Monday, August 25, 2008

On the boat -- Day 5, 8/21

I am very excited for the swimming and fishing. Days and days in this heat, with the great wide river right beside us all the time, and we haven't once been able to just jump in. But in another hour or so that dream will live. Piranha fishing also sounds like good fun, provided we get a couple of bites. Otherwise, just sitting still in the canoes in the heat might get a touch oppressive, and swimming then might not be the thing. Haven't been a lot of very exciting animals the last day or so, though those orchid bees that hung out with us on the top deck while the others were all out on excursion were quite something. Like a cross between a bumble bee and a tank, and roughly the size of your thumb.

Oh, but the boat is stopping now, so I had better run on deck and see about this swimming. I don't want to be left behind.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

I hope you guys ate those piranhas

Omer said...

In my experience, piranhas are an exquisitely well-adapted animal: kinda hard to catch, notoriously vicious, and once you do get a hold of them and cook them, quite underwhelming. Not a lot of meat on those ferocious little bones.

Jessica said...

We did eat them! They were delicious. But it's true, not a lot of meat, they were appetizers. And about half we let go because they were too small.

Unknown said...

Not only did we eat them, but one of them ate a little of us, or actually, a little of my father. He was in the other canoe, so I got this all second-hand, but I gather that when he reached in to remove the hook from his fish's mouth, it wriggled, twisted, and bit into his right index finger. Then it didn't let go for a while, until he squeezed its head for a bit, to force the jaws open. So it works both ways with this feisty little fish, I guess.