We could have done it. Yes!
We could have eased Let's Dance from her comfortable Ashley River slip,
scooted across Charleston Harbor and up Shem Creek between the idle shrimp
boats to the fuel dock. With topped off
fuel tanks, we could have motored out past Fort Sumpter into the Atlantic Ocean
for the first leg of the journey. We
could have navigated close to shore to minimize the effect of the north-rushing
Gulf Stream as we tackled the first short haul from Charleston down to Key
West. Five hundred and fifty nautical
miles. Watches of four hours on, four
hours off, 24/7. We could have made
landfall in Florida in a mere six days.
Slightly bleary-eyed, and a trifle cranky, we could have said
good-bye to Key West and looped around the west side of Cuba, thereby avoiding
the tricky Windward Passage and Guantanamo Bay to the east. We could have waved at Grand Cayman before
reaching the relative safety of Central American waters. On down past Belize, Honduras and
Nicaragua. By now, our stores could be
low and we could be eating mostly canned vegetables with our freshly caught
fish. We could have flown past the
Panama Canal and bounced off the coast of Colombia. Oops!
Bad choice. So, we could stop for
a short while on the little Dutch island of Curacao where we could sip
chocolate and local liqueurs. Another
1500 nautical miles under our collective belts.
From Curacao we could have set our sights beyond Venezuela to the
shores of Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana for the final push. Down to eating peanut butter and crackers
with a side of canned fruit cocktail.
Four hour watches. But we could
have gone on. We could have crossed the
equator just south of the Brazilian border and, through careful GPS analysis
and well-honed chart reading skills, we could have, at last, arrived at the
mouth of the mighty Amazon River. 1,650
nautical miles from tiny Curacao and a startling 3,700 nm from Charleston,
South Carolina.
We could have done it.
With unlimited calm, following seas; clear blue skies by day and
star-filled nights; no mechanical issues; ace navigation skills; electrical
systems that purred with content; marital harmony and a surplus of Blue Bell
ice cream; we could have done it. And
when we finally arrived at the vast, 25 mile wide mouth of the Amazon, we could
have checked and re-checked our charts, scrutinized our logs, recalculated our
latitude and longitude, and discovered that the true starting point of our adventure,
the city of Iquitos, lay another 1,725 nm upriver near the headwaters of the
fabled stream....hmmmm.
True, we could have done it, but we wanted to get there before
high water season in January,
so we left Let's Dance and the Love Me Tender at home and flew
commercial to Lima, Peru.
Ta Da!!
We have traveled to South America, and the northern reaches of
the Amazon River, to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday in style. Some may ask, "Why the
Amazon?" The answer is clearly
"Well, she's been every place else!"
Luckily, neither my brother David and his wife Leslye, nor Bill and I,
had been to the Amazon either, so it was the perfect location for our little
family of five to party. From Lima we
flew two hours north to the jungle-locked town of Iquitos and then boarded a
small bus for a fascinating drive through forests dotted with tiny villages to
the town of Nauta. Although it is home
to about 10,000 people, Nauta is accessible only by river and the two-lane road
from Iquitos on which we traveled. It
was dark when we arrived in the dusty, rutted town and the primary form of
lighting coming from the open doors and paneless windows was the glow of
television screens. Children and dogs
followed our little bus as we bumped by empty concrete block facades and
trash-strewn alleys. Finally, in a scene
reminiscent of an unfolding movie drug deal, a tall, solid wooden gate was pried ajar
and our bus slipped inside.
At last! We have arrived
at the dock. The real adventure is about
to begin as we board our new home away from home and party central -- Aqua
Expedition's "Aria."
On the first morning of the cruise, the passengers are divided
into four groups -- 8 to a skiff. We don
life jackets, cover ourselves in bug spray and are off to explore. Our family is assigned to Julio's skiff and
we are joined by a couple from New Zealand.
We take off up the Ucayali River to begin our equatorial adventure.
Shortly after leaving the
mother ship we pull to the shore and pick up a 'ribereno', a young river man
with a large machete. His name is Antonio and he will help spot wildlife and
cut swathes through the jungle for us.
Wow!
