Day 17 - Amazon and Jungle, Part 2

Simple accommodation, but still slept well. Next destination, Lago Tarapoto. This is a lake that is directly connected to the Amazon River. On the way there, in a small river branch, Eduard suddenly slowed down. He said he had seen a pink dolphin. And indeed, it surfaced a few times very close to the boat. The thing was really bright pink, unlike yesterday, that was something different.

At Lago Tarapoto, we were supposed to stay in a small settlement (45 people live here). So, a whole bunch of people make money off the flat rate we paid for the 3 days. First thing today, we went piranha fishing for tourists. We fished in a small side arm of the lake. Equipment: A stick with a meter-long fishing line and a hook. Bait: Chicken skin, so that we also knew what we would be having for dinner tonight 🐓. We actually caught some, one of the smaller species out of a total of 8 different piranhas that exist (learned that today 👍🏼). Those animals still had pretty sharp teeth.

A little jungle hike with sweating at lunchtime. Today in a completely different forest than yesterday - the one today gets completely flooded in winter. The water level in the Amazon region can fluctuate by up to 12 meters. So, here people live in mud in the summer and then really in the dirt in the winter. We saw a few monkeys, rubber trees, and tried various unknown things growing on trees. If someone wants to poison us, it's really easy for them: "Of course, you can eat that, tastes delicious 😋!"

Afterward, we went swimming. If we had known that we would be looking for caimans at exactly the same spot in the evening, I would have thought twice before doing a somersault off the boat. So, the evening program was looking for caimans with the boat, which Eduard said is easy here - except when the water rises in winter and it's a full moon 🌕. And both of those things were the case, of course, so we unfortunately didn't see a single caiman. The jungle sounds at night compensated a little. Actually, just like you imagine it when you know National Geographic documentaries, only much louder.

All in all, you have to say that there is a bit too much downtime in the program. For our taste, it all could have been more efficient, but a nap in the hammock at noon is also nice.

There are people who do this for 4 to 7 days. That really wouldn't be for us, and fishing 🎣 won't be our hobby either - way too much action 😜

In the evening, here in the village with its 10 wooden huts, the diesel generator is turned on for 3 hours. Otherwise, no electricity and running water only from the rain barrels on the roof. People use the electricity to listen to music. Music plays a big role in Colombia 🇨🇴 in general. But our "neighbors" listening to opera doesn't fit at all with 30 degrees, frog croaking, and wooden huts on stilts in the middle of the South American rainforest.

Under the mosquito net and sleep ... tomorrow we're going back to Puerto Nariño at 7 a.m. to start our last day in the jungle.