Today we opted for a more relaxed pace. We decided to skip the 6am skiff ride in favor of sleep and then, after a 730am breakfast, also decided to chill out on board for the morning. The scheduled activity was skiff ride, visit to a village and fishing – pretty much a repeat of our first full day. Instead, I went to the (tiny) gym to do at least a mini workout, then spent the rest of the morning catching up on my blog (am still behind, but getting there!). Prior to lunch, there was another cooking & cocktail demonstration in the restaurant – this time, we were shown how to make the famous Pisco Sour followed by classic Amazon style ceviche,
Lunch was one of the better meals on board (lomo saltado) and lots of it, so afterwards we retired back to our cabin for a post-prandial snooze. We finally made it out of the boat for the 4pm skiff ride where we were exploring the Nauto Cano creek – an oily black stretch of water in the Maranon-Yanayacu Pucate region. There was an alternate option to visit a local shaman/healer who would presumably describe how the local plants and herbs could cure everything from cancer to rheumatism to erectile dysfunction – but I just couldn’t do it. I know, as a pharmacologist, I should have been all over that – but my innate skepticism of the claimed efficacy of these natural treatments was just too strong. I KNOW that there are a lot of drugs that have come from plants etc but the “chew this leaf and it will cure your cancer” schtick is too much for me. So instead, we opted to look for more sloths, monkeys and birds instead.
Alas, this time round, wildlife pickin’s were pretty slim. We did see a sloth from a far distance plus some birds (including macaws, which was a new one on the bingo checklist) but other than that, not much really. But the creek was very picturesque with the dark black water making for some great reflections. This trip was only an hour so we were back at the boat by 5pm, ahead of dinner at 6.30pm.
After dinner, there was one more activity for the day – a night time excursion along the Yanayaquillo creek. We had missed the previous nighttime trip, so were definitely up for doing it this time (we only have 2 more days after this left on board). We were given clear glasses to wear (to protect our eyes from errant insects) and set out in the skiff, heading into the blackness. Unexpectedly, the night sky was lit up regularly by flashes of lightning in the distance, far away deep into the forest. We couldn’t hear any thunder and it wasn’t raining, so it simply added to the slightly spooky atmosphere!
Wildlife wise, we saw a few different things – mainly a lot of fairly sizeable fish-eating bats that continually swooped down and around the boat, getting pretty close at times! We also saw some more pink dolphins (again, underwhelmingly so as you saw just a tiny bit of dorsal fin and some bubbles), some night herons, a moth with incredibly bright eyes plus an absolutely fooking MASSIVE pink-toed tarantula! We heard some frogs but didn’t see any, unfortunately – and that was about it. I don’t have many photos as its tough to take decent pictures in darkness – but I did get a couple, including the spider!
We stopped the boat for a few minutes and just sat in the darkness, listening to the sounds of the forest – SO MANY CREATURES!!! In the darkness, you did start to hear more – or maybe imagine hearing sounds – I don’t think I’d ever want to find myself alone in the middle of the Amazon jungle at night. I would just be freaking out as every little sound you’d hear would be transformed into a giant spider or leggy insect crawling their way to get you!! Anyway, it was fun to do – and also fun to turn on the motor and head back to the safety of the boat!! The housekeeping team have been doing an amazing job of keeping our room free of native wildlife – they are definitely getting a nice tip when we leave!!
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That was a big spider, and the night jar was very sweet and so tiny! And the river was like a mirror, stunning photos. Can’t wait for the other blogs!!!