“Daredevil” To Swim Amazon!

AFP informs us that a "daredevil" Slovenian swimmer plans on swimming the Amazon river. He plans to have live, real-time broadcasts of the entire "adventure". (We would have chosen slightly different descriptive words, but "lunatic" and "suicide swim" just don't have the same ring in French, I guess.)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Daredevil Slovenian swimmer Martin Strel, who has swum the Yangtze, the Danube and the Mississippi rivers, plans to embark on a 70-day swim down the Amazon, from Peru to Brazil, local media reported.

The never-before-attempted 5,430-kilometer (3,370-mile) feat will be filmed and broadcast in real time starting February 1 over the Internet on www.amazonswim.com, Andre Souza, a member of Strel's team, told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo on Wednesday.

The intrepid Slovene, who has become a national hero in his home country, has already earned three mentions in the Guinness World Records book.

"Candiru, piranhas and pororoca" are among the dangers Strel, 52, says he will face on his latest mission.

Well, at least he's aware of what he's getting into. Or what might be getting into him, as the case may be. Candiru are actually more feared by the natives than the piranhas. With *shudder* good reason. The pororoca is a walk in the park comparatively. Far be it from us to discourage him in his endeavors. We'd never do anything like that. Well, except to remind him of what might happen. We're nice that way.