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Friday 5 Mar 2010
Amazon River, Peru

Jungle trip... Day 3

Apart from an early morning "Huacari monkey" photo-shoot (again the monkeys were HIGH up in the trees so photos weren't great... the others thought that I would be able to see them better with my camera zoom lens... nope, just larger silhouette is all) we didn't do any touring until the afternoon so mainly a chill-out day.

While hanging around I got restless and took a canoe out onto the river by myself to see more dolphin action (Delfin Lodge really does live up to it's name). The current on the Amazon rivers are really strong (this is why the water remains brown as the silt can never rest at the bottom) and I had a tough time navigating upstream. Coming downstream was blissful though.

At lunch I had piranha (I had to ask Bear, the guy who runs the lodge, for this the night before) and it was actually really tasty. I wanted to make sure the head was on it when I got it too for the photo opp Laughing

That night we went out on a really excellent series of excursions. The 4 French people who had been staying in the camp with us had gone so we got to use their faster speedboat (yay! no more dodgy slow paddle boat! you could even stand up on this one!).

(meeting the French people made me realise just how much French I'd lost, now that it's been replaced with Spanish!)

We went out to a huge lake connected off one of the rivers to see huge lillys and much fauna including alligators (we even got to pick up one of the little baby ones. Really solid bodies!). Beautiful mirror reflections abounded and the air was so clean and fresh it was really nice after the series of hot sweaty days.

Later on we went to visit Falcon's home village called "Liberta" whose Green-White-Gold town flag is not unlike a certain other countries!

Here Falcon was due to play a football match with his mates (they do this once a week). We were invited to play, but these guys were serious as there was money involved so you'd have to be really good to join in, so I preferred to take the role of sport-photographer Cool I also got some great shots of the riverfolk.

Later that night we celebrated Falcon's 30th birthday in style! All the guys in the lodge (about 6 Peruvians, plus myself and Emmanuel) took the boat out in the pitch dark up to a small village. 4 rather small huts on stilts, and then one large hut in the middle which served as a nightclub (of all things). When we arrived, we had to wake up the owner to open the place (this reminded me of the time I was in northern Vietnam and a bunch of us backpackers did the same thing!). A crazy night ensued, drinking so much crap beer and really REALLY bad rum that everyone was wrecked.

We had a serious incident though. Unbeknownst to me the youngest member of our group was 18 and had never had a drink in his life, yet here he was throwing back shots all night long. I was amazed at how he kept such a composed demeanour all night, but he was basically trying to be "cool" and didn't want to show any weakness so he kept on asking for more. Then it happened. He fell flat on his back, completely knocked out. Eyes rolled up to heaven. Nothing would wake him up.. he even stopped breathing...

I have to cut this short as I need to pack my bags.. but needless to say we managed to get him back to Delfin Lodge (Bear had to carry him on his shoulders) and in the morning he was alive and well .. if not looking wrecked. He certainly learned a lesson.. as did I .. I'll never assume that all persons present at these sorts of events are there of their own free will rather than dragged along through peer pressure.

Scary stuff!

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South America Twenty Ten

Travel blog by peterforan

Moiagasm!

Moiagasm!


After previously dipping my toes in Latin America via trips to Cuba and Central America, it's time to go for the big splash! 3 1/2 months to take in as much as I can, armed with little more than my camera, laptop and a few dodgy Spanish phrases.

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Photo Album

  • I knew I felt...

    Amazon River

    Peru

    I knew I felt something biting me!
  • Amazon river...

    Amazon River

    Peru

    Amazon river from above
  • Up the Yarapa...

    Amazon River

    Peru

    Up the Yarapa river
  • Fresh water...

    Amazon River

    Peru

    Fresh water plant