After the disaster of yesterday’s late afternoon skiff ride (1), we were hoping for bettter results today. The plan for the morning ride was to spend some time looking for rain forest animals, and then to engage in some activities.

We actually got to see some animals this time: a couple of iguana, a sloth, a snake’s head, and parts of some dolphins.

We also cruised by another village. This one was more complex than some of the others we had seen, with bigger buildings, bigger and motorized boats.

The first activity was taking a ride in a native, primitive canoe. Each person, or couple, got to ride with a woman from the village. In our case, the woman also had her teen daughter with us. There was no conversation, as we don’t speak her language and she doesn’t speak ours. But the ride was pleasant enough, or as pleasant as one can be sitting on a plank of wood in a heavy wooden canoe.

Next we went fishing for piranha. Each person in the skiff got a bamboo pole with some fishing line and a hook with some chicken on the hook. We dropped it in the water, and used our best fishing skills to entice the piranha into grabbing at the bait and getting hooked. The fish proved very proficient at surgically removing the bait from the hook; I lost two loads of bait and Sally lost 10. One of the men on our boat caught several piranha, several other people caught one each. Everybody got very excited when there was a catch. Of course, we (i.e., the guides) threw the fish back in the river.

The final activity was an opportunity to swim in the Amazon. Of the 10 people on our skiff, only two participated (2). The other boats seemed to have a slightly higher participation rate, but overall most people declined. The weather was hot and we were all sweaty, but the water just didn’t look appealing – dark brown, and filled with piranha, cayman, and who knows what else. Even though no one got eaten, I’m confident we made the right decision.

By the time we went out for the afternoon ride, participation was starting to drop. This ride was supposed to include a walk in the jungle, but it kept getting pushed back because it was raining. By the time we left, the ride had been shortened to an hour, and the jungle walk was canceled.

As we had been told the jungle walk was slippery and mosquito infested, Sally had decided to not participate. I noticed empty seats on each of the skiffs.

The shortened outing took us downstream from where we were anchored to the confluence of two major tributaries of the Amazon. You could see the churn of the water as the two streams merged to make a bigger Amazon. The first drops of water that form the Amazon come from high in the Andes, near where we’ll be in a few days.

Along the way, we saw lots of dolphins swimming in the river. When I say “saw”, I mean mostly we saw dark forms just under the surface, and occasionally got a glimpse of a fin, a tail or a nose. Getting a picture is very difficult, as they are only above the surface for a second.

When we got to the confluence, the skiffs tied up against another boat that had come from the Aqua Nera, bringing celebratory drinks to honor the occasion. By this time the Aqua Nero had cruised to join us, and we boarded while it was still moving up river towards Nauta, where we will disembark tomorrow.

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(1) It’s been several days, so you may have forgotten. But that’s when we rode around in the skiff in a torrential downpour for two hours.

(2) They are Australian, which probably explains why.