Natives, Monkeys, Dolphins & Tarantulas…Oh My!

January 13^th, 2022

After lunch, a group of us hopped into the resort’s long river boat to head to a few different stops for the afternoon.  Along with Theresa, Segundo and me, were Bree and her guide Linder and our boat driver was Pedro.  Bree had already done a few of the activities that we were going to do so they would go their separate way at one point.

All aboard!

Heading down the small side creek to the Amazon River.

Being a paraglider pilot, I couldn't get enough of the lovely puffy cumulus clouds.

Linder's phone was pretty beat up.  He had to use a big caiman alligator's tooth from his necklace to press the button to turn it on!

Our first stop was on the same side of the river, and it was to visit some local natives.  It was only about 10 minutes upstream from our lodge and it wasn’t like we actually went to visit their village.  We walked about 2 minutes into the jungle and there was a round area with a few benches around an open area.  Above some of the sheltered benches and immediately I could see some jewellery and other trinkets that I was sure we would be asked to purchase at the end of our visit.  There were eight natives in their grass skirts and their ages ran the gamut, an older man and women, a middle aged couple, a 10 year old boy and a couple of younger children.

Segundo told us to have a seat on one of the benches.  Bree had been here before so I picked her brain here and there and had a bit of an idea what to expect.  Similar to Taquile Island that I visited on Lake Titicaca, it started off with a bit of traditional music followed by a dance which we were promptly asked to dance.  It wasn’t complicated, kind of running around in a circle with the occasional twirl with your partner (or at least with mine, a woman probably in her 40s or 50s).  Similar to Taquile, I felt the song and dance went on longer than it needed to.  It was hot and humid!  Enough already.

Dance, dance, dance.  Or at least walk around in a circle.

After the dancing, we were shown how to use a blowgun…now we’re talking.  It’s like kinda like playing darts which I love.  We were given a demo by one of the natives, who was shooting at a wooden post about 15 feet away with a carved figure at the top of it which was the target.  Theresa was up first and missed her first couple of attempts but hit it on her third.  I was next and missed my first shot, but hit the second, but was a bit low from the figure’s head.  Bree, having done it the day before, went three for three…nice work.

Theresa's first attempt.

My failed attempt.

This time, I hit it...but Segundo didn't film the glory.

Next was the awkward moment of looking at their jewellery, keychains, mini-blowguns and other trinkets with the locals hoping and pressing us to buy something.  D’oh, I hadn’t even brought my wallet from the lodge.  “Why would I need cash in the jungle?”  I had thought before we headed out.  Thankfully Segundo lent me 20 Soles and I purchased a keychain with a varnished slice of Ayahuasca root attached to it from the lady I had danced with.  I figured I owed it to her for my display on the dance floor!  In retrospect, I should have bought a tiny blowgun, could have been fun to play with at the flight park in the summer.

These poor people probably pose like this 3-4 times a day, every day.

Cute little girl.

Bank on the river.  Hard to see, but I have red paint markings from the natives on my cheeks and chin.  They kind of blend in with my wrinkles.

We hopped back in the boat, cruised a bit further up river, and then began crossing to the other side.  The tiny engine of our boat could only crab us across the stream at a 45 degree angle to the flow.  It was probably about a kilometre and a half and I kept looking back to where we had started and sure enough, we weren’t making any upstream progress but we did eventually make it to the other side.  These underpowered boats tend to ply the waters close to the shore where the current is not as strong.

Pedro!

Our river crossing, for sure the longest one I've done.  We crabbed the 1.5-2 kilometers across without moving upriver at all.

Pulling up to the shore, Segundo, Theresa and I got off the boat while Bree and Linder were going to do some fishing, swimming and look for pink dolphins.  We were going to meet up with them later after visiting Monkey Island, a cage free rescue centre.  It hardly seemed like an island but it is surrounded by a side stream of the main river.  We walked about 15-20 minutes along a fairly wide and well used path, passing by the odd lodge or house, usually built on stilts as the water level can get higher at certain times of the year.

