Up early again today - before the sun. It was well worth the effort. We were treated to a gorgeous sunrise, watching the local fishermen head out into the river.As the sun came up, one of the fishermen approached the ship. He had quite a load of fish in the bottom of his canoe - the crew called up the chef, who came to check it out - he ended up buying 4 big bowls full of fish - enough to feed everybody for lunch and dinner!
As soon as we got in our boat, the dolphins came to say hello. These were both the gray and pink fresh water river dolphins, found only in the Amazon and its tributaries. Edgard said we had come out to play with the dolphins, but it clearly was the other way around - the dolphins swam around our boat and jumped wherever we weren't looking. They surface so quickly that picutes were just about impossible - lots of shots of water, but we know that there are dolphins in these pictures - look hard!
Reluctantly, we left the dolphins and headed on up the Rio Yanayuca. Here we saw a man planting corn in the strip of land newly exposed by the receding water.
This shot of a lone fisherman also shows the high water mark - the dark line on the tree trunks is about 12 feet higher than the current water level.
Further up the Yanayacu River, we passed a small village. Houses built near the water may have some advantages, but they clearly must be able to accommodate some serious flooding.We saw several hawks along the river's edge, and our clever guides tried to coax them into action by throwing small fish out for them to eat. It's actually pretty hard to throw a small fish any great distance and the hawks just stared at us.
Our antics did attract some attention from some local fishermen in a canoe. They paddled over to say hello and we gave them some salt.
Eventually, we found a semi-shady spot along the river and enjoyed a breakfast picnic, complete with trays, cloth napkins and lots of food. Getting us ready for manual labor?Well fed, now it's time to get to work. We're going fishing for our supper - piranha. These fearsome little fish are a dietary staple for many of the indigenous people in the rainforest and are said to be one of the best eating fish in South America. After a big discussion among the guide, naturalist and crew about which spot was the perfect spot, we tied up and got ready for catching piranhas.
Freddy the bartender was onboard, not to mix drinks but to demonstrate his fishing skills. With a light pole, a simple hook and a little chunk of raw meat for bait, he made it look easy.
He also showed us the famous teeth of this pretty little fish and advised us to keep hands out of their way.
Piranhas aren't terribly selective about what they eat, so catching them isn't too difficult. Just drop a baited hook where they are swimming and here they come. They are very clever about stealing bait before you know what happened, but we got the hang of it.
It didn't take too long to use up all our bait, but we caught enough fish for supper. Note - piranha have a light, nutty-tasting flesh, but it's a lot of work to eat them. They have LOTS of tiny bones - picking the meat out is reminiscent of eating blue crabs.
While we fished, we got a look at a couple of blue and yellow macaws.
On the way back to the ship, we spotted another three-toed sloth.
After lunch and a short rest, it's time for a swim. Yes, this is the same river in which we caught piranha just a while ago, but not quite the same spot - we stopped in the middle of the river - hopefully, a safe distance from ye old fishing hole. We were a little anxious, but when else will we be able to say we had the chance to swim in the Amazon.
We didn't see any piranhas, but we did see dolphins - once again they teased and entertained us. After getting her feet wet, Margaret was on the boat with camera in hand and got a couple of nice shots - one large dolphin and three smaller ones. The very idea of swimming in the Amazon with pink river dolphins made this swimming experience one of the most memorable events of the week.
After we tired ourselves out chasing dolphins and fighting the current, we were ready to head back to the ship. But, wait - a canoe full of people approaches – perhaps the word has gotten out that these tourists bring gifts?Indeed we did have gifts - we had bought a couple of machetes to bring home as souvenirs, but ... they were much too big to fit in our suitcases. So - we told Edgard that we'd give them to some of the local folks - and today is the day for that to happen.
First Fran presented a machete to one happy man,
then Margaret presented hers to another happy guy.
Unfortunately, the young man in the back of the boat only got a bag of salt.
