Saturday
15th August
The
Amazon
We
spent about 2 hours with a local Indian tribe today. They began by
performing a variety of rituals that culminated with our group
joining them in dance. It was hot and humid but we all got into the
spirit and the smiles and laughter on everyones' faces was
infectious. Our guide then thought it would be fun to paint our
faces in the local fashion, complete with feather headdresses. Then
back to the big for a shower, beer and luncheon followed by the
absolutely needed siesta in the heat of the day.
At
4:00pm our adventurous little expedition headed back into the flat
bottomed canoes to track down the dreaded and piranha fish. Our
guides know of an excellent fishing spot and we reached it via the
floating islands. These are floating masses of vegetation primarily
wild sugar cane and trees that float in the river and form huge
islands. The locals have developed a whole system of floating
houses, schools, shops and even a disco. Amazing!
We
arrived at the secret fishing spot after about 60 minutes of boating
and we were all given a basic fishing pole – bamboo, line and hook.
The technique for piranha fishing is quite simple – shove the rod
in the water, make a lot of noise splashing with it and the let the
line sink into the water. Viola! The group caught over 30 of the
little (and not so little) buggers. Jim caught caught a respectable
two but, alas, Nic was unable to add to the groups total. Karma for
an ex vegetarian!
On
the return to the canoe we again went spot lighting and were able to
capture a baby cayman (local crocodile) to have a look at up close
and personal.
We
dined on Piranha soup and fish. We were exhausted.
