We woke up at 6:00 am, which was really fun because the boat was made of paper and you can hear everything anyone does. This was especially apparent last night due to the karaoke being sung until 1am. Fishing was slightly underwhelming, we got a stick with some fishing line and meat attached to the hook and cast out from the boat. There were 7 of us fishing and one or two fish were caught. We were trying to catch piranhas which came out of a lagoon on the opposite bank of the river. There were some buffeos (pink dolphins) stationed in between us and the lagoon where the piranhas were so we found little success. Meals on the boat are pretty much the same everyday and breakfast has toast, eggs, fruit, and coffee for breakfast, Tasha’s highlight being the dulce de lèche. Relaxing and watching the forest and river is my favourite thing to do on the boat. Every time I see something move it’s a crazy looking bird, a turtle, or a buffeo etc. The feeling of joy when you get to observe a creature you don’t recognize go about it’s day is immense. Often, there is movement just under the water that you can’t quite tell what is lurking but there is a picture in your mind of a 20 foot snake or bloodthirsty piranhas ready to eat if you fall in.
After the usual lunch and siesta, we had an activity planned. Tubing. This was going to be an amazing experience, when else can you swim with piranhas and pink dolphins. The tubes were not what i was expecting but then again, was i really expecting all that much. They practically were the inner tubes of bikes tires which were very narrow and kept most of your body submerged. The river has a solid current, so we all hopped in a small boat and we drove up river. We then all hopped into the water and floated down river back to our main cruise ship (I use the term loosely). Most of our fellow passengers were swimming lightly instead of floating so we had to swim with them. Staying as a group scares off most of the wildlife. When you’re swimming your body is just below the surface of the water especially with tubes so you have to fully stop swimming to go vertical. I enjoyed imagining the creatures lurking just under my body and then forcing myself to let my feet go deeper and conquering the fear of the depths. To get out of the water we had to swim into the pool at the end of our cruise ship. I got out and started helping to other into the pool, as my mom and sister got out the was a large spider on her. This was a moment where I had to think through my emotions and deal with the spider. The guides were yelling at her, however she doesn’t speak Spanish and didn’t understand. My mom was a statue when she finally understood and in my head I counted quickly 3 2 1 and used the distraction of the counting to slap the spider off of her. Of course it wasn’t over because the spider was able to walk on water and it was scuttling around, so we left quickly.
The swim didn’t take too long so we were still able to have another activity before dinner. We got to go and play on a nearby beach. We just rammed our boat onto the shore and climbed out. There was a small tent and a few of the passengers played volleyball and soccer with me and Tasha. We stayed there for an hour or two and got some beautiful sunset pictures before going back to the boat. We had a usual dinner with some fish, rice, and salad.