We have an update on the story of Martin Strel, who’s swimming the length of Amazon, braving the piranha and the candiru (shudder) for world peace. He’s been at it for a little less than two weeks, has 8 weeks to go, and he’s got a major sunburn: Blistering sun main threat so far for Amazon swimmer.

Apparently, he left sunscreen off the expedition checklist.

Strel, 52, began the swim on February 1 in the Peruvian jungle town of Atalaya, planning to emerge from the river within 70 days on Brazil’s Atlantic coast and break his own record for the world’s longest swim.

He was prepared for just about any threat the Amazon could throw at him, including its piranhas, snakes, electric eels, crocodiles and even the feared toothpick fish that swims into body orifices, erects a spine and feeds on blood and tissue.

The sun was not his biggest concern, but now it is. “I pray for three days of rain and I will be a new man again,” a sunburnt Strel told Reuters on Friday by e-mail.

Expedition manager Borut Strel said his father was having to alter his swimming timetable to avoid the sun as much as possible. Strel’s team, which includes doctors and river guides, cut up a T-shirt to cover his face as he swims. “So far the biggest problem has been the sun. We have not even had two days of rain, all day its just sun. Martin’s face is burnt, his lips are burnt. He has blisters, big blisters,” Borut Strel said by satellite phone.

They did remember the blood, though. Buckets of it.

Ahead of Strel, who has dropped 11 lb (5 kg) in a week, still lies Iquitos, notorious for waters infested by ferocious, flesh-eating piranha.

His team has prepared buckets of animal blood, loaded onto support boats to distract the fish and reptiles.

Near the end of his journey he will face a tidal bore, or wave, about 13 feet (4 meters) high, known as the Pororoca.