Boat Journey

Woke up early this morning and loaded a big taxi car with all our gear and headed off to Nauta. Here we met Hugo our third field work assistant. He was in our peque peque boat. So all our team were together – Hulio, Loius, Hugo, Freddie and I. We ate a hearty breakfast consisting of rice, chicken and grilled plantain. We were then ready to set off on the boat. It was an amazing journey. First we travelled down the Maranyon River, which is a large white water river with a high sediment content. We then turned into the Yanayaku River, which is smaller and is a black river as it flows though peat deposits. So it has a low nutrients level. As we travelled we saw a man fishing and he had caught a shiny orange Piranna. We also saw dolphins swimming alongside our boat and numerous spectacular birds. We then reached a village called Viente de Enero and stopped off to have lunch. We decided to stay there for the night and carry on travelling the next day to Rinon. Viente de Enero is a beautiful little River village, home to around 100 people.  We went for a swim and wash in the river, which was refreshing. We could see dolphins in the distance. The river was tranquil and picturesque. We could hear children in the village playing and birds chirping. There were no signs of pollution or the busy noises of city life that I am so used to. It seemed that there were no worries in this village. The children played games and went to school and the adults didn’t seem to work - maybe occasionally in the mornings they would collect Aguajales fruits. The adults seemed to get drunk as a pastime, which would suggest that the boredom does drive one insane at times.  As the sun set and darkness descended we saw numerous stars covering the sky. We were able to point out Venus and a shooting star. Now as I sit in my tent writing this, tiredness is hitting me and I am sure I will sleep well tonight. 

                                         The hut we set our tents up in Viente de Enero