We were told we had to wake up at 5:30 and be ready for 6am
for our trek in the morning. We left maybe at 6:10 with a light rain hanging
around. I am sure it rained all night though.
The skiff took us a few minutes to a park ranger station where we signed
in to prove we weren’t poachers then they took us up to a spot that had a few
pink dolphins and we grounded the skiffs and they served us breakfast outdoors.
They had sandwiches, fruit and cookies. They brought us coffee and orange juice.
I ate the chicken sandwich but skipped the egg sandwich. After breakfast they gave us a quick pee stop
across the river from where we ate then it was on to the walking trek of the
preservation.
We climbed out of the boats after about an hour long ride,
it was hard to tell exactly, where we saw several birds including toucans and
even another sloth in a tree. I like the
picture I got for this one because it shows the toes very well.
Inside the preserve we walked around for what was probably
an hour and a half or so in a great loop around a small lake that was covered
in lily pads from one end to the other.
The idea was to see monkeys during the hike but the best we did for
monkeys was some distant looks of them from the boat before we got out. There really was very few wildlife things to
see unfortunately. A tour mate from Lima commented even, we are in the jungle,
where are the animals? The guide did
find a red snake that was not poisonous and did not have fangs. It mainly ate
bird eggs he said. We got to touch and
even hold it before he released it among us.
It got testy for a few minutes but then we moved away from it and it
slithered off. Otherwise mostly we saw
trees and insects. I would like to say
it was more epic than that unfortunately it didn’t turn out so.
We got back on the skiff and headed straight for the boat
which took a fair while also. Probably
about an hour or more. We saw more birds
along the way. We were given a few minutes then those of us that wanted to go
to swim in the water were going to be taken right outside the boat to do so.
Daniela wanted to so I agreed to go and we did actually go into the water and
swim around for a few minutes. I switched my memory card to the waterproof
camera and we took some pictures from in the water. I am sure they are bad
because I really couldn’t see the screen but still it is authentic I
guess. There were pink dolphins swimming
right near us all along. The guides said it is safe because the water is black
water (meaning murky and brackish rather than whitish). They didn’t go in which I think should
concern me but all the same it seemed safe.
There were no piranhas anyway.
The water was warm and cool all at once. It hit in waves. I had to use the life jacket of course. I didn’t stay in for too too long but enough
to say I really did it.
After the swim we got showered and headed to lunch where
they had a chifa theme (Peruvian Chinese food).
I had the fish because the pork was sweet and sour and I don’t like the
sweet. The fish was excellent. They
explained what was going to happen after lunch which was a short siesta
followed by a stop at a local village to see a cooking demonstration of local
cuisine. We read for the siesta up on
the third deck. After that we headed out for the cooking demonstration after
almost being left behind twice.
The ship was already stopped at the village so all we had to
do was take a couple minute skiff ride then climb a tall hill to get
there. The demonstration was from a
local villager named Lucy Estela who made a dish called patarashca. The dish was local catfish cooked with
onions, tomatoes and garlic wrapped in a local leaf similar to a banana leaf
then put on the grill for about half an hour or so. We all crowded around the
demonstration in the hot as hell kitchen until it was just cooking time then we
wandered around the village until it was done.
The fish was excellent in flavor and I tried a local spicy pepper that
was small and yellow. It was pretty strong but I have had worse. I did get one full blast in my throat which
made me cough a bit. Still it went away
fairly quickly. After trying the fish it
was a quick turn around to return to the boat and a brief siesta until happy
hour at 6pm.
Tonight they mainly played Spanish music, most of it of the
rock variety. They played one cumbia
song which I danced with Daniela for. No one else danced at all. The music was probably about 45 minutes or so
then it was on to dinner. They had the
patarashca as one of the dishes so I had that along with rice and some
vegetables. The food was really good
(though it was better in the village).
For dessert we had my birthday cake because Daniela had already informed
the crew it was my birthday. The brought in a cake and played their guitars and
sang happy birthday in English and Spanish to me. I had to blow out the candles and cut the
cake and everything. The cake was very good.
Similar to what her mother makes in density with a very nice
flavor. They even had a Cars themed
paper hat for me to wear. After dinner
we had a few minutes to get ready then it was back out for another night search
for caiman and other critters.
This search started off much better, we only had to go
across the river to find a baby (maybe 6 month old) caiman that Juan Carlos caught
and brought on the boat. We got to touch
it and take its picture and such. We
released that and stopped by a ranger station where Edgar caught a toad that
could be poisonous. No one was hurt and
Juan Carlos made him wash his hands after he released it. From there we went out further, found a
bigger caiman that they couldn’t catch which got away completely then continued
further on. We found a couple of
nocturnal herons too. Still we didn’t come up with a real lot of wildlife
though obviously better than the night before.
We returned to the boat where we retired for the evening for yet another
early wake up call the next day.
The pictures from today are found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment