Yes, we did swim with piranha and caymen and the pink dolphins and apparently with the boa's and anaconda's too in the middle of the jungle, not too far from the border of Peru, and it was just totally incredible!
Let me backtrack a good long way first. We are so incredibly busy here all the time that we are seriously going to have to lay around the house like slugs for a good few days to recover. Its just amazing. They typical day starts at around 5am when the Manatee Explorer pushes off from whatever tree we have been tied to and heads back down the river..... then we all get some gentle music piped into our airconditioned cabins at around 5.30am.. Ok wait Kate and mom and kids and everyone that knows me!!! I know I dont do mornings very well at all, but this is something else... this falls outside of the category of anything I have ever known, so not only do I actually get up with the first note of that music plays - I do it with a smile! Frank, as always, greets the day with a huge grin, except now he has this stunned look as he sees me bustling around the small cabin, only too keen to get going..Many times I am out of the cabin before him..
Ok - so we start early, head out in the motorized canoe on some adventure either up or down the river or in a tributary, The Manatee Explorer then heads on along her path and we catch up with her, getting back home in time for lunch. Then, after and hour or so, we head back out in a different direction. Every day has two activites and the inbetween time is taken up by me downloading all my photos and both of us getting our feet up for a while..... but I dont want to miss anything - so I cant stay down long. Everyone here already knows that I take photos of everything and anything, whether is moves or not and a good many comments have been laughingly made about me not being able to go more than a few steps without taking yet another photo. I have Frank clicking away happily much of the time too :) .
Yesterday, which was Saturday, we all crawled into the canoe - this is a looooong wooden canoe with benches. The driver sits at the back with his hands on a good sized motor each and a grin that splits his face wide open. It is obvious that he really enjoys his job! He reads the water so incredibly well and manoevers this boat around as smoothly as one could imagine. And so we each get a bench to plonk ourselves on - only two per bench, which is awesome as normally in tourist places, they crunch as many people into a tiny a place as possible.......... here, everyone gets a window seat! As we sit, the backrest for the bench in front is put in, the cushions put down and the next couple of people sit down and so on - all the way to the front. There is a tarp roof that we opened up after the first cool hour or so, and this allows a full sky view of the birds and trees. And so on Saturday we tootled down to a smaller river that leads off the Napo River and started exploring... This place is phenomenal! The reflections are stunning, the different shades of green totally beyond description and the birds sing and flit around from tree to tree and the peace and quiet and wholeness of the place is such a deep feeling.. We saw some monkies too and heard a good many things we did not. All of the other passengers on here are 'bird people', so they all look in the trees and sky, almost, it seems, not noticing the stunning scenery. Frank and I watch closer to the water for the snakes and ground animals - we know the bird people will let us know when an exciting bird arrives.
The most memorable moments of the day for me were when we saw some Blue Morpho butterflies flitting around. Everything is green and beautiful and then there arrives this most incredible, irridescent blob of blue and it hops itself gently and elegantly in and out of the foliage and skims the top of the water. There is no ways to capture this in a photograph at all, so its one of the many things that will just have to live on in our minds instead. It rained sometime during the morning, and we quickly closed the roof up and scooted inwards from the edges of the canoe and watched it pour - creating bubbles that sat, happily perched on the surface of the water.... just lovely.
Then we came back to the Manatee Explorer for lunch, a quick lunch and download of the photos, two minutes feet up and time to head out again. This time we went to visit one of the little towns along the banks of the Napo River. This is one of the bigger towns and holds the hospital for a very, very large area around here. many miles of jungle is covered by this hospital, yet very few use it. We were fortunate enough to be able to take a tour of the hospital, and as there were no patients at the time, we were able to get a good view of all the rooms and laboratories. It is a teaching hospital as well as ......well, I forgot the correct name now. its when they have the technology to consult with other doctors worldwide over the internet to discuss a patients needs - in real time... They hook the patient up and then have a conference with other doctors, re the type of injury - most often and instect or animal bite - and either teach other doctors about the issues being dealt with here, or get advice. It's tremendously advanced considering its remoteness especially. Also, they are only now starting to get the local people to accept that 'western medicine' can and actually does work and help at times, and they now get about 5 women a month coming to get help with thier births. They have a good exray dept with all the equipment but are just waiting for the humid season to pass before packing it out again, they have an up to date lab with airconditioning and a bone white baby monkey fetus in a jar that looks like ET, hospital beds and the rooms are all very sweet and well done. There are huge open spaces to the outside and to let a breeze through if its there... they have a garden with chickens and flowers and all and treat the patient as a whole person - not just a number.... Now all they need are a few more patients! And lots of patience too, I guess.