He is very practiced and soon spots three rare red macaws, a ring
kingfisher and a cocoi heron. Beautiful
birds are everywhere! Social
flycatchers, swallow-winged puff birds, red-capped cardinals, bluish-fronted
jacamar, and of course the white-eared jacamar....so many! We pull ashore and climb up the bank (are
there snakes?) to get a close look at a trio of owl monkeys that Julio sighted high
up in a tree. The owl monkeys stare back
at us solemnly while the little squirrel monkeys perform high canopy acrobatics
for our amusement.
After a few hours of intense river scouting we say goodbye to
Antonio with our thanks and a couple of bottles of Coke, and head back to the
Aria for the first of many gourmet meals.
A quick siesta later and we are back in the skiffs...this time with
Neyser guiding us. Soon we encounter
three fishermen in a canopied canoe pulling what appears to be a floating
corral. In fact, these riberenos are on their way to the market in Iquitos
with their live catch of fish gathered into a clever aquatic cage. They will be eight days (!) on the river
towing their fresh goods to market.
The slowly flowing river is wide and the air is incredibly fresh
as we continue up the Ucayali River.
Grey river dolphins surface around our skiff and a lone pink dolphin
slides by, revealing only his vibrant dorsal fin. Neyser spots something high in the trees and
we slow to take a look. Sloths! Three-toed sloths!
These cousins of anteaters hang about high in the cecropia trees,
eating the leaves and buds while enjoying life in the slow lane. Once a week, approximately, a sloth will make
the 45 minute trek down the trunk of the tree to relieve himself at ground
level. (Other curious sloth facts: their fur grows away from their extremities
providing rain protection as they hang from their arms and legs in the
rainforest canopy; the females give birth while upside down; their fur provides
a host habitat for moths, beetles, fungi and (ugh!) cockroaches; when agitated,
the sloth can travel at a top speed of 0.15 mph. Way to hustle, Mr. Sloth!)
As dusk nears on our first day on the river, our drivers bring
all four of the Aria's skiffs together on a sandy bank for cocktail hour,
Amazon style. We are served chilled
mimosas and a tasty variety of nuts wrapped in decorative palm leaf
pouches. A most civilized way to end a
perfect day in Peru.
Day two is to begin with a 6 a.m. call as we want to be on the
river early to search for elusive capybara and slithering anaconda. Bill is so excited that he wakes me at 5 a.m., raring to go. Ouch!
Finally the others are ready and we set out with Daniel as our guide and
Freddie captaining the skiff. We travel
up the Pacaya River into the 5 million-acre Reserva National Pacaya-Samiria,
home to over 500 bird species and around 100 types of mammals.
We are overwhelmed by the birds -- the Jabiru stork (here from
Belize only for breeding season), cormorants, yellow-cheek and orange-wing
parrots, long-horned screamers (aka donkey birds for the braying noise they
make), ringed kingfishers, etc. Adding
to the unique sounds of the river are the pecky-pecky engines on the dugout
canoes, usually small lawn mower motors.
Still, we are looking for the giant anaconda and so we search the
banks, pulling in close under fallen trees and vines to peer into the dense
undergrowth. No anaconda are found, but
Daniel gives it his all. Hard work, this
anaconda hunting! We motor on, curious about the holes in the muddy banks left exposed in the low water season. These holes are made by walking catfish
(Clarias batrachus, thank you), air-breathing fish who can "walk"
using their pectoral fins for as long as they stay moist. Very odd.
Finally -- time for breakfast!
The skiffs raft up together along a shaded bank and the crew produce
fresh-squeezed juice, hot coffee served in china cups and a selection of fruits
and breads. Amazing feast! We enjoy this river delight while watching a
bluish-fronted jacamar dine on dragonflies.
To each his own!
Afterward breakfast, we go fishing....for piranhas!! Daniel ties the skiff to a low-hanging branch
near the muddy shore, and hands each of us a short cane pole rigged with a four
foot section of line and a simple hook.
Chopped raw chicken serves as the bait and we are instructed to slap the
end of the pole on the water's surface a few times to get the attention of the
little biters. (They don't see too well
in the murky river water.) Then, wait
for the bite and yank quickly upwards.
