Day 6 Amazon Voyage; Wednesday - Feb. 13, 2008

     On Tuesday afternoon, we traveled on the La Amatista for two hours further into the Reserve. David told us that this is his sixth trip with International Expeditions, and he has never traveled so far into the reserve. This is one of the few times that tours were allowed to travel so far in.

       On our way into the reserve, we had to travel through about ten miles of solid vegetation. They had to tow the open boats so that the motors did not become clogged. I was standing next to Tui Tui on the deck watching this amazing experience when Tui Tui excitedly points down, and I saw a huge anaconda. How cool was that! I am the only one on the boat so far to see one. Everyone is jealous even though I only saw if for a few moments.

     Today at 8:00 a.m., we took a four hour boat ride into the reserve. We saw all sorts of amazing creatures. Probably the most exciting bird was the hoatzin bird. We saw where the other boat stopped to use the pt and everyone on our boat opted not to stop. Later, I was very glad because they had a tarantula drop into the boat. Of course to the guides no big deal and he had the spider crawl around his hand. I understand he offered to let anyone who wanted to hold it, but no takers. When you get hot on the boat they ask you if you want ice cream. The first day we all said, “No” because no one wanted ice cream melting down their arms. However, ice cream as they call it is a frozen wash cloth. The cloth is rolled and then dipped in water with lemon juice and frozen. Wow! Does that feel good.

      That was all of the outings for that day.  We had lectures about the Amazon River. George is a great story teller, and he told the village tale of how the Amazon came to be. Of course he told us the scientific explanation first but the village tale is more fun. The sun and the moon noticed that they were rarely up at the same time even though they loved each other dearly. The sun decided to ask the moon to marry him and the moon was so excited. However she realized that this would not be good for the Earth because the plants would never be able to rest and Earth would perish. Therefore the moon said that she could not marry the sun. She went down and cried and cried and cried. That is how the Amazon was born. To the village people the word Amazon means tidal river because of the drastic rise and fall of the river like the tides. There were other stories as well, but this and the one about the pink dolphin becoming man and getting the local girls pregnant were my two favorites.

 Of course you can guess that we had chicken thighs, catfish, and veggies for lunch and dinner. 

More to follow,

Tom & Holly