Excursions

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Geo: -0.94208, -75.3736

Two long excursions today. In the morning a walk in the jungle to a family compound; observing two spider monkeys in the trees on the way. In the afternoon a long voyage in the canoe to the Ecuador/Peru border and a cruise up the Yasuni River. We saw lots of colourful and interesting bird life and a family of six pink dolphins stayed around our canoe for about 15min, which was exciting.

We do have satellite wi-fi (albeit painfully slow) that only works when we stop for the evening. Tomorrow I'll take some pics of the boat and include them. The Anakonda is not as luxurious as our Myanmar boat and so far the food has been only average. (Which is not a bad thing because I've got it into my head to lose weight over this trip.) It's a shame that there's so few passengers, half the fun is getting to know new people.

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Photos

Village hut
Several generations live in this house, these are the grandparents. The family prefers to spend the hot part of the day in the "kitchen" - an area with a thatched roof. The oil companies have provided iron roofs for many of the huts, but it gets too hot during the day. They have a form of haphazard agriculture around their home. Tomatoes, peanuts, potatoes, bananas grow scattered around, with no attempt to corral one crop to one area.

Cleansing ceremony
Our guide Avel said he had been sleeping poorly for the last few nights and believed he had contracted some "negative energy". He asked the patriarch if he could do a cleansing ceremony. This involved wiping and shaking a bunch of special leaves on and around the individual. Then Avel did the same thing for the headman, as payment. The forest people are Animists and believe in spirits of the forest and "patchamama" - Mother Earth.

Yasuni River black water system
The two ripples are from pink dolphins. They do not jump out of the water and barely have a dorsal fin, so they are not very dramatic to observe. However, they are very definitely pink in colour. The jungle backdrop is typical of what we have seen so far. 40-50m tall trees with layered vegetation. The waters are stained by the tanin in the vegetation.

Red belly Piranha
There are over 200 varieties of piranha. They grow to about 30cm in length. Avel caught this tiddler and it very quickly bit him on the finger, causing much blood to flow.