Amazon (Día 3)

I slept a lot better the second night.  I decided I didn't need to sleep in a sweatshirt and pants because I figured teh bugs were going to bite me whether I liked it or not.  Since we had so little time in the selva, we got up at 5:30 a.m. again in order to go fishing for piranhas.  We were on the boat by 6 a.m. and we headed out to a spot on the river by the bank.  Our equipment included four long sticks with string and a hook connected and chicken meat.  We put our hooks in and as Sheila, Tonisha, and I sat there nicely waiting for a fish to bite, Roland and Nilton were beating the water with their poles and flinging their line every which way.  Number one, there was no way that I was going to attempt to use their technique or Roland or Tonisha would've gotten a hook in the face, which would have been bad.  Number two, I was confused by their technique.  They were scaring all the fish away!  Well, it must have been working because not too long after we started, Nilton and Roland both caught a piranha.  Each caught a different type, too.  Nilton caught a red one and Roland caught a white one.  They look vicious.

Tonisha and Sheila both got to touch it's teeth, too, but I didn't get the chance to. :(  It's okay though, they said they were just really sharp.  Well, as we continued fishing with our sit and wait technique, I got a bite on my line and I was able to snatch a fish!  They called it a Sábalo, which I had to look up and the dictionary says that's a Shad.  I'm pretty sure I caught their breakfast or other bait because they kept it and Roland killed it like the Kingfisher by slamming int against the boat a few times.

We continued fishing and a piranha broke Roland's line so he couldn't catch us anymore piranha, so it was up to us now.  So, I asked him why they had been beating their poles on the water.  I said, "Doesn't that scare the fish?"  And he said that it doesn't scare the piranhas.  The piranhas think that the noise is other fish so they come closer to the surface to check it out.  I was on a mission to catch a piranha, plus my bait kept getting stolen, so I started using the technique.

Me excitedly using the technique of hitting the water with my pole

Unfortunately, soon after it was time to go.  None of us wanted to go.  We all wanted to fish more.  I know I could've stayed there fishing all day.  We joked about just staying there and missing our flight, but then we decided that probably wasn't a good idea.  So we headed back to the lodge.  Once we got back we packed up our stuff and ate breakfast.  We had eggs and bread again.  It was good, but I'm still questioning what kind of egss they actually were.  I forgot to ask.  We'll just assume they were chicken eggs, though.  We had to say goodbye to Roland at the lodge, which was sad!  He helped to make our weekend amazing, but we boarded the boat and were off.  The boat to Nauta took a little longer because it was upstream, but I took a nap, which was wonderful!  Once we got to Nauta, we had to say goodbye to Nilton, too, and we got in the car and left for Iquitos with the windows down.  On the way back to Iquitos we picked up a hitchhiker that had a huge knife attached to his side, which was kind of scary, but we made it to the airport safely.

We met up with Kevin and Mark at the airport because they had the same flight as us.  It was so nice to exchange stories with them, especially since they took a bus and boat all the way to Iquitos.  (If you're curious to see some of their videos from their boat trip go to Mark's YouTube account at http://www.youtube.com/hhsmu0913)  We then got some ice cream at the airport and waited to board.  This time, our flight made a stop in the town of Tarapoto and on the way there there was some ridiculous turbulence, but we lived and made it back to Lima around 5:30 p.m.  When we left the airport there was a huge crowd of people and I didn't realize it while we were there, but the crowd was a group of all girls and they were there to welcome Justin Bieber to the country because he had a concert here on Monday night.  I still think we should've stayed to see him come in, too. ;)

Leaving the Amazon

Anyway, we didn't want to take a taxi from the airport because we knew it would be expensive, so we went outside of the airport and we were going to find a micro that went all the way to Miraflores.  Well, we didn't find a micro, but we did find a combi.  A combi is a lot smaller than a micro (almost like a mini-van).  Poor Tonisha had to stand for awhile and by stand I mean try to stand, but in reality you ahve to duck down a lot in order to fit.  Sorry, Tonishita!

We made it home safely and I was determined to shower.  Unfortunately, the shower was cold. :(  The cold shower would've been nice in the selva, but I was back in Lima and it's still cold here.  Anyway, yea our hot water still isn't working and my host mom tells me that plumbers, electricians, etc. are unreliable here in Lima, but I hope we have warm water soon.  Anyway, back to Sunday, when my host mom came home, I showed her my pictures and we talked and ate dinner together, which was fun.  She kept telling me that Tonisha, Sheila, and I were very brave!  It was cute.

And then, I went to bed!  I was exhausted.  As you know I didn't write my blog because I was so tired.  Again, I'm sorry for making you wait, but I hope it was worth it.  I hope you enjoyed reading and viewing my pictures of the Amazon.  I'm really happy that I have the opportunity to share these things with you.  Well, unfortunately, this is the end of my Amazon blogs, but don't worry, I still have more adventures to come!