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We woke up at 4:30 a.m. realizing happily that there wasn´t a single ant in the tent. We had managed to sleep soundly all night despite fearing being carried off by ants in our sleep.
We broke down our tent in total darkness and loaded the kayaks. We were on the water by 5:30. We ate jelly sandwiches that Arturo and Ñame had prepared as breakfast-on-the-go. It was eerie to try to navigate by headlamp. Arturo, Felipe, and Ñame scanned the water's surface with their flashlights, looking for the light reflecting in a cayman's eyes.
A bunch of the biting ants had apparently taken refuge in our kayak overnight, and as they emerged from hiding we did our best to crush them or throw them overboard. We certainly weren't going to let them live to bite us all day. Arturo managed to pick up a turtle, and he held it aloft to show us. Usually they sit on rocks and branches and slip into the water as soon as we approach. It was neat to see one up close. Soon the sky started to lighten. We brushed against a branch which was hanging low over the river and dislodged several fisher bats which skimmed across the water to another branch on shore. Felipe spotted a cayman about 3 feet in total length under a log. We paddled very close to it to photograph it and it didn't move. It was very well camouflaged in the murky water. Ñame tried to catch it to give us a closer look, but the minute he hit the water it submerged. Swimming in the water the previous days had been so refreshing, but this is no controlled Disney World experience. This was the all-too-real jungle and there could be anything lurking below the water's murky surface. We made a mental note to remember this if we wanted to cool down in the water again. After the cayman disappeared, we continued on our way. We were happy that the cayman mission had been successful. Ñame caught a turtle and then later an injured one who looked like its shell had been damaged by a boat propeller. A chunk was missing. We were glad that for the moment at least we were human-powered and not a danger to the wildlife. As we came up along a nice sandy beach, Felipe and Arturo said that we should stop here for breakfast. Apparently the jelly sandwiches that we had eaten in the kayaks at dawn didn't count. We beached our kayaks, and before we knew it, the guys had set up the camp stoves and broke open the coolers. They got out chairs for each of us, and set up a dining table. They were so good at it that they did it effortlessly in no time flat. Arturo and Ñame were cooking. We enjoyed a breakfast of blackberry yogurt, pancakes, coffee, and Tang. It was delicious. The guys weren't in a rush, and we lingered over breakfast. They pointed out tracks on the sand and droppings from a capybara. It is amazing how much wildlife is around us. After breakfast we got back into our boats and continued down the river. We saw so many birds that we couldn't keep track of them all. We were not as enthused to see a bee, which seemed to follow us all day and annoyed us with its incessant buzzing. It was really interesting to see the layers of leaves decomposing on the banks of the river. It certainly explains how the jungle gets its fertile soil, and even over time how oil has come to exist underground in these areas. Felipe directed our attention to a tree which reached up above the jungle canopy on one side of the river. It was a huge ceiba tree, and he said that we should get out of the kayaks and check it out. We pulled the kayaks onto the shore and walked a short distance to the trunk of the tree. Its scale was just massive. The trunk sends out fin-like baffles in each of the four cardinal directions. Each fin was like a wall, and dwarfed us. It was so tall, and the jungle was so dense, that it was pretty much impossible to get a photo which did it any justice whatsoever. It was majestic and awe-inspiring. Felipe estimates that it is 500-600 years old. When we walked back to our kayaks, we noticed that Craig's and mine had floated a bit downstream. We thought we had secured them. Luckily Ñame immediately paddled his kayak over to retrieve it for us. He saw a wooly monkey and we backtracked upstream a little to try to find it. We got out of the kayak into some silty mud and walked around for a little while in the jungle, but the monkey was nowhere to be found. Back in our kayaks, as we retraced our route downstream, we once again saw our gigantic ceiba tree proudly emerging above the canopy. Wow! We progressed a little bit further downstream to a beach where we could eat lunch. Lunch didn't require the campstoves, but Arturo and Ñame immediately pulled out the coolers and chairs. They broke out sandwich fixings, including salami, tuna, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and turkey. For dessert there was fresh cantaloupe and last night's honey cake that we had not eaten then because