February 20 and 21, DAY ONE AMAZON ADVENTURE

We are on a lake tributary off the Napo River, one of the 17 major tributaries of the Amazon River. This is the largest water system in the world and pours more fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean than the Nile, Mississippi and one other I can´t remember combined! Apparently where it is actually called the Amazon in Peru or Brazil, it is over 10 miles wide and you can´t see across! It can rise as much as a foot in just an hour, as we saw when we returned to Coco yesterday. It was a lovely, albeit cloudy day as we set out and I thought we´d have a much more pleasant trip than coming down. But shortly after we reached the parrot claybank, it started to POUR! I was further back this time, next to a lovely Berlin girl (she´s working on her doctorate in psychology - her dad´s a psychologist, mom a teacher, and her boyfriend, a doctoral student in IT security systems, I think she said. She had been an exchange student in Guayaquil for a year during high school and learned Spanish. They were in another group so I hadn´t gotten to talk with her before and I´m afraid I talked her ear off, with her encouragement and questions, most of the way to Coca!! She has an older sister and will become an aunt to a new nephew soon. I think they were traveling for 3 weeks or so.


Anyway, I was warmly tucked under my tarp this time, so kept my face out in the rain. It was warm but heavy and felt like a facial, until almost the end when it fell sideways and more like sleet in my face, but not cold. But the others up front were miserably huddled completely under their tarps like turtles! The river was so swollen we kept having to slow down and swerve to avoid hitting logs or to let the propeller recover. I thought sure we were going to blow a prop and be paddling!


So back to first day! Breakfasts each morning were at 5:30 or 6 a.m. to see the birds wake up. We all had been given ¨"boots", this clunky rubber almost to the knees lifesaving boots that we tromped down to the dining room in, and then removed because they were usually muddy. We had a different juice each morning, one day watermelon, another cantaloupe and I think the last day was tea - Ocean didn´t care for that! Delfin always gave us information about conservation and ecological issues and efforts in the area. We had passed one of the propane gas flames from one of the working oil companies on our way downriver. He lives now, with his wife and 17 month old daughter, in the town of "Shell!, you guessed it! Named after Shell oil in the 60s. He was raised until 14 in a different indigenous community where his 80 year old mom still lives aways from Shell. He was helped with his education by his older brother and a man who was doing NGO type work (non-governmental office) in his community. He said he had recently returned from southern Illinois where he had spent 6 months studying ESL. He knew so much about his environment but had to learn the English names for things to be a guide.





We also had choice every day of omelette, scrambled eggs, or oatmeal. I ttried once to order over-easy, and they came in scrambled, which was fine. Also a plate of fresh fruit, bread or rolls, butter (mantequilla - not sure on spelling, one of my few Spanish words!) and marmalade. Of course, coffee or tea for those who wanted it. After 1/2 hour of breakfast and washing up, we were off in a canoe with Delfin paddling in the front and another Sani guy in the back, always prepared with our rain ponchos.





We paddled stopping to site birds - it was amazing to watch Delfin´s hunting eyes from the side and he spotted things I would NEVER spot in the greenery. Bob and Joan were pretty experienced birders so they threw names back and forth and species were spotted. Leslie is really into the jungle and plants so was more interested when we were out of the boat. And Omar had this camera with a terrific lens to get some great pictures (we will all share).

After a 15 minute boat ride, we disembarked and walked on a muddy path for maybe 15 minutes, again stopping to look at bright orange roots from a regular looking tree, and once in awhile monkeys up in trees hopping around. We saw, and heard, reddish howler monkeys yelling across the jungle, staking their territory and warning others. From the canopy later we spotted them in a faraway tree. I gave my camera to Delfin who was able to put my small lens against the scope to get some amazing pictures (posted later!).

T`he canopy was in a HUGE kapok tree, with a platform maybe 20 meters up the side, like climbing the Eiffel tower! Green metal see-through steps and kind of wiggled. ¨Judy, I don´t think you would have made this one!! Once at the top, of course, I was last!, was a wooden treehouse platform looking out in all directions in the canopy. These large trees form the top layer of the rainforest, then lower down trees usually where the animals were, and by the time you reached the ground, it wasn´t thick like you would expect but fairly clear walking, as the sun rarely reaches here. And all the plants are fighting for the sunlight!

We spent maybe a couple of hours spotting various things - mostly birds and monkeys - before heading back for lunch around 1. Soups every day for lunch or dinner were outstanding! I loved every one, and each was different - mostly broths and vegetables. One day was jungle pork, lots of yuca, some rice, and some kind of small salad - one day a delicious radish with nuts and raisin salad - would have never put those together but I loved it.





Siesta time and dry off time was in the afternoon. But we really NEVER got dry the whole time and the clothes and our hiking boots never dried out! That afternoon around 4 we did another boat ride through the sunset - although it was just darkening as I never saw the sun the whole time! 

On the way back Delfin had a flashlight through the reeds trying to spot cayman - alligators! He spotted a couple but I only saw the eyes. They come to the edge and reflect in his light. And the frogs put up a huge ruckus, but the only one I saw one partly sticking out of a snake´s mouth back at the lodge one of the guys caught and later they either took it away from him or he spit it out. It was lying flattened and dead on the walkway!

After dinner there was a night walk to see insects with flashlights that I passed on! I showered and read my Isabel Allende book Inez about 1500 century in SA and this Spanish woman´s adventure. It covers around the time of Pizarro and conquering Peru and Chile. Betty saw a few insects. She also yelped the first night and wanted me to come in the bathroom. I refused! Then finally peeked at the millipede, which is ugly but we didn´t know, completely harmless! 

Good Buddhist that I am, she picked it up on a paper and I opened the door to our cabin for her to throw it out! Later Delfin held one and let us touch it and watch it curl up into a ball. The centipede, which we didn´t see, is not harmless! We also saw later a hairy tarantula that one of the guys brought down to crawl on the dock post to get pictures. Eeeuw!!! I tucked the top of my boots under my mattress each night, just in case!!



That was day one! We nestled in our cozy mosquito netting tented bed and listened to the animals in the forest when the electricity went out at 10 pm. Betty´s alarm clock was in her backpack so I used my cell phone alarm from now on to wake up. They also blow what sounds like a big conch shell quietly to announce meals!



Another day, another blog! It´s 2:45 and time to get ready for long flight to Lima, a layover of a couple of hours and on to Cusco, high in the Andes and Macchu Picchu. Think we will rest a day an acclimate to the altitude. Have my coco leaf tea!