Amazon - Piranha Fishing

Piranha fishing

 

Another short trip along the mighty and amazing Amazon, passing some wonderful weaver bird nests and a sloth that boatman Dennis spotted, amazingly as the sloth was so well camouflaged.  We clambered up a muddy bank to get closer – and Mick got ants in his t-shirt! 

 

The  they took us to the town of  Orellana, a fairly large community  also dependent on the river for transportation – not only the Amazon, a 10 minute tuk-tuk ride takes you to the Napu river and thence to Equador should you so wish.  Nice little place, but I suspect the only reason we went was cos Luis needed to top up his phone – it was Valentine’s Day and he needed to call his wife. 

Next part of the trip was to pull into a quiet little bit of backwater and fish with rod, line, hook and bait, basic kit, for Piranha. As you do!  It was a hoot, but  we were hopeless and caught none – though the little buggers kept stealing our bait!  Luckily Luis and Dennis the boatman caught 5 – enough for us to taste at lunchtime!

 

 

Then on home spotting a chameleon in a tree – how did Luis see him??!! - and a couple of dolphins en route

 

Rum Factory

Just around the bend from the camp is the local rum “factory” – it’s a bit of a one-man band, but a real bit of local history.  Carlos’s house has fields of sugar cane around it;  the canes are crushed, fermented and distilled in the factory to make the basic rum, then flavoured to make four different brands – and they are all excellent!  Hic!

 

 

His land also contained a pond with the most glorious monster lilies

 

Rescue Centre

 

Along the riverbank too is a single family dwelling where the chicken were being killed off by an anaconda so the owner decided to trap the snake – and succeeded.  He didn’t want to kill it, so started charging a few bucks for people to come and see it.   Other animals came his way and he now has a fine menagerie – my favourite was the little baby ant eater who fell asleep in my arms! 

 

The sloth was hilarious – his idea of aggression is to wave his arm languidly in your direction – but given the length of his claws, we didn’t mess with him!!

 

I stayed at a distance from the snapping turtle, the cayman and the boa, but have to say the anaconda was magnificent

 

All the animals are in fine condition, well fed and cared for and we wished the family well with their excellent little animal sanctuary.

 

And on home, where we found a new visitor to the bananas!