Thursday, May 30, 2024
It’s not warm here. Who knew we’d need these layers for the Amazon? These past few days have been more overcast than not, and we asked for an extra blanket on our bed for last night. Our guide Francisco says that the last week in May and first weeks in June are the coldest in the Amazon. We’ve been surprised to see our room temperature at 68 degrees in the morning and low 70s mid-day when overcast.
Today, the remainder of the people who arrived on the same boat as us leave to boat back to Iquitos and fly back to Lima. Iquitos is a weird place. It has a population of about 500,000, and a metro area of something like 800,000, but the only way to reach it is by boat or air. There are no roads to get there.
Our tour today was a full day. No lunch in the dining room, and no two-hour rest afterwards. It’s just us, Francisco, and our boat captain Miller.
We set off at 7:30 or 7:40 and slowly motored down the river and towards a lake, and saw a ton of birds: Horned Screamer, Great Egret, kingfishers, Black Collared Hawk, Yellow-Headed Caracara, Roadside Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Black Fronted Nunbird, Greater Ani, Great Kiskadee, Black Capped Donacobius, Blue Grey Tanager, more Blue and Yellow Macaws, a woodpecker, and a bunch of tiny birds, some with amazing colors, but their names and photos didn’t make the Muyuna bird identification cards.
We also saw a few sloths, both male and female, more squirrel monkeys, Red Howler monkeys, and a capuchin or two.
After a while, we turned around and headed out of the lake and this section of the river and headed to a more isolated area. We see an abandoned lodge that was falling apart and motor under its bridge. Up this section of the river, we see more birds, a Speckled Caiman basking in the light, and a mama Horned Screamer and her four yellow chicks.
We tied our boat up to a tree and tried our hand at fishing. Using an Amazonian stick with fishing line as our fishing pole, we didn’t have much luck at the first place we tried. Miller moved the boat and we started to have better luck. Or maybe our skills are developing? Nathan catches the first big one. We take a few photos with the fish before he throws it back. Ack! Francisco and Miller give him a hard time because we’re supposed to be catching fish for our lunch, and he’s gone and tossed the first one back in the river.
We keep fishing and I turn out to be a great Amazonian fisherwoman. I caught 6 or so fish that made it into the boat without falling off into the water, and 4 of those we kept in our bucket for lunch. The other two were too little and were thrown back. We managed to keep 10 in total, so of the four of us, I caught 40% of the fish.
Miller motors our boat further up the tributary and eventually, we pull into a little area that had a few small buildings. This is where we will be cooking lunch.
There was a picnic table there, a small raised platform with a roof for camping, and two small cooking structures. Miller started cooking rice and a fish stew, while Francisco cleaned the fish. We fried two and smoke the rest.
Nathan cut up a cucumber and tomato for salad, while Francisco boiled a few beets and made fried plantains. We added the beets to the salad once done, and also added a few hard-boiled eggs that Miller made in the pot with the rice. A little lime juice over the top and the salad was done.
There’s way too much food. The kitchen sent us with catfish, I’d guess, just in case we didn’t catch any fish, so the fish stew and rice, plus plantains and salad is more than enough, plus we have the two fishes we’ve fried. I’m stuffed.
After lunch, Miller cleaned up the campsite, and we follow Francisco on a hike through the jungle. The path was undefined, but Francisco seems to know where to go. We see giant trees, a few millipedes, a blue morpho butterfly, and yet another maggot who’s known for tasting like coconut. No thanks. We also stumbled upon a half-finished mahogany dug-out canoe. Francisco said it’s been in this state for a while so it might have been an abandoned project.
We hike out to where Miller is waiting for us on the boat. It takes a few minutes to catch his attention. I think he was having a little post-lunch siesta.
We reboard the boat, and motor back to the lodge. By now it was 4:40, so I showered, and we got ready for happy hour and dinner.
Since we had an all-day tour with no rests, Francisco gave us the option to pick what we did this evening. We could have chosen to do nothing, but I suggested that we have one last canoe ride. We saw a few frogs, fireflies, and a little bird. Once on the dock, we had a few giant grasshoppers hitchhiking on our lifejackets, so we saw some big bugs too.
Tomorrow we leave the Amazon and fly to Lima, and our Peruvian adventure is coming to an end.