Day 10: Friday, July 31

Our last day on the river and we're off to visit the town of Nauta - it's the town at the end of the paved road out of Iquitos - home to 14,000 people and site of a major market where many Ribereños (river people) come to sell their harvests and wares.





As our boat pulled up to the dock, guess who was waiting with a bag of tee-shirts? It was, of course, our friend Willy from the raft on the river. He was glad to see us and hoped we wanted shirts for all our friends and family.











But - first things first. Edgard gave us two assignments as we left the boat: (1) Using the 1 Sol (about 35 cents) coin he gave us, go into the market and buy a fruit or vegetable that we'd never seen before, and (2) Ask directions - in Spanish - from the local folks to find our way to the main square where we'd all meet Edgard and compare shopping experiences. All of the above was to be completed within the hour.






So -- off we went into a maze of buildings, lean-to shacks, tents, tables full of anything and everything imaginable. It was colorful, it was noisy, it was not very clean by U.S. standards, but it was wonderful. As we scoured the market in search of fruit, we saw some amazing images.

Tables are piled high with fresh fish and chicken, sitting out in the heat and humidity. Fish, meat, fruits and vegetables of every size, shape and color. Pots, pans, clothes, machetes, you name it ...

Live river turtles were turned over on their shells to prevent their escape as they were on sale in the market. The government is undertaking a big educational campaign to protect the turtles, but it's clear that there's more work to do. One of our fellow travelers did a rescue mission here - she bought the one turtle that was still alive and took him to a protected lake (see below) for release. His new name is Lucky - the locals thought she was nuts.

We'd probably still be wandering around trying to take it all in, but Willy and assorted other boys adopted members of our group and helped us find our way through the mayhem of the market – and around a few corners to the main square. Most of these kids were hoping we'd buy tee-shirts later, but some just wanted a chance to practice speaking English. Either way, they were delightful - and much better bargainers than we'll ever be.

With a little help from our newest friend, Brawley, we bought some exotic fruit – camu camu and aguaje. That done, we headed off to find the main square. Brawley wants someday to be a guide, so he practiced on us - showing us the church and the school and the police station, among other things.

As folks gathered in the square, the tee-shirt business got serious. We got some shirts from Brawley since he had been our guide through the market and Willy had his hands full with other customers.

Brawley gave us each a bracelet made from local seeds and we all posed for pictures. For about the 50th time, we wished for a Polaroid camera or a portable printer - these kids loved to see themselves in the camera - sure would have been nice to give them a picture.

They were great kids. Most of them said they gave all the money they made to their mothers; a couple said that they got to keep a small amount for themselves. Some of our group gave them some small gifts – even the bigshot businessman enjoyed blowing bubbles.

Meanwhile, back to Edgard - he wanted to see what we bought. He checked out all our purchases, explained what we had bought and how it was eaten or prepared. All the goods were piled in a basket and sent back to the ship for the chef to figure out something to do with them for the next couple of meals.

And then it was time for part two of touring Nauta town. Edgard had lined up a whole string of ‘motocaros’ - the noisy little three-wheel vehicles we had first seen in Iquitos. Our driver was Artesano - we said hello and settled in for a wild ride.

Our destination was Laguna Sapisapi, a lake where the mayor of Nauta has started a program to raise and protect river turtles.

We admired and fed the turtles - we couldn't identify which one was 'Lucky,' but he's out there somewhere.

Meanwhile, our chariots awaited us. The next leg of this trip was a drive through town to take a short spin on "the paved highway" - that famous road from Iquitos to Nauta.

We snapped some shots along the way, just to give an idea of life in town - quite different than where we spent the past week!

Out on the highway, we were amazed at this scene of highway workers clearing the right-of-way with machetes.

We stopped beside a lake to turn around and to take pictures, lots of pictures - everybody has an idea of a picture you should take ... Artesano and his passengers, Fran at the wheel, friends in the motokar in front of us, etc, etc.

As we got underway, the driver behind us kept blowing his horn. We turned around to have a look - Edgard had stashed the driver in the back and taken over the wheel for real. At one point in his storied career, he had been a motokar driver, so he was right at home.

We made it back to Nauta - our drivers let us out at the edge of the market, right by the river. We had illusions of finding some postcards here - no such luck, but there was still plenty to see.

A curbside restaurant - note the green things tied up with string - that's the 'juane' that we prepared in our cooking class earlier in the week. Even though everything looked delicious, nobody was brave enough to try the local version of this delicacy.

Bananas are for sale everywhere - big, big bunches of bananas. They're easy to find, easy to buy, but delivery is another matter - any idea how heavy that bunch is?

This woman was peeling and selling camu camu, one of the fruits we purchased earlier today. It's a delicious fruit, but our friend Mona wasn't so sure she wanted to try the street vendor version ...

This woman watched the fruit exchange and then asked me to take a picture of her and her daughter. The woman thought we were highly entertaining - clearly, her daughter thought otherwise.

Kids are everywhere – these were collecting empty plastic bottles.

Here's a lumber mill right on the river. As noted earlier, folks float logs down the river to the market in Nauta and boards can be milled right here.

Here's a sample of waterfront housing in Nauta. The view is nice, but ... we’d rather be upstream in one of those quiet little villages.

Adios, Nauta. All in all, it was quite a morning. We weren't at all sure that we wanted to spend our last morning in a town instead of on the river or in the jungle, but it turned out to be another interesting aspect of life along the Amazon.

Part of this afternoon was dedicated to packing for the flight home, but we took a little time off to watch a demonstration by the shipboard towelmasters, Javier and Marden. Folks had been amazed at the towel art in our rooms and now we can do the same at home. Ha.

We also spent a lazy hour sprawled out over the top deck for a 'chat' with Edgard and Neil. They reviewed the geography of the area, as well as our specific route along the Amazon and various tributaries. It was amazing to sit and talk with these people who were total strangers two weeks ago - we've shared so many experiences, now it seems like we're all old friends.

We all enjoyed one last Amazon sunset - it's beautiful in every direction - we'll all try to hold that image in our minds.

Dinner tonight was a grand affair, with the captain and all the crew dressing up and joining us for hugs and handshakes. Music was provided by all bands together - you guessed it already - the same foursome, led by Marden, the master musician.