On the boat -- Day 5, 8/21

Is it really day 5? Hard to keep track on a boat where the primary events---boat trip, breakfast, sun-deck reading, hike, lunch, sun-deck reading, village, dinner, sun-deck happy hour, dinner, boat trip---are basically unchanging. Okay, the animals, villages, and meals change; our companions, guides, and this big river we travel up don't. As for animals, we have added to our list: more birds, more bugs (including some very gigantic bees), more dolphins (pink!), and a three-toed sloth. The sloth was at night, and a little hard to see, but it was definitely a very slow-moving long-armed animal in the trees.

Each of these last couple of days I have skipped one of the excursions, and these times on the boat when all or most of the other passengers are away are some pretty fun times too. Local people know the crew of this boat, and come out on their smaller boats when they see the smaller boats take off. Some are apparently to try to sell fruits, some come just to visit and have coffee. This morning while the large group went to an old village to walk around, Jess and I stayed up top with our books, watching the dolphins jump and listening to the crew and their visitors sing Portuguese songs in the crew's quarters (this doesn't happen when the boat is full of gringos).

On the agenda for the afternoon: swimming and piranha fishing.