BRAZIL: Slovenian speaks to media after swimming entire Amazon River

Slovenian Martin Strel spoke to the media for the first time on Monday (April 09) after braving crocodiles, piranhas, disease and the threat of an imminent heart attack, as he completed a record-setting 66-day, 3,274-mile (5,268 km) swim down the Amazon River on Sunday. Thousands of people were on hand in the Brazilian colonial city of Belem as an exhausted Strel, 52, made his final stroke, and was pulled from the water. On Saturday, Strel had officially set a Guinness Book of World Records mark when he hit the 3,274-mile point, the swimmer's support team said on his Web site www.amazonswim.com. On Sunday he was back in the water again, riding the early morning tide back upriver 6 miles to end the marathon Amazon swim in Belem at about 11:30 a.m. (1430 GMT). It was the most challenging of Strel's big-river swims. He has previously swum 2,488 miles (4,004 km) of China's Yangtze in 2004, 2,360 miles (3,798 km) of the U.S. Mississippi in 2002 and 1,867 miles (3,004 km) of Europe's Danube in 2000. After arriving in Belem, Strel was placed in an ambulance and according to his support team on the Web site, medics worked to stabilize his blood pressure, which was at near-heart attack levels. Although Strel's health condition is good, he had to be brief during the news conference where he spoke of the challenges he faced during the daring mission. "The crossing was very difficult, swimming from Broa beach (in Peru) until Belem. But I had great support, great support from my team, my medical team, the expedition team who helped me on this crossing," he said. Due to his deteriorating health, Strel had been swimming six hours and then resting for six hours in his final leg down the world's most voluminous and second longest river. Strel also shared with journalists what his greatest difficulties were and said the final days were probably the most challenging. "Planning this expedition took nearly two years. During period I came three times to Brazil, to visit some areas of the river and to study the river. The worst part, at least the most difficult in the crossing, were the beginning and the end. The beginning in Peru was very difficult because of the sun, which hit my face directly and caused second and third degree burns. With this I had to swim with a mask. The most difficult part was the last days in Belem because of the influence of the ocean during this time. I could only swim for six hours at night, what made it very difficult too. So the most difficult parts were the beginning and the end," he explained Nicknamed "fish man," Strel started his latest big-river swim on Feb. 1 at the Peruvian jungle town of Atalaya, where buckets of animal blood had to be poured into the river to distract piranha from making a quick meal of the swimmer. Strel said he learned a lot during the swim and that he is taking three very important messages with him. "This crossing was a very big project and I'm taking more than one message with me. The first message is to preserve the Amazon forest, which is very important for the entire world. It is the greatest oxygen producer, what we breathe each day. The second message was for the people who inhabit the Amazon and I say: don't change your lives, this is a very special area. I stand by the concept of not industrializing the Amazon River, to maintain life and the environment as it is. The third message was my attempt to present the concept of medicine by phone, which is very important in remote areas like the Amazon. There is a possibility of giving first-class treatment in remote areas, practically to all people who live in remote areas where, Gilberto, the specialist, can not go to, but can provide orientation through advanced communication systems. The last message is that we can battle the Alzheimer disease and I dedicated this swim to this dream," he said. Along the trip, Strel and his team had several near misses with pirate attacks and often had to steer toward swift flowing currents to avoid being set upon by piranha. This resulted in Strel being swept away in a giant whirlpool once and separated from his team and boat another time. The team was constantly at risk of parasites and disease in the Amazon such as malaria and yellow fever. A quirky story.

ITN Source | April 13, 2007

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