It works! David nabs a big
red-bellied piranha first and everyone else follows suit. Even Nita, who was not optimistic at first,
catches one of the bad boys.
These small fish have a deservedly bad reputation, although
Daniel claims that Hollywood created most of the fear factor. Still, their teeth are something to
behold. We toss most of the piranha back
(who wants a biting creature, no matter how small, loose in the boat?) but two
large ones are saved to become hawk bait.
Daniel skewers one of the fish with a hollow stick and launches it away
from the skiff. Nearby, a vigilant hawk
watches, then makes three attempts before successfully grasping the floating
piranha in her claws for a clean getaway.
As we return to the Aria from our morning excursion, we are
offered cold, scented hand towels........."to refresh." This is nothing like the rugged Amazon
adventure we had imagined!
Let's do lunch!
Once again the American's skiff is the last to leave the mother
ship as we set out for an afternoon tour with Roger in charge. Our futile search for the "Common
Anaconda" continues, but Nita and Bill do spot a teeny, bright white frog. The skies are filled with birds again --
short-tailed parrots and festive parrots and mealy parrots, anhingas, too. Scarlet macaws and black collared hawks and
yellow-headed caracaras. Oh, my! Roger spots a "Watson" bird perched
in a river-side tree. Actually it is a
"hoatzin", a spectacularly crested prehistoric creature that has
claws on its wings and an unfeathered
blue face. Very handsome!
blue face. Very handsome!
Just as anatomically unlikely as the hoatzin is the terrestrial
capybara. This hairy fellow has the
distinction of being the world's largest rodent. They are hunted by the indigenous peoples of
the Amazon for their meat and skins. At
up to 100 lbs. and standing about 2 feet at the shoulder, that's a lot of
rodent. But kind of fetching in their
own way, I think.
Sunset comes to this equatorial region routinely at 6 p.m. and it
is routinely gorgeous. We abandon our
search for the elusive anaconda and set our sights on jungle jaguar as the
light fades. Roger has a car battery
powered spotlight and uses it to scan the banks of the twisting Pacaya River as
we slowly head back to the Aria. The jaguar fail to appear for us and Roger
finds only a slippery spectacled Caiman which he gamely brings aboard for us to
admire.
The remainder of the return river ride to the Aria is a magical
reminder that there are still huge colonies of fireflies in the world, and
bright moonlight and unknown constellations; even the Milky Way is clearly
visible here in the Amazon night sky.
Occasional sweeps of the spotlight to search for floating logs or other
hazards in our path reveal pairs of disembodied red eyes along the banks and
the occasional fishing bat flitting overhead.
The third day of our Amazon tour dawns cool and overcast. Nita decides to remain on the Aria for the
morning so only Leslye, David, Bill and I set off with Julio. Our destination is a riverside village of
about 200 people called Contamanillo, 530 miles north of Lima. Each year, as snow in the Andes melts and
begins its slow, downstream glide, erosion pulls the soil away from the river
banks, taking steps and railings and other man-made improvements away. The Amazon and its many tributaries rise a
remarkable 35 feet between low-water and high-water seasons.
We disembark from the skiffs and climb to the top of the rickety
steps where we are met by Isabel and Arnoldo who turn out to be long lost
cousins of Julio! As they catch up on
family matters, Isabel shows off the bucketful of fish they caught just this
morning. I can’t resist the lure of a walking catfish
but find him quite prickly.
Word of the outsiders' arrival travels fast, and soon curious
children surround us. The little girls
want to hold hands with Leslye and one of the little boys sports a green
parakeet on his shoulder. A large pig is
penned near the town's edge and we learn that he serves as an "insurance
policy" for the villagers. Should
someone in the village need, say, an operation, the pig could be traded to
another village for some other form of barter and so on until the deal is complete. Very efficient.
We are invited into the home of a local family -- an open air
affair that is raised about 5 feet off the ground. There is a cook fire on the platform and
something is rapidly boiling. One child
holds on to his momma, who is pregnant, while an older boy shows us the
hand-made grater that they use to slice the manioc root that forms a large
portion of their diet. Families eat only
twice a day here, and water for all their needs comes from the river. Children are especially prone to water-borne
illness and parents treat them with the milky sap of the oje tree mixed with
sugar cane juice. The oje is known as
the "doctor" tree and apparently one good dose of this concoction
will last for a lifetime.
