The next day we were up early to colelct our laundry before going to Camilaīs
again for brekkie. After the inclusive brekkie last time we figured we would
need more fuel before heading off on our jungle adventure. We met up with
Daniel our translator at the fluvial office and headed down through the Sunday
markets to the river along with our Captain. As we got into our boat we saw
that in the boat next to us were two dead cows heads - tongues hanging out and
all ! A delightful sight at that time in the morning. We got into our comfie
chairs - deckchairs with a nice yellow cushion as well, donned our lifejackets
and then set off. The river was much wider than we had expected, this was due
to the fact that on January 14th a large wave came down the river as a result
of a heavy wet season to the North. The wave took with it a lot of the river
banks and trees, there was still a lot of tree debris in the river as we
whizzed past them. The banks were just mud as all of the vegetation had been
taken with the water. The chairs were nice and comfy though and after a while I
had a little doze. The boat trip took 2 hours so I thought a power nap was in
order !
We reached the stop off point at about 11:30am and immediately prepared for the
mozzies. Trev and I were pretty much ready so just applied deet. Joyce and
Oscar though werenīt and got bitten before they managed to cover up. After a
lunch of kentucky fried chicken (Trev: well, something sort of similar anyway..)
and rice we were told to gather round to load
our packs with food to carry out to the camp. We werenīt meeting our guide
until later on our walk so had some food to take there. When we were all ready
we set off on what we believed to be an hour and a halfs walk. Daniel pointed
out various things as we wandered along which was great and helped to pass the
time. We reached the point where we had to change to our boots for wellies that
they provided. There were mozzies galore. We bumped into the English /
Australian couple we had met in the Amazonas office. They were just
returning from the jungle so had a quick chat about their experiences and
filled them in on the pampas tour. We met Jose Louis our guide and set off into
squelching mud. All of our wellies were too large for us so we looned about in
them. It made it much harder to walk in them through the muddy water as there
was a constant fear you would pull your foot up and leave the boot behind - the mud underneath the water was very slippery and we were all sliding about occasionally and regularly nearly falling over. I had started off without socks on but the boots were
rubbing my ankles so wet
socks for me it was. As we strolled along I was fourth in our group and didnīt
hear Jose warn about a large hole under the murky water. The message didnīt get
passed back either so down I went, right boot filled with water and this was
way before the deep water yet to come. Needless to say everyone had a good
laugh !
The walk seemed to go on forever and the heat was increasing all the time - we
were dripping a combination of deet and sweat - lovely ! After a while the
landscape changed from jungle back towards more swampy grasslands. As this
happened the water got deeper (above boot height so the boots filled with water)
and much more rooty making it harder still to
walk in. By now we were in the direct heat of the sunlight at 1pm - scorching.
We had begun to lose our sense of humours as our boots rubbed and our packs dug
into our shoulders. Every corner we went round we thought would be the last,
but sadly not. After what seemed like an eternity we arrived at the boat and
heaved ourselves into it. With wellies off and a place to sit without too many
bugs our smiles returned - we were in the jungle !
Jose and his mate guided the boat out through the reeds and out we popped onto
a lake. It was beautiful, the blue of the lake against the backdrop of the
reeds and the jungle. The trip to the camp took a while as the reed channels
that they use tend to move in the wind at this time of year. They used a
combination of wooden poles and the engine to get through them, forcing the channel back open again, we then headed
up a narrow river to our camp. We were very hot and sweaty when we arrived so
we took a dip in the river which they professed to be safe ! The current was
very strong which meant you could swim hard and go nowhere. It wasnīt as warm
as we thought it was going to be so was a refreshing dip. Unfortunately there were small black flies
which were driving us to distraction buzzing around us and biting us whenever they
landed. This eventually drove us out of the water for a sit down before a
cuppa and some popcorn - our afternoon snack !
It was then time for our piranha fishing adventure. We piled back into the
boats and back out onto the lake where we anchored up using wooden poles. Jose
gave us all a piece of wood with a fishing line attached and a large hook at
the end of it. We put some beef bait on the end and started to cast the lines
out. Jose was the first to catch a piranha amongst cheers that it was a set up.
Then his mate at the front caught one, we were now very sceptical ! The rest of
us had had a few nibbles but didnīt react quick enough to land them. Trev was
the first to pull one in, but it wasnīt until the fish was close to the boat
that we realised it was a catfish, not a piranha. It made a real squeaking
noise - like a dogs toy. Still it was a catch nonetheless and Trev was proud to
be the first of the tourists to do so. This spurred on the competitive edge in
Oscar who shortly afterwards caught another catfish. - Still no sign of the
elusive piranhas yet though except for the lack of bait Joyce and I had after
our nibbles. I managed to get one very close to the boat, but it managed to get
off the hook, darn it ! Trev went onto catch another catfish, once again
goading Oscar. Oscar rose to the challenge though and the next one he landed
was a piranha. He dropped it into the bottom of the boat which led to a lot of
panic as he only had flipflops on. He was a wee bit scared of losing some toes.
After the panic had subsided we started fishing again while Jose and his mate
began to gut and clean the fish that had been caught. Jose had gutted one of
the piranhas and was in the process of flipping it over to clean it when a
reflex reaction from the fish caused it to bite Joseīs finger. There was lots
of blood very quickly and it looked to begin with that it had taken the top of
his finger off. No-one had any tissues or plasters with them so blood was going
everywhere, all over shoes and the like. In the end Jose ripped a bit of
plastic from the bait bag and wrapped it round his finger - gross ! Sadly that
was it for us on the fishing front. We had to get back to the camp to sort out
Joseīs finger. He found it hard to work the engine and looked at times like he
may faint so his mate took over and got us back to camp. On arrival it became
apparent that there was no first aid kit there, so Milly to the rescue with
wipes and plasters (Trev: ahem, Milly got the plasters and when Jose held his mangled bloody finger out went very pale and almost fell over, the plasters were then handed to me with a silent -Trev you deal with it - look! Milly to the rescue indeed. ). Since we had been told there were medicines at the camp
incase we were bitten by poisonous snakes we were a bit perturbed that they
didnīt have plasters, and were more sceptical about whether they had the
medicines that had spoken about.
We had time to relax before dinner and then afterwards it was time for our
night hike in the jungle. Oscar and Joyce decided not to come as Joyceīs foot
was hurting her. So Trev, myself, Daniel and Jose headed on out into the night
with our torches at the ready. It was a superb experience. The sounds of the
jungle seemed to double at night with the crickets and frogs giving it their
all ! We were all on the lookout for wildlife - while the mozzies were on the
lookout for us ! We stopped many times to switch off the torches and to listen.
This was amazing, the stars were superb as were the fireflys. At times Jose
looked like he had seen something. He stopped to call for Tapirs but sadly no
response. He said due to the large number of mosquitos the animals would keep
moving so would be hard to spot. It didnīt matter that we saw very little, the
experience was superb and we sweated heaps to boot. When we got back we got
ready for bed, had our normal fight with the mozzies in the net and then
crashed.