Saturday, November 24, 2012

Day 94 - Manaus

Wake up, wake up!  A rooster crow, an alarm clock, and our guide’s voice played over the intercom at 6:30 am to wake us up for piranha fishing.  We fell out of our hammocks to get dressed and took our motor canoes to another isolated house on the water.  The guides distributed long sticks with lines and hooks on them, which made movement awkward in the short hut, and the sticks often hit the slanted roof or other students.  Piranha bait is small cuts of beef, and they are good at getting it off the hook without being caught.  There were only a few piranha catches and one miscellaneous fish catch before the beef ran out and we tendered back to our riverboats for breakfast.

We later spent a couple hours hiking through the rainforest and learning about survival techniques and herbal medicines.  The heat was unbearable and we were drenched in sweat.  We then transferred to another shore to visit a small village and learn about its customs.  Afterward, we piled into the riverboat for the last time and napped in our hammocks on the way back.  We made it almost all the back to the ship – the other riverboats were already there – when a marina police boat pulled us over.  Let me just say that getting pulled over at sea is really awkward.  We were allowed to go on to the ship, but the cops stayed on our riverboat the rest of the way.

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