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.
[Illustration: The village of Maipures.]
[Illustration: The _Hilo de Oro_ at the end of the voyage.]