a few men carrying rifles and shotguns, and when I enquired
what this signified they told me a huge tiger had killed several cows and they were looking
for him. The evening before one of their members had gone to the village to see if he could
borrow dogs to help in stalking the beast. While we were following the trail down my guide
pointedtothetracksofahorseand,withameaningwhistle,atsomeothersthatobviouslyhad
beenmadebyatiger.Theclayeynatureofthesoil,whichhadbeensoftenedbytherain,made
the tracks very clear, and we could see that the tiger had followed the man and horse and had
only turned back into the forest when near the village.
