Amazon Provides a Personal Payday and Hope
Swimming can be a pleasant activity, as well as being a free, and often fast, exercise. Having said that, who would want to swim the entire length of a river, even if it were free to do so? For Martin Strel, to swim an entire river, and seeming to put his good sense on loan in the process, is something he has done numerous times. He doesn’t try to do it as fast as he can, and it isn’t done in the hope of getting a big payday out of it, he just swims because its what he does.Currently, Mr. Strel is swimming the entire length of the Amazon River, steadily if not too fast. If he does finish swimming the entire length of the Amazon, he will be the first person to be known to have done so. Much of this is due to the potential dangers inherent in the Amazon, from flesh eating piranha, to the body-invading toothpick fish. The toothpick fish is a tiny, fast fish that follows free streams of urine into the body to lodge in the urethra, causing immense pain. To put oneself at such risk, of one’s own free will, gives yet another reason to believe that the subject’s sanity is on permanent loan.
He began his quest to put his name on permanent loan to history in Atalaya, Peru on February 1st, 2007, and is currently halfway through the swim. According to his blog, he has no need for a loan of courage or stamina, as he seems to be holding up free of despair or exhaustion. It also sounds as though each and every day is a payday for him, in the sense of free and personal enrichment. He is swimming amongst the pink dolphins of the Amazon, and reports them to be quite friendly, if a bit more fast than he is.
He has stated that his reason for taking out such a loan on his personal well being is due to his desire to be the first to achieve such a remarkable feat. One who might find his motivation to be of a questionable or frivolous nature would be a bit too fast with their judgment. It isn’t just the potential record-setting achievement that he is interested in. In this astounding swim, he hopes to give a free loan of attention to the Amazon and its wonders. The truly big payday for him will come not simply with his successful completion of his task, but if he can help the overall Amazonian ecosystem, which is fast disappearing.
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