260m
Due to the instructions of our guides we had to ensure that we were down at breakfast by 6am, not too difficult. We grabbed our now ‘usual seats’ with Bruce and Jan (the Canadian couple that we had met back at Quito airport). The ship put on a fairly substantial breakfast of fruit, salad, toast and hot food, as well as coffee, and we tried to get through it as quickly as possible as we had a long day planned. We were to assemble on deck 15 minutes after completing our breakfast as we would be travelling slightly east to find a tributary off from the Napo to get into a Panacocha forest sanctuary to find Piranha Lake, our lunchtime destination.
As we pulled into the tributary we got our first prize of the day; several Red Howler Monkeys far up in a tree. We pulled into the river and pretty much immediately started seeing and hearing the birds; macaws, parrots, weaver birds, Greater Yellow Vulture and Black Vulture. We pulled into a local community and Reuben jumped out to give them our details and a small ‘donation’.
On we trekked, steering around logs and sandbanks as the river became more narrow, with the occasional motion from either Reuben or Kevin to stop the boat as White Chested Capuchins or Squirrel Monkeys or some other animal was spotted by one of them, hidden from the eyes of us poor mortals who could only see foliage. Once the boat had stopped, and sometimes needing the laser pointer that Kevin had brought with him, we got to separate the fauna from the flora.
It then started to pour, and our convertible boat soon had the top down as we crawled through the gloom.
The rain had not completely stopped when we arrived at Piranha Lake, shortly after one of the Anakonda’s other launches had passed us with everything necessary for our lunch. We pulled up at a very nice meeting hall which was part of an eco-resort and then joined our guides for a walk through the jungle while we waited for lunch to be ḻprepared. This gave us an opportunity to spot leaf cutter, army and bullet ants, spiders, kapok trees, creeping germs; and had the opportunity to try native cinnamon and dragon’s blood sap, reputed to have healing properties.
Lunch consisted of a ceviche made with palm hearts, meat on skewers and some pretty insipid desert.
Unfortunately, due to the rain we had to cancel all of the water activities which were planned, including swimming in Piranha Lake, and headed back to the ship. As we left the lagoon we caught sight of a pink river dolphin, being the highlight of the day. As we turned a corner, Reuben jumped out and tied the canoe up to a tree. No path and steep muddy banks, what’s happening now? We were handed fishing line with hooks baited with meat and informed that we would now be fishing for piranha. For the next 20 minutes we all struggled with the annoying little creatures which would steal the meat from our hooks. Both Reuben and Kevin caught one, and then to add in sailor to injury, so did the driver. Locals 3: Visitors 0. As we pulled out onto the Napo we noticed that our ship had moved and we had to play catch-up with it. In addition to our pre-arranged dinner we also got to try the piranha, muddy flesh with multiple small bones. NOT a favourite!