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Craig had been a little concerned that it might rain overnight and the river might swell past our sand bar beach. But luckily, that didn't happen.
We woke up without the aid of an alarm clock after a terrific night's sleep. We awoke to hear voices. Ņame´s father Karoway and some younger Huaorani kids from the village were chatting with Arturo, Felipe, and Ņame. To us in the dark it had seemed like we were out in the middle of nowhere, but we were actually just around the bend from a Huaorani settlement where Ņame and his family live.
We got dressed and brushed our teeth with water from our bottles. Arturo and Ņame cooked us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread, ham, fruit punch, and coffee. We saw turtle tracks in the sand and Felipe told us that they nest there at night. We also saw little tunnels in the sand where "perro" bugs had dug. We broke down camp (well, mostly Craig and I just stayed out of the way and watched the trio of men do their magic) and hit the water at 9 a.m. Arturo got into his rightful place on the supply raft, and the rest of us got into our kayaks. Several Huaorani kids rode the large pontoons of the supply raft downstream for a while, and a couple also stowed away aboard Felipe´s kayak. They were having a great time and it was fun to watch. The children were showing off their balancing ability by standing up on the pontoons and on the front and back of Ñame and Felipe's kayaks. Arturo, ever a jokester, would shift the supply raft to make them fall into the water. Felipe introduced us to Vilma, age 12, whom Felipe had known since she was a baby. She had a toddler girl with her and the two of them rode on the pontoon or Arturo's supply raft. Felipe paddled over to them and tickled the baby, making her laugh. It was nice to see that Felipe and Arturo have such a nice relationship of mutual respect with the local Huaorani. We dropped Vilma and the kids off at their little village, which Felipe said we would visit on Friday. We had a nice lazy paddle. The river meandered so much that you could never see very far in front of you. You could only see up to the next bend. There was a slight current which gently propelled us even if we stopped paddling. We saw a troupe of at least 20 squirrel monkeys. The way they effortlessly passed through the tree canopy reminded me of the crawling orcs in the Helm's Deep scene in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. They descended from one tree to the next and just seemed to keep coming out of nowhere. Eagle-eyed Ñame saw a tamarin monkey at this same time, but none of us managed to see it. As we floated downstream we would see turtles sunning themselves on fallen trees. As we approached they would drop into the water with a splash. We saw at least three. We saw scarlet macaws, a squirrel cuckoo, black caracaras (the adult has an orange face, and the juvenile has a yellow face), blue and yellow macaws, a military macaw, butterflies, blue morpho butterflies (which we had to point out every time we saw one), flycatchers, great black hawks, white banded swallows, parakeets, blackbirds, and smooth-billed lannies. It was very interesting to see the wildlife as we quietly paddled downstream. At around 1 o'clock we stopped at a beach. As we stepped out of our kayaks, out feet sank in the sand like quicksand. All of the beaches along the river are really interesting as they are made up of layers of sand and fallen leaves. When you walk on them they are very spongy. There are no rocks on this river - everything is a rich brown soil which makes the river itself brown with low visibility. It was hot, so the guys set up the lunch tent for shade. We had a sandwich bar with ham and cheese, condiments, lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes. We had Tang to drink, potato chips, and watermelon for dessert. It was a nice picnic lunch. After refueling, we all took a dip in the river to cool off. Ñame was doing all sorts of gymnastics for the cameras, flipping around in the air and splashing into the water. We saw a bird called a night jar on this beach, and Arturo, Ņame, and Felipe saw its nest and egg. We all made sure to keep our distance so that the egg remained safe. At around 2 o'clock, we packed up the lunch gear and got back into our boats. We were now refreshed and our clothes were wet to help keep us cool. We were apparently running ahead of schedule, so Felipe and Arturo told us to take our time and just float for a while without really paddling. Felipe propped his feet up on the front of his kayak as he floated without a care down the river. The rest of the afternoon was more overcast, so we felt comfortable, although we still enjoyed the areas where trees overhung the river and provided some cool shade. Ņame pulled up at a beach to try to capture a turtle for a photo, but it went into the water with a loud SPLASH! Ņame giggled and got back into his kayak. Maybe next time. At around 3 o'clock, Felipe told us that we had reached our campsite, and instructed us to pull over. We beached our kayak and when we stepped out, we were ankle deep in very fine, soft, silty, all-consuming mud. I remarked that you would probably pay a fortune in some day spa to get a mud treatment like this. There was an 8 foot wall of mud to scale in order to reach the campsite. Ñame headed up first and gave me a hand to help me climb up. The three of them hefted all of the supplies and bags up that steep slope and immediately started getting the campsite together. This site hade been an illegal logging camp. It is now abandoned, so Felipe and Arturo use it for camping. Ñame immediately started clearing the underbrush with a machete. There were biting ants here, so we had to be careful where we stood. All of the bags were placed on top of a tarp while they set up camp. Our tent was set up quickly and we sprayed an entire bottle of premethrin around the perimeter of the tent to keep the ants away. We made sure that when we entered or exited, we didn't let any ants in with us, and we always made sure that the zippers were properly closed. Having one of those ants in your sleeping bag would make for an absolutely miserable night. Our tent had a nice view down at the river. While it was light out, we got our belongings settled and set up our sleeping bags. There was a scarlet macaw at camp and Felipe saw a blue-tailed glossy lizard. We saw a baby ceiba tree which has spikes on it for defense. Ñame saw a night jar. They do not build a nest - they just lay an egg on the forest floor. We saw a single egg laying on a leaf and we tried to stay as far away as we could so as not to disrupt the mother's attention to the egg. The guys set up the mess tent and we sat under it. Ñame served us tamarind-flavored drink. He and Arturo started to cook dinner right away. Felipe again set up his hammock. It had a nice mesh netting which would cover his face to protect him from creepy crawlies. After hanging his hammock, Felipe dug a latrine a short walk from camp, and ended up breaking the shovel in the process. I wrote in the journal while it was still light because with the kind of bugs in this area, we certainly didn't want to use a headlamp in our tent to attract them when it was time to go to bed. All of a sudden we could hear a motor approaching. It was a foreign sound, after our day's solitary paddle, a reminder that there were other people in the world. We peeked down at the river to see a motorized canoe go by, in the same direction we would be paddling tomorrow. We assumed that this was a group of travelers heading to the Shiripuno Lodge. We liked our means of conveyance better. While the guys were fixing supper, they handed out pieces of chocolate cake as an appetizer. We chatted with them until the meal was ready. Dinner was potato soup with cheese and avocados, beans, beef, onions, salad, chicken, and a potato roastee. We had lemonade to drink. We ate until we were ready to burst. Felipe hadn't been kidding when he said that we would eat well on this trip. Arturo made sure of it. When we were full and couldn't finish what was on our plates, we offered our leftovers to Ñame. The Huaorani don't take food for granted, and will eat what is presented to them. Felipe and Arturo decided that they wanted to leave before sunrise in the morning to try to spot some caymen, so we made it an early night and went to bed at 7:30 p.m. As we approached our tent, we could see that the surface of the tent was crawling with ants. We were scared to open the flap to enter. While the guys were doing our dinner dishes, Felipe dumped soapy water around the tent as a barrier to the ants. We quickly opened the flap, got inside, zippered it shut, and got settled in our sleeping bags. We felt sure that ants would find their way in somehow. The guys were re-packing the gear while we drifted off to sleep. We had traveled 19 km on the river today. View Larger Map |
        
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