Monday, March 11, 2013 –Tracey’s Birthday

This is Tracey’s birthday but there is no cell signal here on the Amazon so no way to call her.  I called her Thursday before we left because I thought this would be the case.  In any event we awoke early did some stretches and I went for coffee at 6 am.  Breakfast was not until 7 today.  After breakfast, we loaded up for the morning expedition.  Today I wore only a short sleeve shirt and my bathing suit.  Our first stop was another ranger station and w all had to leave the boat and personally sign the ranger’s book. Then we headed off upriver to a junction with a black water river.  We turned into the black water river and headed upstream.  We saw monkeys, macaws, a large lizard and, incredibly a fight between a huge Jaguar Eagle and a fierce little bird who was harassing the much larger eagle to get it to move on.  Eventually the eagle did.  We could not see what the smaller bird was trying to protect.  We entered a magically beautiful backwater only possible to visit during the high water.  We were in search of an anaconda that the guides had seen in this area before.  Although our search was in vain, we able to make it to the mouth of the Utalcaya and the Putamayo XXX.  Here we located pink dolphins beaching and several of us including Brett and Ann Marie from Sydney but not including Caroline, Ben or Gail went in the water to swim with them.  The dolphins kept breeching and snorting but they more or less kept their distance from us.  Nonetheless, we can say we swam with the pink dolphins.   Back to the boat, we were treated to a cooking lesson, a bartending lesson (pisco sours and one more drink) and an origami with towels lesson.   

We met in the lounge at 3:30 pm for a slide presentation.  In the presentation Daniel spoke about the way of life of the indigenous peoples and the issues associated with trying to bring modern benefits to them, integrating them into Peruvian society while respecting them and their habitats.   In Daniel’s family his mother had fourteen children including 3 sets of twins.  Only six made it to adult hood.  The risks to children are the greatest in the first two years before they have developed the immunities to the parasites in the river.

He also spoke about the steps Aqua takes to train its employees, all of whom are indigenous and to make contributions to the communities it touches.

At four we donned rubber calve length boots provided by Aqua and headed out on a two-hour rain forest hike.  We followed a loop of ancient trails still in use today.  The forest floor was very muddy and the boots were welcome.  We were in three small groups each with a guide and a local resident familiar with the trails and the flora and fauna.  We went with Riado and our assistant was Roberto.  He was fabulous.  He never said a word but would set off into the jungle returning to the path with something fascinating to show.  The first was a giant ant described to us as the largest in the Amazon.  It has huge mandibles capable of delivering a painful bite but not as painful as the toxin it can introduce with its stinger.  Here is a picture yellow poison dart frog.  (We had seen these frogs in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens terrarium.)  Here is a view.

Roberto also brought us a scorpion:

It was a great walk.  We saw palm trees whose roots erupt from the side of the trunk and shoot down to the ground in just a couple of weeks creating banyon tree like base.  Similarly we saw a wa-wa tree that is the tallest tree in the canopy.  It is really two trees.  One on the inside that is used by another to climb to the top of the canopy more quickly.  Eventually, the first tree is smothered by the second.  Many of the things pointed out to us were poisonous and it is apparent that one would not survive long without the knowledge accumulated over the years by the indigenous peoples. 

After our hike and a period to clean up we reassemble in the lounge.  We were treated to some music  and dancing by the crew which numbers over twenty.   In conversation we learned that the Aqua company which owns the MV Aqua, the Aria and is building a third ship is owned by one man.  He is an American of Italian descent Francesco Bally Zucalo (or something like that) who is married to a Peruvian.  He is 46 and they have three children.  He must be a great manager and a real human being as the crew he selected all love the area and love working for the Aqua.  The third ship will be on the Mekong River which flows through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam with trips probably in Vietnam.

Dinner was another tasting menu.