we were all too full. We watched as tons of tiny bees swarmed Craig's chair. Felipe lounged on the pontoon of the supply boat as we relaxed for a while before our final push to the lodge. After lunch we paddled off for the final stretch of the day's 31 kilometers. A kingfisher accompanied us. He would fly a short ways ahead of us, alight on a branch, and then wait for us to catch up. It was really cool. We saw our first motorized canoe heading in the other direction and knew that we must be close to the lodge. It was one of the only signs of civilization we had seen. Felipe told us to take our time and enjoy the last section of paddling. He said that we wouldn't be able to miss the Shiripuno Lodge once we reached it. He, Arturo, and Ñame lagged behind a bit. The river was so windy here that soon we turned around and couldn't even see them. It was like Craig and I were journeying down the river alone, just us and nature. As we rounded a bend, we saw a ramshackle dock and sign welcoming us to the Shiripuno Lodge at 20 minutes past 4. It was obvious that the water level can be variable. The water was currently low, so we were significantly below the level of the dock. We had to host ourselves up and out of our kayak one at a time, with nobody else there to assist us. We were amazed that we were able to do it without capsizing the kayak. We secured the kayaks and then climbed up the uneven rickety wooden steps to a clearing in the jungle. The lodge consisted of several wood plank buildings with thatched roofs. The buildings were on small stilts, and we wondered whether sometimes the river floods One building housed the common areas, including the kitchen, dining room, and an area with several hammocks. Across the field there was a dormitory, with rooms side by side. We were shown to room #5, named colibri ("hummingbird" in Spanish). The interior walls didn’t go all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, so there was a communal feel to the place. Clotheslines and hammocks hung from a common front porch. Because the front exterior wall was partially open to the outside, mosquito nets hung over the two single beds. We had a private bathroom in our room which used water pumped from the river to run the shower, sink, and toilet. Felipe, Arturo, and Ñame would be in the room next door, and a staff member came to deliver fresh towels. Unfortunately, there were only 2 towels available for the 5 of us. Craig and I laughed at the irony - our first “real” shower in 6 days and here weren't enough towels. He gave one towel to each room and we made due. We each took a shower with cold river water, which was refreshing in the hot and humid environment. We hung our damp clothes on the clothesline on the porch to dry. Felipe, Arturo, and Ñame arrived in the meanwhile, and they brought the gear up from the river and then took showers themselves. Refreshed and wearing clean clothing for the first time in days, we crossed the yard to the common building. There was a serve-yourself hot beverage station. Craig made tea and I made hot chocolate and we relaxed in hammocks. Felipe soon joined us in the hammock area and we discussed the day's wildlife sightings and I took notes. Felipe brought over a bird book from the lodge's collection and we identified species we had seen during our three day paddle:
He also had a book of mammals and showed us the white collared peccary, whose tracks we had seen. Other groups of guests started to appear after returning from their day's activities. They congregated in the common areas and planned their evening activities. We were all quite tired after three days and 72 kilometers of paddling. Plus we had been up since before dawn today. We had the option of doing an activity tonight, but we were too exhausted and decided to just take it easy instead. Darkness fell while we sat lounged in the hammocks. Lodge staff went from room to room lighting candles so that we wouldn't be going back to a dark room later at night. They blew a horn at 7:30 to indicate that dinner was ready. We went to our assigned picnic table in the dining room and were served potato, cheese, and spinach soup. Arturo ran to our supplies and got a bottle of Gato Negro merlot to celebrate a successful paddle. We toasted and each drank a glass. They made fun of Ñame because the first time he drank wine he complained that it tasted like curare (a natural jungle medicine or a poison, depending on how much you use). They still won't let him live it down. Dinner was breaded chicken, rice, and fried plantains. Dessert was starfruit in vanilla liquer with cloves. We said our goodnights at 9 o'clock and the guys gave us the remainder of the bottle of wine to take back to our room. We decided to save it for tomorrow and got into our single beds, adjusted the bed nets, and promptly fell asleep. View Larger Map |
         
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