gold hunting

[ELDORADO.VE]

Hi Garimpo,

your reports are very interesting. Hope you find a lot of gold. How do you manage to connect to the Internet out there?????

Watch out for those piranhas, both kinds ....

All the best

ELDORADO.VE

[garimpo]

Hi Eldorado.VE, Piranha's both kinds huh?

You would only know that if you've been there.

As for Internet it's getting pretty wide spread now. Initially it took me three years just to get a telephone.

That was in 1996 when I first came here and none of the ranches around here had electricity.

To compare Brazil, just think of the U.S. about forty years ago when computers were only in business's and were hugh monsters.

Now a lot of folks here have PC's or a couple of stores in town have them for rent at $2.50 per hour.

A lot of things here are different and it takes some getting used to, the hardest thing to learn is to slow down.

Another day of work and getting closer to getting in the water.

[ELDORADO.VE]

I was a Garimpero there 40 years ago. Obviously things have changed a lot since then.

Wish you the best of luck.

ELDORADO.VE

[garimpo]

ELDORADO.VE, it's good to hear from someone that's done what I'm now doing. What area were you in and how did you do?

Water Piranhas are safer than the street Piranhas.

I'm always ready to listen to advise from someone that's been there and done that.

[garimpo]

Flak, glad you liked the story and I'm glad of the outcome. No one seriously hurt, at least not on my side, of the ditch.

That all happened about five years ago before I got my digital camera. I would like to have pics of that ditch and the foot bridge but just too long a drive.

In this forum is some very good advise on what to do about a lot of different subjects, one of the reasons it's such a great place to park your hat.

I'll break the mold and show a couple of pics of what NOT to do. This is why the "greenies" and others are shutting us prospectors down. Here in Brazil they have absolute power and are just as likely to shoot first as ask questions.

My town is just to the right of the mountain in the back ground.

The owner of this ranch is now in his 90's and rides his horse every day to check on his cows. His father started this ranch and had a lot of slaves. There are two people that are brother and sister that live with this man, their father was a slave for the owners father. Senior Gomez is the nicest person that I've met here in Brazil. He has down sized his ranch a little, now it's only about 10 miles by 20 miles and all prospectors are welcome if his 35 year old wife doesn't find out.

The pics below are on his ranch. So is the lake. Through the years many a kilo of gold has come from this mans ranch.

[FlakMagnet]

Garimpo,

Very inviting land to say the least.

Happy 4th of July to everyone on this amazing thread,

regards,

[garimpo]

Thanks Flak for your support and always kinds words.

I would like to thank all of you on this forum for your support and participation in this thread.

Like you I also wish everybody here a happy 4th of July 2006 and remember why we celebrate this day and especially remember the folks that have in years past given so much, some gave all so we can enjoy what a lot of other folks don't have ---FREEDOM.

[rexb]

Happy 4th of July everyone!

[garimpo]

Old pic, same truck and same dredge.

Hope to be loading everything up tomorrow.

[Guest keninla]

Old pic, same truck and same dredge.

Hope to be loading everything up tomorrow.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Garimpo,

Nice truck,

Be sure and give us a report on how your dredging goes.

Ken

[garimpo]

Ten hours till out the drive way and counting.

Ken, reports might be few and far between since there's no computers where I'm going, only one public telephone, no private ones either.

The nearest town is 80 miles away, takes 2 hrs. and 20 minutes to get there and they might have internet at the library. I'll be taking my cables just in case I have to go to town for something.

[nuggethunting]

Hello garimpo,

Wishing you the best of success on your trip. Looks like you have all the gear. Take a bunch of pictures if you would.

Talk with you when you return,

Rob Allison

[FlakMagnet]

Garimpo,

I notice you packed so effiently that there's no room for

the skunk.

Nice one.

I have a really good feeling about this journey.

Make sure to take notes...

sic 'um...

[garimpo]

Thanks guys for the well wishes.