And then we walked through their town...... well along one road of it. There are only two roads in town and they are not more than about a quarter of a mile each! We went to get something cool to drink. There was not much to buy there and it always surprises me how so many really small stores have the biggest displays of huge bra's! I mean huge.... Sorry, but this was not the first time I noticed it and it does seem a bit strange. ANYways...... the little shop was not very big, as I said and was all built from huge, wide Mahogany planks. We had to almost push a course through the merchandise and were keenly watched for any signs of buying.... There was just nothing there that anyone of us wanted to take home.... so we sat on their porch for a while, on a bench that probably was not made for 'super sized Americans', and watched...........well, nothing at all happen! Then suddenly there was a smell of cooking meat and we went around the corner to find three very lubricated Ecuadorians bbq-ing what looked like a ton of meat! It must have been at least a cow's worth of meat on that grid...it was not a normal grid at all. But the photos will tell more of that story better than I can. Hopefully I will be able to get some up this coming weekend when we are back in Quito.
As we were leaving the town we had to wait as a new item was being delivered to town - a motorbike! Yup, probably the town's first motorbike. They already had two bicycles but evidently the motorbike was a much wanted item too. We watched as four healthy, beaming Ecuadorians hauled that bike out of the wooden canoe that it had made it 5 hour journey up river in, pushed it up the ganplank and with great glee and aplomb, kickstarted that sucker and gave that town its very first wheelie!! I think he reached third gear when he ran out of road and had to turn around again.....
Most of the houses we saw there are straw roofed or built of wood - they mostly look totally incomplete and when we could get a glimpse inside it made each one of us very grateful and yet envious in a way of being able to live so simply.
After we got home, we heard that the "missing 8", those passengers that were screaming upriver to try to catch us, were almost here, so we parked along the rivers edge to wait for a while. By now it was getting awfully close to 6pm and thats when the sun sets and none of us wanted them on the water at night, so the Captain pulled us over. It was not long before a tiny little power speed boat came racing around the corner of the river, spraying a huge fan of water in its eagerness to catch us and our 8 had arrived. The boat stopped and us 'old passengers' wondered if there really were 8, the boat seemed too small to carry them all. But out they came, and came, and came and came - they just kept pouring out of that tiny little hull! They were all so incredibly tired after just under 6 hours of high speed racing up the river. And so for the first time, the Manatee Explorer was properly full...She can take 15 couples and I think we are at 13. The film crew left early this morning moving on to a lodge alongside the river instead..
Ok - on to today - Sunday..... Up early - 5am. We hopped onto the canoe at 5.30am.. ok, well, its not a hop. The Manatee is moving along at around 7 knots when they pull the canoe alongside her, then we all get on to the canoe while the water rushes just inches below our feet - its awesome!. Anyway - off we went very early this morning - not even having breakfast first.... We headed upriver towards a tributary of the river we were now on, which is a tributary of the Napo River. We were headed up to the lakes where the Pink Dolphin are most often seen.... The picture in my mind was literally blown away by the beauty we saw along the way getting there, The water was dead calm and the reflections just stunning all the way. Many times we stopped to look at a bird or monkeys and when it was a decent time for breakfast we pulled alongside a fallen tree, tied off and had breakfast right there in the middle of absolutley nowhere. Just freaking amazing. The quiet is indescribable and makes my jaw drop in wonder, the bird calls and monkey chatter is almost continual although we definitely dont see most of what we hear.
