 Welcome to Blue Ocean Studios  Around the World
At 6:30 am, we packed up our hammocks, and hiked back to camp for breakfast. It was good to have survived a night in the Amazon! On the way back to the lodge we had another snake sighting. Anthony was walking in front and stepped on a baby Fiery Eyelash snake, but didn't notice. We had been scouting for snakes the whole time and I saw something in front of me that looked like a huge worm. I remembered what Anthony had said earlier about not trusting anything that looks like a worm, because the baby snakes look just like worms and that they have the same deadly poison as the full-grown snakes. Sure enough it was poisonous and I was relieved that I had not stepped on it. Anthony got it to slither out of the way by poking it with a stick.
We saw so many birds, it is hard to talk about them all. We spent most of our first 4 hours on the boat bird watching. Anthony could identify every type of bird we saw and we became more and more impressed with his extensive knowledge on not only trees and plants but birds and other animals. Mario got a lot of practice taking photos of birds in motion. In the end, we only got a few good close-ups, but we enjoyed learning about the different varieties of birds as we relaxed on the riverboat. Some of the most interesting birds we saw included the Amazon Kingfisher, Snow Falcon, Gray Hawk, Osprey, Egret, the Watted Jacana duck (my favorite), the Cardinal, the Blue and White Swallow, and the Chalalaca.
The locals live in wooden houses built along the riverbank. Each year when the Amazon waters rise (several feet), many of the homes and pastures become flooded. At that time, the family will move onto their boathouse to live. Some of the boats are even equipped to carry the cows so that they can graze on the high floating grasses of the river (and kept safe from the anacondas). The families must return to work their land when the waters recede. Otherwise, the land will be returned to the government. We came back to the dock for lunch and to escape the afternoon sun for a little while (by this time we were getting really burned despite our 25 SPF sunblock!). The small family that lived at and owned the dock made us a lunch of chicken and pasta. The family owns a small general store where many people stopped in on their boats to pick up supplies.
As it was getting dark, we rode off into a large lake to enjoy the sunset. Mario got his favorite photos of the day, the sunset against the Amazon - a beautiful mirror, and a pack of egrets sitting on a dead tree against the blue Amazon sunset.
After a few failed attempts to catch one, Anthony got out of the boat into the shallow waters and caught a baby cayman with his bare hands! The first one was only a few weeks old and he held it on his knee as we took pictures.
Back at the lodge, we were exhausted after 2 long days in the Amazon. We had dinner - chicken again :( - and returned to our cabin, looking forward to sleeping on a real bed and hopeful for a good night's rest. View Amazon River Photo Gallery Day 49 - Amazon Jungle < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 51 - To Rio de Janeiro © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Surprisingly, given the exhausting day, we fell asleep pretty quickly in the Amazon Jungle last night. I awoke to howler monkeys in the middle of the night, but other than a few random awakenings, we slept very well in our hammocks.
After breakfast, we headed out for another full day, this time on the Amazon river. From the lodge, we drove 1 hour to get to the banks of the river. The dirt road was a deep reddish brown because of the high acidity and iron content of the region. We stopped to take a picture of a dead forest where the trees were killed off when the area flooded. The acidic water evaporated, killing the leaves and then the trees. Along the way we passed several pineapple farms, which supply pineapples to most of South America. Farming and cattle raising are two of the major components to the native Amazonian economy. Our van pulled over when the driver noticed a snake in the middle of the road - turned out to be a bright green viper snake and it was dead. We got a picture of it anyways since it still looked very much alive and deadly. 
We took off from the dock in a small metal motorized row boat, a little smaller than what we had expected, but since we were the only ones on the tour, it was ok. We've been lucky with having Anthony all to ourselves for our entire stay. January and February are considered the low season, and we would definitely recommend coming here in this time as you can get discounts on the lodge and much less crowds. Richard, one of the local natives, was our boat driver for the day. When the lodge owner bought the strip of land, he negotiated access to the Amazon through the chief of the 3 families living on the adjacent land. Part of the deal was that a local must always accompany the tour and use one of their boats. The family also makes money from the tourist coming to the store and stopping back for lunch. 
The sun was out in full force as we boated down a small tributary of the Amazon river and into a small channel hardly big enough for our boat. There, we saw giant water lilies. They grow up from the bottom as a spiny outer shell. When they get large enough, they open up forming a large dish on top of the water. Near the end of their life, they sprout a single flower that is white for one day, then pink for one day, and then dies after a few days. We were lucky to see several of the white and pink flowers in bloom. 
We took the boat out to the widest part of the Amazon river for many miles and were in awe at the vast muddy brown waters. We saw several large cargo boats carrying electronic goods, fuel, and passengers to the cities downstream. From this point, it is still another 1000km on the Amazon river to get to the Atlantic Ocean. 
At 3pm, we took off in the boat for another round of touring the Amazon basin. We went into a flooded gallery forest, where the waters have risen high enough to be able to boat on top of the land in between the trees. It was a bit tight at times, as our boat went over fallen logs and weaved in and out of the tree trunks. There, we spotted a huge iguana climbing up to the top of a tree. We also saw a three-toed sloth who was hanging from a branch with only one arm and one leg. It didn't even move at all as we boated all around, trying to get a better view. We were also very lucky to see a large cayman sunbathing on a log in the flooded forest - very rare during the day.
Later, Anthony took us to a spot where we could fish for piranhas. The piranha's like to live in the shallow waters upstream in the tributary. Richard prepared small chunks of raw beef that we used on our fishing hooks to catch the piranhas. It was frustrating at first as they just took all of our meat after only a few strong bites (literally seconds in the water). It was pretty scary to havce fish eat meat within seconds! After only 15 minutes, I caught my first piranha, a Silvery Piranha (they come in silver, white, red, yellow and black). It wasn't very big, but it still had teeth strong enough to bite off a finger (trust me, we left Anthony to the removing of the fish!)! I caught another silver and one yellow one. Mario caught a yellow and silver one that was big enough to keep. Anthony caught a few Cagu Fruit, or Red, Piranhas - these ones have the sharpest teeth. Richard caught the largest Silver Piranha, bringing our total to 7 keepers. Richard strung them through a small stick to bring back to the family. We were lucky enough that everyone kept their fingers for the trip - don't wash them off in the waters!!! :)
Now it was time for our last activity of the day - Cayman hunting! Anthony used a huge spotlight from the front of the boat to search for the Caymans waiting in the shallow waters. You can see where they are from far away because their glass-like eyes reflect a sharp bright red from the spotlight. 
The second one he also caught by getting out of the boat just a few hundred feet from the first. This time it was a little bigger (several months old) but still not strong enough to escape his grip. Mario held it, gripping it around its throat to keep it from biting. Our final catch required both Anthony and Richard to get out of the boat onto a small grassy embankment. It took a few tries with the lasso to get it around the cayman's neck so Anthony could pull it out. This one was 3 years old, and much larger. Anthony and Richard both held it in their arms while we took pictures from the boat. 
The mosquitos and bugs were out in full force now and it was all we could do to keep them off of us - especially when holding a bright light! On the boat ride back, it was pitch black, and Anthony used the spotlight to light up the 2 sides of the river, as Richard steered the boat. You could see the plethora of insects streaming through the wind - hitting us (this was not a time to be talking or yawning :). Also, from the light of the spotlight, we could see bats flying all around us, hunting the insects. We were glad to get back to the dock and finally escape the bugs and bats when we got to the van. 