Just got back this evening for a couple of days.

Didn't take my top of the wet suit but the water up North is cold and now I need the upper half so had to come back (400+miles) the get it and a few other things like band-aids for the wrecked legs.

Put the dredge in last Sun. and pumped for about an hour and everything worked fine.

Dredged for two hours in the a.m. and two hours in the p.m. got a nice little button of gold.

Pics tomorrow.

[garimpo]

Got this from a friend in an eAN OLD FARMER'S ADVICE

* Keep your fences horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.

* Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

* Words that soak into your ears are whispered , not yelled.

* Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.

* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

* Do not corner something that is meaner than you.

* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

* You cannot unsay a cruel word.

* Every path has a few puddles.

* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

* The best sermons are lived, not preached.

* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.

* Don't judge folks by their relatives.

* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get

older and think back you'll enjoy it a second time.

* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.

* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

* The biggest troublemaker you'll ever

have to deal with watches you from

the mirror every mornin'.

* Always drink upstream from the herd.

* Good judgment comes from experience, and a

lotta that comes from bad judgment.

* Lettin'the cat outta the bag is a whole lot

easier than puttin' it back in.

* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some

influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

* Live simply,love generously,care deeply,speak kindly, & leave the rest

to God.

mail, some good advise, thought you'll might enjoy it.

[garimpo]

Ok as promised Mr. Southern.

I figured that if I started a new "adventure" on the 7th day of the 7th month maybe I'd have some good luck, not that I believe in that kind of superstitious stuff but just in case.

So got there on July 7 and cleaned out part of the cattle corral for our new home. Lots of ticks and ants(big ones) for company but not to worry since I have in the PU a can of tick powder that I bought for the neighbors dog.

Did a good clean up and then a very good liberal sprinkling of tick powder on the ground and then the tent went up. Good thing, in one week only saw one ant and got one tick. Hurray!!

Every day up at 0600, breakfast of Granola or beans and rice. New coffee is wonderful in the cold morning and in the outdoors.

Do the stretches and walk for a half mile in the sun to warm up.

Gasoline, air hose and regulator and tool box and off for the dredge. Only a couple of hundred yards.

My dredge is a McCracken 5" and the motors are two Honda's 5.5 hp. The shade I had made for my amigo that does the tending up above. It's not much of a shade but it does cut down the heat about 80%.

This entire river has gold in the gravels, the water this time of year is from knee deep to 6' deep, perfect.

The bedrock makes gradual and sudden rises and falls that cause large pockets in it. In front of the dredge the water is about waist deep and the gravel about 3' deep with foot ball size and down rocks. The gold here is finer and the bedrock is really jagged and cuts skin and flesh.

The first hole I punched was in deeper water and the gravel was only about two feet deep and the rocks were much larger.

To give you an ideal the size of a "larger" rock if you'll remember awhile back someone posted a pic of Bill Souther's belly casting a shadow, well that's about the size of the "larger" rocks, just short of winch size.

Five days of sampling three different holes here's the "button". Only 6 grams but really beautiful gold.

Hope to do better next week.

BTW- the pic of the river there is only about one hundred yards, in this area the river extends beyond the small grass islands and is about 400 yards long. Enough rock and gravel to keep a three man crew busy for at least two years of dredging.

[garimpo]

2300 and time for the sac.

Leaving for the river at 0600 tomorrow.

Hold my place in line here, will get back with you when I can.

[FlakMagnet]

Garimpo,

Good Hunting,

Good Times...

regards,

Flak

[Hammer]

Gold Luck and good gold--take care of your self---Hammer

[garimpo]

Hello Flak and Hammer and all you nice folks.

Just got back last night, tired to the bone, more later with pics.

[FlakMagnet]

Hi Garimpo,

Great to know you're back safe and sound (and exhausted).

Oh boy, pictures...

regards,

[garimpo]

Hi folks, made it back last night.

Each of these "adventures" are actually learning experiences.

