I was first one up today! I checked my watch and it was 5:30am, so I quietly removed myself and headed to the common room where coffee was already on. Moe followed around 6am, and one of our guides, Tony, chatted us up until close to 7am breakfast time.
Our after-breakfast excursion today was piranha fishing. I caught one early on, and since dehooking was probably equally traumatic for both parties of that transaction, I switched my goal to piranha feeding. In case you were wondering, they are indeed down there, they are plentiful, and they love nibbling meat. Nom nom nom. They’re also delicious, as I learned over a couple of meals on this trip. Fair is fair.
This afternoon I cross-posted the next Charitocracy nominee, RAICES (free/cheap immigration attorneys), across social media. Then Eric, Moe and I played another game of Citadels. I came in 2nd again. I think Jessica and the kids will like this game, and I hear it’s better with 4+ players.
Eric bailed, but Moe and I hit a nearby village on the river for our afternoon excursion. We learned how they fish, hunt, and grow their food, and how they mill their crop into a variety of products like the tapioca used to make the pancake-like things we’ve had for breakfast so frequently on this trip. (For lack of better terminology I’ve called them blintzes in previous blog posts, but they are known as tapiocas.) These Amazon river locals have figured a few things out over the years! Including how to generate enough electricity for 3 hours of satellite TV each evening from 6pm – 9pm.
We visited their gift shop full of crafts they’ve made. I picked up a few items of jewelry for the fam. On the way back to the boat we spotted a baby sloth at eye-height in the bottom of a tree. It was sleeping, and probably the most adorable thing I’ve seen on this trip. Its momma was at the top of the same tree. She was probably coming full-speed down to intercept us from bothering her baby, but alas her movement was imperceptible. The baby woke up a couple times and I got a look at its cute face, but not sure I got a good photo of that because it was in the shadow. But it’s in my memory!
It’s fast approaching dinner time, our last one here at Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge. I’m blogging now since we have an early 5am final excursion, a sunrise contemplation. Moe thinks I’ll be an early riser convert after this trip, but I’m less certain… [Future Benj says: “Nope!”]