Since I don’t sleep with my processors on, I sleep soundly, undisturbed by noises around me. When I turned my processors on for the first time, I was greeted by such a wonderful symphony of sounds. I’d never had that experience before, of ‘coming online” for the first time and hearing such energetic sounds to start my day. I immediately pulled out my phone to try and record all the sounds to share. I really tried to focus on listening to capture it to memory. Once I figure out how to add media to this squarespace site, I’ll add the audio file!

After another delicious breakfast of local fruit, bread with jam and eggs, we headed across the river to Peru to look for sloths. Since there are no roads in the region, there is no need for border control, so we were able to come and go as we pleased. I learned, too, that these communities don’t have as strong connection to nationalities — they’re more connected to their community among them, up/downstream and across the river. So there is frequent exchange, support and collaboration with each other regardless of nationality.

Similarly with this Indigenous community in Peru, there is a strong support for ecotourism and participation in this effort to educate others about their way of life. The jungle on this side of the river felt much more “wild jungle” than it did on the other side! We started looking for sloths, looking up high in the trees since they eat the young leaves of the cecropia tree. Along the way we looked at the Victoria Amazonia — the second-largest water leaves (also known as “lilly pads”). Under the leaves are sharp spikes that protect them from herbivorous fish. They can be up to 3 meters wide and support a small child’s weight!

We found a sloth! It indeed moved pretty slow, but I saw the arm reach for a leaf, and its face turned to eat it. It was slow enough action to give me a neck cramp from looking up for so long. The Peru sloth guide told us about sloth mating rituals. The two male sloths would to try and win the female by engaging in a slow-mo fight, with one slowly striking an arm across, with the other male reciprocating with similar slow speed and a low, slow “raaaaawwwrr.” Just the visual of it gave me the giggles along with the guide’s reenactment.

After we visited the sloth, we walked through the guide’s community. Along the way we learned about how the Amazon river can flow up really high and deep into where we were during the high season (which is estimated to be about to begin). All of their houses are up on stilts for these floods or when it’s high season. The flood stays up around 3 months and the trees that get underwater have their seeds floating, further spreading seeds and being placed when the food recedes.

There’s 164 people — to be exact — in this community. (That just goes to show how there’s closeness in this community that they’d know of any birth or death.) We saw the bar, restaurant, and “market” — the only distinction these structures had was a solitary sign on a railing. Here’s a bar where we had fresh coconut water! It tasted way better than Vida Coconut water that I’d tried to get into a few years ago. (Yeech!) I would drink this on the regular. Along with my personal filtered rainwater system don’t be surprised if I plant a coconut tree in my backyard.

When we walked through the soccer field, I noticed a few stands. It was then I asked how many people in the community and for that small size, I couldn’t imagine the stands to be filled up. As it turns out, every Saturday night, the neighboring communities play each other! One community hosts the match once per month. I loved learning this about their culture! (I did ask if soccer stars come out of these communities and they generally do not, and the soccer stars rise out mostly from the villages along the Caribbean.)

Another thing to note, how clean everything is! I did not see one bit of trash on the ground. In fact, I noticed planters and hanging baskets were made out of plastic bottles. How clever! And a way to reuse to reduce waste.

Puerto Nariña

After wrapping up our tour with a harvest of fresh mangoes, we said goodbye and headed back across the river to another community where I’d be staying the night, Puerto Nariña. (Calonoa couldn’t accommodate me for two nights as a tour group of 12 people all the way from the Czech Republic were coming to stay.) While I didn’t want to leave the comfort of the treehouse and delicious food, I took this as an opportunity to experience a community that operated more like a town. (And that’s using the term generously) Again with tempered expectations of my accommodations, I was pleasantly surprised of my room at the Waira Selva. Still simple but really nice considering my surroundings. We headed for lunch and once we sat down I realized it was my first time to sit down 1:1 with Lorenzo! So over a cold local Amazonias beer I got to know him a bit better, learn about his love for soccer and his family.

After lunch, Wilmar, who was our Calanoa boat driver for the day and tour guide in Puerto Nariña took us around. He took us to the “natural museum.” No photographs were allowed, so I’ll do my best to describe. (FWIW I tried to find a website for it to just share, but no remote mention of it. I should have figured!) In my learning of how visits supports their ecotourism efforts, I felt like it was my price to pay to sit through a lecture, all translated through Lorenzo. We were guided inside one hut and I was immediately struck by the creativity of the space: life-size, painted woodcarvings of marine life suspended from the ceiling, in varying heights as to approximate where they’d be in the Amazon. The effect was as if we’re standing underwater. I really liked this demonstration — and being able to “see” the diverse marine life in front of me. The guide told us about the piranhas, the anaconda, manatees, dolphins, and crocodiles that swim beneath the surface. Then we went next door to a pitch-black hut and felt the refreshing cool sand beneath our feet. (We were to remove our shoes and socks in the beginning). The guide shined a flashlight, it’s nighttime in the Amazon and there is a fisherman tending to his net. She told us all about what the fisherman would encounter along the banks of the river. Once again, I was taken aback by the immersive approach to education that did not require high-tech displays.

Viewpoint & Happy Hour

After the museum we grabbed some local homemade ice cream and walked up to the viewpoint for some beautiful views of the communities. We had to enter through an open mouth of a jaguar (I think — or a large cat?). Which was pretty fun! On the way back down I took a photo of Wilmar and Lorenzo from inside! We had happy hour and I watched a group of kids play soccer. We had two very full days, so I called it an early night since we had a 5:30 AM birdwatching session. It was nice to retire back to my room and leave the balcony door and windows open to watch the sunset behind the clouds. Since I saw the pipes of rainwater running in the hot sun, I figured that was my best chance to get some hot water for my shower, and I did for the first 30 seconds! It felt nice!