Back to "civilisation"

We woke up early this morning as it had been pouring for the last few hours. We decided to skip breakfast so we didn't have to cook in the rain, but it stopped by the time we were ready to pack up our gear. We worked fast and were in the canoe not long after 8 am. It was a quick ride as we were paddling with the current, so it only took about 2 hours to reach base camp. And it didn't rain either. It was a gerat time to be on the water, since all of the birds were coming out after the downpour. We were happy to be greeted very enthusiastically by one of the dogs at camp. We unloaded the boat, ate some breakfast, and had a splash in the river to kill some time. We then hung out around the camp and later Mitchell and Gary made us pollo saltado, a yummy Peruvian dish. But it was the end of Camilla's life...Camilla was the live chicken we had brought with us all the way from Iquitos. She stayed at base camp but her life ended for us to have pollo saltado. I think we gave all of the chicken to the dog behind Gary's back.

After lunch, our driver with the motorized boat arrived and we loaded up the boat. We all got on board just in time for the rain to start pouring down. So most of the 3 hours in the boat were spent huddled under an umbrella. We were desperately trying to keep our feet dry, since we both had just dried them out after 3 days of being soggy and wet. As we got near to the town where we were to catch the big cargo boat back to Iquitos, we stopped the boat for a bit to watch for some freshwater Amazonian dolphins. And much to our pleasure, the rain stopped, the sun sort of came out, and with it, the dolphins! We saw quite a few of the pink dolphins, and they're really really pink! And we also saw heaps of gray ones, which look just like bottlenose dolphins except their bellies are pink. These guys were having a blast, jumping out of the water and doing spins. It was a real treat to watch.

Back in town, we had a cold drink and waited for the cargo boat. When it arrived, it was mad chaos as everyone tried to scurry on to get hammock space (the boat was already nearly full when it reached us) and the locals scurried on to sell their food. We just managed to find place for 3 hammocks on the top deck, although not all together. Nigel and I bought some delicious food (it was like a stuffed potato but was yucca or something else). We had some beers with Gary and chatted about our trip, enjoying talking about all we saw and did. And then we pretty much went to our hammocks to read and try to sleep. We were like ping pong balls in our hammocks, being swayed back and forth by the fat dudes on either side of us. I think we managed to fall asleep at some stage.