Day 7: Back On Land!
After the previous day's mis-adventures in the water we spent the next day mostly on land (and armed with the SLR). I awoke that morning to two birds chirping outside on the balcony shortly after sunrise.
Good morning!
After an early breakfast our day began with a trek through the jungle. Though before we entered, our guide showed us a method used by the locals to mask our scents and reduce the chance of being stung by hornets. You place your hand on one of those backpack-sized ant nests on a tree and let the ants crawl up on your arm before smushing them with your hands and spreading their guts all over. You'll be covered in ant guts but you'll smell like ants instead of smelling like humans (a little odd, I know, but let's say we didn't get stung that day).
Anthill/ant house
Armed with a machete, we cleared a small path through the forest throughout the morning. We didn't really get too far, mostly because of how dense the forest actually was. We were also able to find Brazil nuts that hadn't been scavenged by the local wildlife for a mid-morning snack.
Lots of green!
A look behind us-it's a little hard to see where we even came from
A fuzzy caterpillar that elected not to continue the journey with us
For those of you wondering, yes I did eat that piranha I caught the previous day. There were more than enough for all of us (thankfully because our guide caught so many), but of course my particular fish was saved for me.
Lunch!
My piranha was also one of the smaller ones, maybe about six inches long. I'm not exactly sure how I would describe the taste, but my best approximation is a meatier version of a pomfret or any other fish that's really flat.
After lunch we visited a local farm where some of our food was grown.
Look that that amazing fruit
Better than putting lipstick on a pig
In that area, most of the families are self-sufficient. Power is not always a guarantee as it tends not to be reliable, but some families do have generators that they use only after the sun sets. Also, since there aren't many water filtration systems, most families will either boil their water for a while or chemically treat it (or both in some cases). In addition to keeping animals, this particular farm had a very extensive pineapple crop.
A young pineapple plant-it's actually a pineapple growing on a stalk out of the ground
A cashew nut on a cashew apple-bet you didn't know how we got cashews!
A passionfruit flower that we picked and stuck on a boat
Unfortunately it was our last full day in the Amazon, so we celebrated with our guide in the evening. He lost a bet with one of us and had to drink a combination of wine and guarana powder. During the last couple of days our guide also made a fermented pineapple drink, which consisted of covering pineapple peels with water, covering the container with saran wrap, and exposing it to the sun for several days. The drink itself wasn't particularly strong, but it also had a mild pineapple flavor that led to a clean finish. (I've tried to make it a few times but it's been disastrous each time-maybe it's something I should leave to the professionals...)
Right before he consumes his drink
Apparently, according to locals, the joke is that if you consume too much of the guarana, it makes you horny. Now I'm not sure if it's more than a joke, but the dog at the cabin was more than willing to hump your leg.
