Man To Swim The Amazon

Martink Strel is a marathon swimmer. Actually, he is an insane marathon swimmer. He swam the entire Danube, then the Mississippi, then the Yangtze and now he is going to take on the Amazon. World's longest river. Three-thousand three-hundred and seventy-five miles.

This 52 year-old man is going to try to achieve this feat in 70 days, swimming an average of 11-12 hours a day. He heads out from the jungle settlement in Atalaya Peru on the first of February and plans to enter the Atlantic Ocean on April 11th.

What does he plan on doing about the caiman crocodiles and piranhas? He will have a staff on board an accompanying boat that will through buckets of blood into the river to attract the piranhas and any other flesh eating fish away from Strel.

Worse than that is the dreaded Candiru or toothpick fish. Known as the "vampire fish of Brazil".

The candiru is attracted by urine. Someone swimming 11-12 hours a day might have to do that. Once attracted, the candiru swim for body orifices where it enters and attaches itself inside the body using spiny bones that cover it's body. There it remains as a parasite feeding on its host. It is the only know human parasite that is a vertebrate. (I'm getting dizzy thinking about it)

Knowing all this, Strel moves forward. His website will have live video feeds from the Amazon. I personally think he's nuts but more power to him. I hope he makes it. And I hope he does it parasite-free.

http://www.amazonswim.com/