Amazon Day 4: Lucky Bait

Exerpts from Shirley´s Jungle Journal- Sunday 01/18/09

Last night I´m sure there were bats in our roof. We are protected by the mosquito mesh, but still.

It´s our last day in the jungle and I am finally used to taking cold jungle showers.

We went to visit the other side of the river to see some huge lily pads, drink coconut juice straight from the coconut, eat Amazonian grapes and do some more fishing.

Along the way, we saw some water buffalo and were warned not to get too close. So what´s the first thing that Javier does? He pissed off this water buffalo that was peacefully laying down in some water. It´s eyes were fixated on Javier, and it was ready to charge.

We went fishing again today because both Javier and his dad missed fishing yesterday. This was Round 2: Shirley´s Revenge. First we needed to buy some bait, so while Leo stopped at a spot to buy some bait, Javier, Pierre, and Mac took this as an opportunity to swim in the Amazon river. My mother in-law didn´t want Mac to go out too far, and I thought she was being over dramatic. Then I thought for a second. What if it were Qori out there? Yes, I would be acting the same way, so I took back my original thought.

So we were off to fish again. I caught two fish, one after another using the same bait. It was a piraña and a flat-headed fish. I said I had lucky bait. Sadly the next time I cast my fishing line and reeled it in... the bait was gone. Javier and his dad did not catch any fish. There was no time to take a picture of my fish because a loud thunder filled the air and the clouds went gray. A storm was coming and we were on the wrong side of the river. We packed up our fishing sticks and headed back to the lodge. Along the way it seemed like the storm was chasing us. A wonderful cool breeze came out of nowhere. Though it was dangerous, it was refreshing to be running from a storm. We made it back to the lodge in one piece.

Since we came back early from fishing, there was time for a nap before lunch. Inexhaustable Javier had finally worn out and took a nap. The other boys weren´t tired though. It took about 4 days since the airplane episode, but revenge is sweet...

Alas, lunch was over and it was time to pack. We were off on our motorboats back to the city of Iquitos to hang out before our flight. All in all, this was a very nice trip.

I could have done without the mosquitos though. They were brutal to me. I tried to count all my bites but it was too complicated. I lost count somewhere around 150. I think Pierre and I suffered the most bites. I won´t show my wounds because they´re just too gross, but here are poor Pierre´s legs. I think that Iquitos was originally named Mosquitos, and somewhere along the way, the beginning of the name got lost...