Amazon - Last Day

As I was walking to get aboard the boat at 5 this morning it dawned on me that this would be our last day in the Amazon River and jungle area. It has been an exhilarating and educational experience. The people have to endure living conditions that can bring some extreme hardships. Flooding raises the water level up to 45 feet deeper in the rainy season to total waterways drying up in the dry season so they have to walk to access their villages from the river. As I have seen in other countries, river life here is very basic and the people work hard just to survive. I can't help but wonder how things will change in the next few years now that the government is providing solar panels so families can have electrical appliances and especially with the introduction of satellite TVs for exposure to the outside world. Hopefully the people will maintain their sense of community and continue to work together as they see their way of life for the past hundreds of years begin to disappear.

Okay, so much for my soap box. Me and 2 others opted for the early morning excursion into the local town called Indiana. It is the business/trade center for the region serving 37 tribal villages. They have a market every morning where people bring theirs goods to sell and others come to buy especially fresh food. The town has a population of 5,000. 

There are no full size vehicles just these all too familiar tuk-tuks. They all look fairly new because they just brought them in about 3 years ago.

The market was primarily food oriented with fresh vegetables and various meats.

This both had a ready to cook chicken soup. The chicken was bundled together and then there were bags fixed with the needed vegetables. Pretty neat!

There were several different types of fish available.

This is a tiger catfish. Look at the stripes along its side.

There were a few places where you could buy a meal.

We walked around the town some. This is a hotel where out of town people without local relatives can stay.

After our visit we went back to the lodge for breakfast and a short rest period. We then took our boat and went to Monkey Island. It was a small, open style collection of some of the local birds and animals.

We had the opportunity to hold most of them. This is a Toucan.

A parrot 

While I was watching some of the activity I felt this monkey climb up my back and rest on my shoulder. He was quite loving.

A macaw

I guess the highlight was getting to hold a sloth. He just hung on and seemed very content.

Sorry about this next one mom, but we did see an Anaconda. No I didn't hold it.

This is a snapping turtle.

This creature is a coati and they said it was related to the raccoon family.

Well, it's back to the lodge to have lunch and pack our luggage for the trip back to Lima. I will never forget my time here in the Amazon River area. Yep! Mark another one off my bucket list.