Sunday, July 8, 2012

Our Amazing Amazon Adventure - Day 2

We awoke with the sun, enjoyed some scrambled eggs and enjoyed a few moments before heading down-river. 

We leaned on the deck and watched some little kids checking their fishing nets not far off. They noticed us and paddled their wooden canoe over. They had a nice catch of fish in the bottom of their boat. They would be enjoying a nice meal today of catfish. Throughout this trip I watching hundreds of boats, young and old, men and women checking their nets. Slowly they work their way down the net, lifting it out of the water and gathering it in their hands. Carefully untangling a fish then letting the net drop back into the water. They continue to work, meticulously moving down the net. Holes are not good so they are very careful. Life revolves around survival from the river in the Amazon.

We settled in the boat for the next 6 hours. Our journey took us down the Amazon river with Colombia on our left and Peru on our right. After a short time Colombia turned into Brazil on our left, the river always dividing the countries.

 After a few hours we needed to pee. Our guide looked at us like we were nuts.
 "You can't wait?"
 Nope.
The boat pulled over to the shore, we stepped out, and sunk. The water level of the Amazon is constantly changing. In rainy season the level can rise up to 40 feet and then it drops in dry season. We were visiting in the beginning of the dry season so the level had dropped by about 12 feet. We could see the difference in the colors of the leaves and the trees had a line where the water level had been only a few weeks ago. The banks of the Amazon this time of year are mud.
Note the mud up my legs!

We turned off the Amazon river onto the Rio Yavari. The Amazon has a thick, muddy brown look to it because it originates in the Andes Mountains. The Yavari has a lighter color because it originates in the rainforest. According to my guide book, "Within reach of large stretches of virgin forest, the meandering Rio Yavari offers some of the best opportunities to see the Amazon up close and undisturbed." - Yeah!

Rio Yavari opened up a new world of nature to us. We were soon watching grey river dolphins jump. We kept our eyes peeled. We were on the look-out for the Pink Amazon Dolphin. The pink dolphin is an endangered species living in the fresh waters of the Amazon. The female can grow up to 8 ft. in length. It's fin is a low triangle so they don't jump out of the water like we typically think of dolphins doing. We watched for them to surface enough to blow the air out of their hole before sinking back into the water. We began to become pretty good at spotting them and yes, indeed they are pink!

I need to make a little note here. The dolphin thing was very cool, but after having experienced swimming with Moko, having her freak me out by swimming between my legs and fighting with her to let my kayak into shore in NZ, seeing a dolphin 50 feet away was a let down. I had to get on the computer to see what they looked like and to get a feel of their size.
Grey dolphin

Six hours on the river can be a long ride. The kids sat in the bow of the boat, read, and slept. I found myself gazing at the life around me. Birds darting between trees, dolphins jumping, fish jumping into the boat, people fishing... In the stillness there is so much activity.

 Towns were very far apart and only had access to one another by the river.  We made a short stop in the town of Atalaya, Brazil to stretch our legs and check out the local market.   From the Rio Yavari we made another turn onto a little tributary that we were told would be dried-up in a month. We traveled for another 30 minutes before arriving at our lodging. An eagle soared overhead guiding our way.

We settled in, got over our shock of having to look at trees while sitting on the toilet and rested.

Piranha fishing was our next adventure. We piled all 6 of us plus our guide into a wooden canoe and paddled out to a lake area. The guide unwrapped his raw beef and began faithfully baiting our hooks. No more was needed than a stick and a hook with some meat before the fish were biting like crazy. We couldn't keep up. There were 3 types of small fish we were catching. We kept the piranha and another pan-fish type thing and threw the rest back. All was fun until Chad cried out in pain. He got bit. So if you ever wonder if it's really true that piranha will eat people, yep, it is!

After fishing the guide had the brilliant idea of paddling to the end of the lake before heading home. I paddled along thinking the whole time "we still have to paddle back". It was a long trip but we made it.

Looking forward to a shower I grabbed my things. Another 3 sided deal looking out into the woods. Fortunately it was getting dark out. No worries. The water for the lodge was collected in large containers from the rain, so no hot or cold. After lots of squealing I was clean and headed to dinner.

A bowl was placed in front of me with a piranha floating there. I was really hungry but I just looked down at that fish looking up at me. I sipped at the broth and picked at the fish. It wasn't really that bad - very heavy in the cilantro department - and I should enjoy the fruit of my labors but I just couldn't do it.

Wearily I headed to bed. I looked at the mosquito netting and noted the spider on the outside. Good enough for me. I climbed in and made sure the netting was nicely tucked in around my mattress. A little while later, Chad came it. Spider on the netting was not good enough for him!

 Safe and secure under the netting, we snuggled in and enjoyed the sounds of the night before drifting off into a deep sleep.

 - Kris

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