Our ship was back at the Pacaya-Samiria Ranger Station - and a crowd was gathering with handicrafts, of course. While we got showers and dry clothes, the crew brought some of the kids over to the ship to show us their wares.
For a bargain price, we bought a small carving of a white heron. The carving is made from the seed of the ivory palm tree. The whitish seed looks very much like ivory and folks in this area are known for doing beautiful work with this material.
Soon after we left the ranger station, we came to the junction of the Yucayali River (the black river where we'd been fishing and swimming) and the seriously muddy Marañon River, rushing down from the Andes Mountains. The mixing of the two waters is quite dramatic.
After lunch, some folks opted for siesta time, but we went along for a walk on shore - in a seasonally flooded forest. The water is gone now, but not the mud. Edgard and other crew went over in advance and created a landing spot for the boat.
We had barely set foot on land when one of the local men stepped forward to show us a snake he had just caught. It was a yellowish-green whip snake, about six feet long.
We thanked him for his efforts and plunged on down the trail - with a local man, armed with machete, accompanying us to clear the trail. It surely takes a long time for this area to dry out - the water has been gone for two months, but the trail still was barely passable.
For our efforts, we caught glimpses of birds, but no pictures. We did see an absolutely gigantic fig tree. Our local guide banged a big stick against the hollow buttresses - he told us he was calling anacondas. Terrific.
Quickly, before the snakes arrived, we posed for a picture. It was too big to get the whole base in a photograph - and forget about seeing the top - it must have been a mile up in the canopy overhead.It was a short walk, but nice to get a glimpse of a part of the forest that is underwater about six months of the year. It's difficult to imagine how all these plants survive.
Once again, we were grateful for the crew who told us to leave our muddy shoes on the lower deck. While we went on to other adventures, our shoes were magically cleaned and returned to us. A very nice touch!
One reason we had to cut our walk short was that folks were waiting for us down the way at the village of Las Palmas. This town has received money from the Grand Circle Foundation to modernize its school and to build a medical clinic. For every traveler on a trip with either Overseas Adventure Travel or Grand Circle Travel, $10 is given to the Grand Circle Foundation. The Foundation uses the money to support community needs in areas of its tours. And so ... this was a visit to see how "our" money was being spent.
As we got off the boat, we had a nice look at a typical house, with detached kitchen. The lady of the house had a wicked looking brew on the 'stove' - she told us she was making a corn based drink for a big event in the next few days. She and her husband were hosting a community gathering to have folks help them clear a field for planting - and she was busy preparing food and drink to sustain their efforts - the rainforest version of an old-fashioned barn-raising.
We followed four cute kids across the soccer field to the school building, where folks were gathering to check us out.
The school building is fine structure - built with real boards and a tin roof. The smaller brown building to the left is the new clinic - still under construction. Inside the school, there’s one big room - big kids at one end, little kids at the other.
The government provides a teacher for the village (kindergarten - elementary only) and the community provides housing for the teacher. Don't laugh - it's one of the nicer places in the neighborhood.
Without being told, the kids lined up by gender and by height. With Edgard's encouragement, they sang for us and we returned the favor. Edgard also "interviewed" most of the kids and got them to tell us names and ages and what they wanted to be when grown up. Lots of teachers coming out of this place!
We brought bags of school supplies and the kids were excited to check it all out. The village head man made quite a speech telling us how much they appreciated what we had done to help them improve things for their children.
And the children were adorable ...
After saying our good-byes, we headed back up the Marañon River - right into a rainbow and the only rain of the whole trip. At this point on a warm afternoon, nobody was complaining - it felt pretty good to cool off.
We went into the National Reserve again, this time for a boat ride on Nauta Caño Creek. This was a quiet little black water creek, alive with birds.
We saw another three-toed sloth; this one was quite 'active' high in a treetop.
One more beautiful Amazon sunset and then settle down for tonight's special entertainment. Edgard and his friends from the band(s) sang and danced and acted out several traditional Amazon folk tales, all accompanied by music and other sound effects.
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