Reaching the other side, on "Monkey Island".

Starting our walk, among banana trees.

Someone's making a new boat.

Mmm...bananas.

See the hanging nests from the trees.  I don't remember the name of the bird, but what interesting nests.  As we walked by the birds were flying back and forth from the right side, bringing new bits of dried grass to add to their nests.

Then we got to the MONKEYS!!!  They were awesome.  They are at the rescue centre for one reason or another, but they seemed to be healthy and happy…and they know that they get fed well by tourists here.  There were two types that we encountered, the bigger, black “woolly monkey” and the smaller, cuter, “squirrel monkey” who look like they are wearing white framed sunglasses.  Segundo had gone off to buy some mango slices from the centre for us to feed to the simians.  Meanwhile, Theresa was right in there, petting, picking up and cuddling with some woollys while I captured is on camera.  Then I felt something fall onto my head from the low hanging branch of a tree I was under.  Sure enough, a little squirrel monkey plopped onto my hat…so cute.

A woolly monkey, hoping to get a treat.

Wrestlemania!

Segundo returned with the fruity treats and the woollys were all over it, in fact it was hard to give a slice to a squirrel monkey without a woolly intercepting it.  Both Theresa and I could have stayed there a lot longer but soon Segundo told us we had to keep moving on.  Seems like this jungle runs on a schedule!

Segundo with a buddy.

Okay, I have  a couple of friends of my own.

What to do?

At least I don't have a monkey on my back!

The squirrel monkeys were so cute.

The next stop was a short 5-10 minute walk away which was another animal refuge or mini zoo.  It was tough to say and I didn’t even see a sign stating the name of the place.  But in a small but well organized area, there was lots to see.  We started off with a turtle and a tortoise - little guys compared to what I saw on the Galapagos Islands but still cool nonetheless.  The larger turtle was sleeping in a pond and we could only see his shell but our young guide who had joined us picked up the tired reptile a little out of the water so that we could see his head.  A smaller tortoise was walking around behind a tree at the back of the pen.

A funny tree...hardly a leaf, small ragged branches and yet it's got that big ass fruit in the middle of the pic.

The animal sanctuary.

There's the big turtle.

The walking tortoise.

Next were the snakes…yup snakes, and big ones.  There were two of them and I don’t recall if they were both the same type as their skin looked a bit different in colour and pattern but there was definitely a green anaconda sleeping in one corner.  But the other one, which we got to pick up if we wanted too seemed to maybe have different markings but he might have been closer to molting.  Theresa was all over it and the young guide who worked there lifted it onto her shoulders and she posed like a fashion model for many pictures.  Her white top was filthy afterwards, with dirt patterns correlating to the scaly skin of the snake.  Segundo and Theresa were about to move on to the next exhibition, but wait, it was my turn next, and I had to try it.  When do you get a chance like this?  I’ve never held a snake before that I can recall, and definitely not one this big as it probably weighed almost as much as me!  The guide draped the reptile around my neck.  What a strange feeling to, the cold, clammy skin.  An interesting experience to say the least.

The sleeping green anaconda:

The other, bigger snake, who was into audience participation.

Theresa enjoying meeting her new friend.

Okay, slight bit of shock...

Getting used to it.

There were a few other pens with some different birds: parrots, macaws and a few others that I was unfamiliar with.  These poor guys seemed to be second or third fiddle after the snakes, tortoises and our next photo op model: a sloth.  I have seen sloths before in Costa Rica, even a baby one close up in a glass enclosure but we got to hold this guy.  And as sloths seem to like to do, we got to hug!  They are funny creatures.  So slow.  So peaceful.  And they always look like they are wearing sunglasses and have a slight grin on their face.

Don't know the name of this bird.

But we've all seen these guys...for me, usually in a pet store.