As a special treat, the young children of the village gather in
the schoolroom to entertain us. One by
one they introduce themselves, shyly, and then sing a few short songs as a
group. Mothers with babies look on as
the 31 of us, tourists from around the world, are then invited to introduce
ourselves. We are prompted to say,
"Me llamo David. Soy de Estados
Unidos." Etc. After each of us stumbles through this with
our own name, the children repeat the name while enthusiastically clapping out
the number of syllables it has. This is
done with great enthusiasm.
After the introductions it is our turn to sing for the
children! Whose idea is this? The Japanese contingent of twelve goes first
with a lyrical rendition of "Ue O Muite Arukou", better known to U.S. audiences as
"Sukiyaki." The bar is set
really high! Next the Aussies, who
number 8, step up with a rousing version of "Waltzing Matilda." We are called on third, and since Nita stayed
back on the Aria, we have little chance of staying on (or even finding) the
right key. But Leslye is determined and
we manage a creditable version of "The Eyes of Texas."
Finally, Roger asks the children to tell us what they would like
to be when they grow up -- the standard question to school kids. One boy says 'policeman' and others agree
that this would be great. One little
girl wants to be a teacher, another a doctor and then a small hand in the back
of the room comes up. "I," she
says quite seriously, "want to be a tourist!!" We must be good role models!
The village tour was a great success and eye-opening and we all returned
to the boat with renewed appreciation of our own circumstances. As we approached the Aria, eager for cool
drinks and a yummy meal, we could clearly see Nita walking on the treadmill in
the second floor exercise room. Way to
go, Mom!
Another delicious lunch, another quiet siesta and we are ready
for the final expedition of our Amazon adventure. Too soon!!
Neyser guides us to an area where pink river dolphin are abundant. They are reticent to come too close, but
surface all around our skiff to give us a peek....always too fast and too
stealthy to be well photographed. Alas. We motor from the river into Lake Clavero for
canoeing and swimming. (Are there piranha?)
Women and girls in long, dugout canoes seem to appear from
nowhere to surround the skiffs. What
fun! Nita and Leslye climb cautiously
down into the first canoe and are quickly off to the races. David and I follow, joining two young sisters
-- Lidia and Mara -- in a quite long and obviously old, wooden canoe. The paddle that I am given weighs about 15
pounds and is almost impossible for me to operate. Luckily our skills are not needed at all and
we have a nice, short ride. It was
Nita's first time ever in a canoe -- a birthday treat, for sure.
All this hard physical labor earns us a treat and a refreshing
swim in the lake is just the ticket -- for some. This means only Leslye and David in our
group, although Nita does dip her toes in just for bragging rights.
It is hard to imagine that our guides (and all the
behind-the-scenes crew) could top the experiences that we have had to
date. But....after swimming and canoeing
and piranha fishing and fine dining and bird watching and sloth spying and
anaconda hunting and all the other adventures....they do!
Our skiffs are gently beached and we come ashore (each in our own
special way) to enjoy an alfresco cocktail party. Fancy hors d'oeuvres, chilled champagne, wine
and beer, lounge chairs and tiki torches -- they thought of everything and it
is a very memorable farewell party.
But it didn't end there!
Back on the Aria for our last evening on the river we all gather in the
lounge before dinner. Stories are told
and photos swapped. Promises made to
keep in touch and cards exchanged. And
then, crew and passengers join together to sing "Happy Birthday" to
Nita. It is good to be ninety in this
adoring crowd! She has charmed them all
-- the Aussies and the Kiwis, the Japanese, Peruvians, Israelis and Greeks, passengers and
crew alike -- and this is no surprise to the four of us. We've been charmed for years!
So, yes, we could have spent the low-water season wending our way
south in Let's Dance, and probably found the Amazon, too. But who wants to spend all that time getting
there when you could spend all that time being there? Exploring the amazing Amazon turned out to
be a great way to spend Nita's 90th birthday.
Now the only question is, "What will we do for her 100th?"
Stay tuned!! But for now,
Let's Dance........Carol and Bill