And then it was time to head to the bathroom........... we had been promised a "relief stopover' and none of us was quite sure what to expect as all we were told was that it was 'sort of primitive'. The snout of the canoe was driven up onto the rivers edge, the tourguides hopped out with a bag and proceeded to put up a tent in the little clearing that was used for a toilet! Oh boy did we laugh....... There was absolutley no way that I could have gone in there, even if I needed to - but others had much greater need than I did and it was well used.. I started to wander off to explore but really quickly discovered that each tree had attached to it, one occupied male...... so I headed back to the clearing and walked around less used areas until it was time to go. That little blue, upright tent was a scream, and yes, I do have photos :)
Then on we went towards Dolphin lake.... I wish I could honor all the Guides' talks by remembering the names of these places, but there is little chance of that so late and after so much information - that will have to wait till later....... We noticed that the vegetation changed, from Jungle as one would think a jungle looks like, to open lakes and green grass and shorter trees and ........well just pure beauty.. As we came into the lake area, there was a fair sized Cayman - its like an alligator - and the pink dolphin were jumping all around. They anchored the canoe and most of us jumped overboard! What a feeling.... yes we knew there was a cayman just there, yes we knew there were piranha there and the dolphins are not tame in any way whatsoever... and there are snakes and boa constrictors and anacondas - but those we have not seen yet...... but we jumped in and had the most amazing swim! The water has pockets of lovely warm water and just as you start to say how lovely that is, a patch of ice cold hits you. We spent a good half hour in the water and I was really reluctant to get out, but as we were the last in, apart from one of the guides, we headed back to the canoe and an ice cold beer. :) How much more perfect could that get?
And back to the Manatee Explorer we headed, a good bit faster than when we came up. We were all wet, relaxed and super happy and really enjoyed the ride back again. We stopped for some more monkey's and plenty of birds and Frank spotted a Capybara which is a really rare find here apparently, as is the Cayman. I got some photos of it, which is great!
Home for lunch, a little break and then we headed out to walk at the military post - on the Ecuador side. As we came out of the one river, which is a Black water river and I will get to this in a later email, we had the sign for Peru on our left and Ecuador on our right. When we first came up here this morning, we had to stop and check in with the both countries to let them know we are here. It was definitely a strange feeling for some reason as its not like the military we know - it looks so casual and run by really young guys. Anyway - no problems at all....So this afternoon we headed back to the Ecuador Miltary Post for our Jungle walk.... Unfortunaltely I know I am going to skimp on this part a bit from pure tiredness - it was fascinating, huge huge leaves, monkeys,. woodpeckers, birds, beautiful flowers, lichen, bats, tiny frogs, spiders and all the glurbies a jungle can and did deliver. Hopefully we take a walk again when we are a little less mellow and tired.
So here we are again - parked alongside the river bank, pitch dark outside with fireflies flitting around everywhere - which reminds me that up at the lakes with the dolphins where the green colors were all brighter too, there are no mosquitoes! Yup - none!
Its been a long and totally wonderful day and I have lots more to say but that will have to wait too. So much is happening every minute - there is so much to see and learn and absorb and feel and experience and I am not coving it well enough right now. Tomorrow morning is another 5.30am wake up,, but at least we have breakfast here before we go. We will be swimming again tomorrow with the fishes and other creatures...and then in the afternoon we will go for a gentle walk on one of the river islands where there are wonderful sandbanks and unique bird life too. The food on board is just great, and we all eat together - the guides, captain and the passengers. I am off to wish the night outside goodnight and then get a few hours sleep before tomorrow arrives again.Geez, I got a tad disjointed there.....
Till next time
love and light
Annie
ps - any errors in typing or sentence construction is to be put down to a tiny travelling laptop that does not fit my fingers well, as well as to a definite lack of time to check and recheck... so if something does not make sense, please let me know......thanks
1 comment:
I am laughing at the "tent" potty
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