2-2-20 - Swimming with Piranhas

Dusk and dawn are the best times for viewing the critters in this UNESCO Biosphere area, one of the most bio-diverse areas on Earth. Since more of the rainforest creatures are active in the morning and before the heat and humidity racket up, we are scheduled to leave at 6:30am.  This means 5:30am wake-up call, 6:00am breakfast, 6:30am departure every day we are here.

Crusted forest dragons, Russet backed oropendolas, translucent butterflies and stinky turkeys. We see these and more on our 6:30 am canoeing trip and rainforest hike.  As we cruise around the lake in the canoe, we become amateur birdwatchers. Our guides, Dan and Dario, search high and low to point out the toucans, macaws, herons and more to us.  We see bats sleeping upside down on the underside of a tree growing out of the water.  We glide peacefully over the still water feeling like we would make a really good reality show today. 

We dock across the lake and start our nature walk - now in light.  The light just ends up giving those of us less into “Insect and Reptile Heaven” more reason to be scared out of our minds.  Now we see more critters we would have walked right by in the dark last night. 

The coolest thing we saw was the owl eye butterfly whose wings camouflage him as the wings look just like a snake head. We are building our catalog of animals, insects, reptiles and creatures we’ve seen.  Adding to the list is a red howler monkey and the dreaded walking stick, jumping stick and flying stick; giant insects with stick like bodies that walk, jump or fly.  We run into tree frogs that blend right into the leaves where they sit including the ruby poison frog, spotified poison frog and flat headed frog.

Dan educates us on the Amazon showing us how quickly the biodiversity of species can change in a short distance.  We can notice the visual difference between trees, plants, leaves and the terrain.  The number of species is mind boggling with hundreds of species of each in a hectare (100 square meters).  Across the entire Amazon there are thousands and thousands of species of thousands of different insects, reptiles, mammals, spiders, trees, plants, birds and who knows what else. 

We arrive back drenched in sweat from the humidity of the rainforest but awe-struck by what we’ve witnessed over the course of the morning.  Before lunch Leanne and Ashley take a yoga class on the water’s edge. Kyle hangs out in the open air lodge restaurant and ends up talking with Mary from Vancouver during Leanne’s yoga session.  They chat about the different education systems around the world and they impact on the environment we have witnessed around the world.

After lunch with the kids, we get a massage.  It’s a cool experience to get an open air massage with the sounds of the Amazon jungle alive around us.  Afterwards, Kyle goes swimming in the lake.  We have been warned that the lake contains a vast number of piranhas, the ever-dangerous flesh eating fish with razor sharp teeth.  Dan has said that they usually don’t eat people unless they’re really hungry. However; Kyle simply can’t resist the urge to say that he swam with piranhas.  “Besides, if I do get bit by one, it will make the blog post all that much better,” he points out.  Oh, and let’s not forget that there are also Cayman crocodiles in the lake.  Dan says that they are active at night so you usually don’t see them in the day. Of course, Kyle getting bitten by a crocodile would be a little more problematic.

Our afternoon expedition finds us in canoes on the lake fishing for piranhas. Yes, the very same razor sharp tooth, flesh eating fish that Kyle just swam with.  We all have bamboo fishing poles with line and hook.  We hook on big pieces of meat and lower the line. Dan tries to set expectation that it’s really hard to catch one.  He tells us to let the piranha bite the meat one or twice and then the next time he bites, yank the line up and try to hook him.  He says Dario has been doing it his whole life so he is quite adept at it and will likely catch a bunch and show us.

We settle in and sure enough, we feel the bite and tug on our lines.  We take turns trying to yank it up and the result being the bait flying out of the water sans piranha.  Maybe 10 minutes into it, Justin yanks up hard and out of the water comes flying a piranha that lands on the boat.  Some screaming and scrambling later, Dan grab the fish and pulls back his lips exposing two rows of the razor sharp, glistening, pointed teeth.  It makes for a great picture and Just releases the piranha back into the lake. 

For the next two hours, our crew makes numerous futile attempts to yank and hook the piranhas to no avail.  Leanne whelps and screams out every time she yanks up and exclaims, “I almost had it!” By the end of the canoe ride, Leanne has had about 50 near misses.  Dan and Dario end up each catching one.  Pretty impressive that Justin caught the first one and as many as the “Piranha expert” Dario.  We crown Justin the piranha fishing champion of the day.

But we head back in just in time for a very special event today, The Super Bowl.  At first, Kyle thought there was no way we were going to get the super bowl out her in the middle of the remote Amazon Rainforest.  But low and behold, the lodge has Direct TV and the satellite does in fact pick up the game.  It’s broadcast in Spanish and we don’t get the actual Super Bowl commercials; just the local ads.  But life is not perfect.

We watch with our new friends from New Jersey Gloria and Harlen and Cañada’s Mary and Cliff.  It turns out that Harlan is a NY Giants football fan like Kyle, Justin and John.  So they spend a good part of the game commiserating over how dreadful the Giants have been the last 10 years.  Harlan got season tickets when the new Met-Life Stadium opened up and now he bemoans that the Giants are so bad, he can’t even give the tickets away, let alone sell them.

Harlan is a 78 year-old, sole practitioner, immigration lawyer who is still practicing.  He is a real talker and quite a hoot to hang out with.  He and Gloria have opinions about everything and very strong opinions at that. When their opinions differ from each other, a Judge Judy-like argument ensues that is quite entertaining to watch.  Cliff and Mary and much more laid back in comparison.

The Kansas City Chiefs are playing the San Francisco 49ers in the big game.  Kyle and Justin have no horse in the race so they are rooting for a good game more than anything.  They settle on rooting for the 49ers since their a California team because it’s more fun to root for one of the teams.  It turns out to be a great game although the 49ers colossally blow it taking a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter and losing 31-20.  Oh well, at least it wasn’t the Giants losing. 

Our first full day in the Amazon found us getting closer with nature but not forgetting what really matters - football.