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Chad Balagna, USU student, travels to the center of the Amazon By
Tiffany Erickson USU's Chad Balagna on the Amazon. / Photo courtesy of Chad Balagna LOGAN -- Chad Balagna has backpacked in Europe and hiked all over the United States, fulfilling many of his dreams. The Utah State anthropology student has hiked and explored for years, and most of the time he is somewhat familiar with the area or has some sort of knowledge where he is going and what he is doing. But last summer Balagna's courage and curiosity took him a step past his normal ventures -- into the Amazon, with only the names of the places he wanted to find and a friend he had barely met. It started out as a school trip during which he and 13 other students from all over the United States traveled to Huanchaco, Peru, to study the effects tourism had had on the city, and see how life had changed there. "The thing was that since we were only there for five weeks, we couldn't really get in-depth so we each just picked an aspect of life to study," Balagna said. He was assigned to the fisherman and the cabellito de totora, small fishing boats made from a reed that grows only on the Peruvian coast. Before tourism, fishing was their primary way of life. "Things had changed a lot, surfers come in and then restaurants follow and then hotels follow after that," Balagna said. He found that the older generation is still fishing as a primary income but for the most part they aren't encouraging their children to. "Most kids know how, but a lot of them go to the university and trade schools, and learn English." He said learning English enables them to work on cruise ships and also take tourists out on the boats. "I thought it was sad because that tradition (fishing) has been around for thousands of years, and in a few years it will be gone. It really shows the effects of globalization." After the field school was over, Balagna didn't return to the states with the others. He had two and a half weeks to travel and had originally planned to go to Machu Pichu. Instead he met up with a guy who had been reading about the jungle and wanted to explore, but not alone. "Since I had always wanted to explore the jungle too, I went with him," said Balagna. "It's always nice to have a travel buddy." They flew to Iquitos, where the only way to get there is by plane or boat because it is in the jungle and has no roads. There they looked for guide books but weren't able to find any. Finally they found a map of the Amazon, matched the names on the maps with the names on a crowded boat, and jumped on for three days and two nights for $15. After three days of sleeping in hammocks, retrieving stolen property and hanging out with the captain and crew, they ended up in Santa Rosa, the middle of the Amazon rainforest. They found a guide who agreed to take them into the jungle, and they left the next morning. During those two days Balagna fished for piranhas, swung from vines, saw huge tarantulas, monkeys and even a toucan. He said one of the greatest sights was watching the pink river dolphins. One night they went looking for alligators and found them within 30 minutes. "We caught two and brought one that was two feet back and played with it for a little while, but after that we took it to the dock and let it go," Balagna said. On the trip back they decided to take a fast boat to get back to Iquitos. The ride was said to be about eight hours but the boat kept breaking down and there were no lights on the boat so they got stuck in mud. So 21 hours later, lacking two straight days of sleep, more than five days without a shower and in complete exhaustion, they arrived in Iguitos. Balagna returned to the states two days later very satisfied. "It's always been a dream to go down the Amazon," said Balagna. "I got to check another thing off of my life to-do list." Carly Ward, a close friend of Balagna's, laughs about his friend's trip and spontaneity. "It doesn't surprise me at all," says Ward. "The first time we hung
out we hiked, crossed a river barefoot, caught fish with our bare hands
and hitchhiked home. Chad just goes from one thing to the next and doesn't
really think twice about it." |
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