I'll give you a small run down of events on the river.

The river there is beautiful. A dredgers dream, shallow water( some places too shallow), clear and clean.

When we were panning this stream we were getting gold (small 3-5 pieces) per pan.

The bed rock would rise up to the surface and then dive down so that the water was about shoulder deep and the over burden in the deep water was about 6' deep.

A lot of large rocks, not to large to move but took some grunting to talk them into relocating. Which I paid the price for at night and the next morning.

No matter how hard I tried I could never get more than 1 gram per day. Just to many rocks for one man to move. My amigo Andrea isn't a dredger so he stood top side and tended the dredge( sort of). Every time I had a rock jam I had to come up and give him the signal to "unjam".

Of all the people there the old couple that cooked for us are genuine wonderful people. He's in some of the pics coming up. He's (Matias) (82 years old and his wife is 63 years old. I don't think they have a picture of themselves so I took their pic and I'll have one developed for them.

Their neighbor is also 82 and has a new wife, she's 13 years old.

When we're in the river we have a gill net set out so we can have fish to eat instead of just the daily ration of dried beef, of course it's cooked and tasty.

First five days, 6 grams, second 5 days 3.9 grams. Expenses were 2 grams per day since I was paying Matias $20.00 per day for the cooking and bringing us the food to our camp.

Gasoline up there is $12.00 per gallon.

One day we had an unusual meal, we ate a dog. Excuse me, I meant to say a "dog fish".

Pic below, I'm guessing about a 10 or 12 pounder. Take a close look at the teeth.

Then a few days later, one of the bad boys in the same net. BTW, this net was about 50' from where we were dredging. The first week we think it was one of the dog fish that tore two big holes in my net. Could have been a crocodile also. Below is the Piranha. The black ones are the worst for a bad temper.

Matias and his wife in front of their house.

3.9 grams.

One of the river crossings, this is on the Black River. Damn thing looks good but is actually almost up to the head lights deep. In the trees on the other side was a car that tried the crossing and didn't make it, they had to go to a house about 1/2 mile away and get a team of horses to pull them the rest of the way through.

In this small village of about 400 people most of the folks there work for R$300.00 per month, that's $133.00 per month USD. In this pic what do you see wrong considering the income level?

Excuse me but I can't ever get these pics to come out in the sequence that I want them to but I think you can figure them out.

Last Sunday we drove to another river (River Paraná) 56 miles from where we were dredging. That river is about a 1/4 mile wide, deep and beautiful water with large islands of bedrock and rock and gravel with gold in them. Then road in was total 4x4 and a beast.

Well, that it for my latest tale of woe.

Sorry AZM, no pics of the library. Probably go back in Oct. for some beeping. Maybe then.

[TXKajun]

Welcome back safe and sound, garimpo. Thanks for the pics. As usual, your posts are better than reading National Geographic magazine!

HH, ya'll!

Kajun

[garimpo]

Thanks for the kind words Kajun.

I actually have more pics than I can post so I have to cull out a lot of pics. Example on this last post I ran out of space and had to leave out some pics.

[garimpo]

Subject: FW: Welcome to Arizona.

Just moved to Arizona. Now this is a state that knows how to live!!

Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:

Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car.

What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:

Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me.

Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:

The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat?

At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:

Fell asleep by the community pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do.

I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:

I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon.

The car now smells like Kibbles and $hits.

I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th:

The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!!

And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:

Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th:

It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 8th:

If another wise a$$ cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. D@mn heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th:

Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my a$$ was on fire.

My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and a$$ . . . Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried a$$, and baked cat.

Aug 10th:

The weather report might as well be a d@mn recording. Hot and sunny.

Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do $hit for 2 d@mn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.

Doesn't it ever rain in this d@mn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over.

Even the cactus can't live in this d@mn heat.

Aug. 14th:

Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead.

Forgot to crack the window and blew the d@mn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? “Hot enough for you today?"

My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Arizona.

What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.