Thursday 26th September
Each morning starts with a routine as the early riser starts the fire and boils water for coffee ñ but this day is different! Dave shouts "Has anyone seen the INMARSAT telephone?" Since it always sits on a metal cabinet that serves as the communications hub in the ICEhouse it became obvious that someone had walked away with it. Then Dave discovered that his guitar, passport and wallet are also missing. A further examination of the rest of the team's equipment reveals that only Dave's gear had been taken.
The Araona were notified by Chris and soon the entire village was aware of the missing items. Within the hour all the Araona gathered in the meeting house to consider the theft. This event complicated the negotiated agreement that set the stage for the cooperation between Araona and the expedition. There would have to be further negotiations and the stolen items would have to be returned as a condition.
Regardless of this excitement, the Magplane testing continued as two young boys use the wing as a sunshade. While Allen tries to get the Magplane in the air he has plenty of spectators ranging from the village dog to the press and the villagers. Not aware of the happenings at Puerto Araona, the magnetometer and biology teams (ï47ïï)go to the northeast rim one more time. Jimmy and Grimaldo stay at the crater rim overnight to study amphibians and fish. This day the group caught a large number of fish in isolated pools and brought them back to camp. In one of the pools Jimmy discovered an unusual leaf shaped fish and he thinks that this species has never been described. Oswaldo shoots the unusual bird with horns and brings it to the camp. Trail cutters, Nelicio Osmar, and Lucio make it as far south as possible before being stopped by an impassable palm swamp.
From PALMASOLA Jim, Holly, and the press team travelled downriver in an aluminium dingy, arriving at Puerto Araona in the afternoon. The dingy returns to help extract the rest of the biology team.
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