My new, slow buddy.

Okay, he liked Theresa better.

Once Theresa had finally finished her photoshoot with Mr. Sloth, we tipped the young guide, washed our hands and headed off to meet up with our boat at a different location from where we were dropped off.  Climbing back aboard, I asked Bree if they had been able to spot pink dolphins, but they hadn’t.  She and the guide Linder had gone swimming and had done a bit of fishing.  We were going to do a bit more fishing as Segundo said that Theresa and I should try our luck at catching a fish.

We were on a side tributary from the main river and supposedly this was the spot to try fishing for piranhas.  Yup, piranhas!  Pedro drove the boat about 3-400 meters back towards the Amazon and we stopped by some reeds near the shore.  The bait was small pieces of beef, supposedly, as they looked more like chicken…but it was some kind of meat regardless.  We had these short sticks with about 6 feet of fishing line tied to the end with a simple, small hook.  All you had to do was drop your baited hook into the water and almost immediately you had bites.  Within 20 seconds of my first few attempts, I would lift my line back out of the water, and the bait was all gone, and no piranha.  Sneaky little bastards.  There were two challenges.  One, baiting the meat on the hook so it wasn’t immediately pulled off by these ravenous fish.  Secondly, pulling out the rod at the right time and quickly to snag the little ravenous dudes.  I was never successful in catching one, but Segundo caught 4 or 5 and eventually Theresa snagged one.  Fishing has never been my forte.

 

Our last stop before heading back to the lodge was to go for a swim.  We stopped at the small peninsula where this tributary met up with the main river.  Theresa was really bent on seeing the freshwater pink dolphin, properly known as the Amazon river dolphin.  I was excited to see them too, even though they are ugly looking creatures compared to their oceanic relatives.  Within about 5 minutes of standing on the shore, I got a glimpse of one surfacing on the tributary side, albeit for only a couple of seconds.  But Theresa missed it.  I kept my eye further up the surface of the water, in the direction of its travel and sure enough saw it a few more times, but not as close or for as long as the first encounter.  However Theresa continued to look the wrong way as it would appear so it became a bit of a running joke, but she eventually did get a glimpse it.

Our only video/pic of the dolphins.  Unfortunately my phone battery was dead by this time from all of the day's excitement.

As for the swimming, I had put my trunks on before we had left camp hours earlier, but it was now near sunset, not terribly hot and the muddy water really didn’t look that inviting.  Theresa, Bree and Linder jumped in.  About 10 minutes after being in the water, Theresa got out, complaining that her little toe hurt.  There was a bit of blood coming from it and it looked like she either stepped on something, or she got bit.  Segundo’s hypothesis was that she stepped on a catfish which reacted in self-defence and bit her or she stepped on its spines.  Linder put some mud on it to cleanse it and she did complain that it hurt quite a bit, but she survived.  I joked with Segundo later that I thought it was just “fish karma”, she caught one earlier while fishing, and they were just getting their revenge. 

 

Sunset by the river.

If we hadn’t seen enough wildlife yet today, as we were on the muddy bar, three grey river dolphins swam by in the main part of the river, but close to shore.   We saw them surface about 5 times, heading upstream.  I didn’t realize that there was another type of dolphin species here, but these guys were much smaller, grey and had more pronounced dorsal fins. 

After dinner at the lodge, we headed out for a 45 minute night jungle hike.  The highlights were seeing a few different frogs, including a bright yellow one I spotted, and a big tarantula.  I’ve never been fan of them, and I don’t think many people are, but it was awesome to see. 

The one bit of wildlife I spotted before the guide on the night walk.

A stick bug.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics/video of the tarantula.

Some strange, alien-like insect.

What a day!  Theresa was leaving in the morning and Segundo couldn’t help but point out that he had packed it in for us today…and he was right!  I wondered how the guides were going to keep me entertained for 2 ½ more days as it felt like we saw and did everything today!!!