Today was the day. Piranha fishing was on the morning agenda!
We loaded up the boat and headed up river about 20 minutes before tying up to a tree. Nixon handed us our fishing equipment. Not a fancy Garcia or Penn Rod & Reel. A tree branch pole with a short line, small leader and hook. It was time to catch the fish that would like to catch us.
In just a short period of time our boat driver hooked the first one. According to Nixon it was a White Piranha. He (I'm assuming it was a he) was about the size of my hand with some pretty gnarly upper and lower teeth. Nixon asked if we planned on keeping our catch and we agreed that we weren't that interested in eating them. I had actually tasted some that had been caught by a group back at the Tahuayo Lodge. It was a pretty nice tasting fish although it had a lot of small bones.
Shortly thereafter Beth landed her first fish, also a White Piranha. Three more were caught before we were done. All three of them were "Red Belly Piranha". One was quite a bit larger than the others with very large, razor sharp teeth. The final score on the fishing.......... Our boat driver-4, Beth-1, Nixon-0 and me-0. Do I feel sad to have been whipped by Beth in fishing. Heck no! After all her dad was one of the greatest fisherman of all time. It must be genetic!
Beth and her White Piranha
Nixon and I were shut out!
Our boat driver and a Red Belly Piranha (It was the largest one we caught and from what I understand about as big as they get)
Check out the gnarly teeth on that boy!
On the way back to the Research Center Nixon did it again. He quickly stuck up his hand and directed the driver to head towards a group of trees along the rivers edge. It took us a while (as usual) to see what he was seeing but when we did it was a real treat, an anteater. He was high up in the trees moving casually from branch to branch enjoying a mid-morning snack. Also a few branches below was a porcupine which I can proudly claim to have been the first to see. I pointed him out to Nixon who smiled and said something about me becoming a guide.
Anteater
Doing what anteaters do.........eating the ants in the tree
Totally oblivious to us
Still hanging around
After lunch we did our final canoe paddle. Full disclosure, we sit and Nixon paddles. Again we were amazed at his navigational skills through the dense jungle. We finally decided that Nixon has both vision and hearing super powers of some type. We see only a dense canopy of trees. Nixon sees right through them to find monkey's, sloths and other animals. These super powers were on display again as he pointed out these and other animals during our two hour trip.
Spotted Tree Sloth
After the sun went down we did a short walkabout finding giant frogs and toads and a night fishing white tern. There was a partial caiman sighting. Nixon saw it (of course), I saw it but Beth never could pick it up in the thick vegetation. We also spotted a very large tarantula that ducked into a hole in the tree before we could get a picture.
Frog that we found on the nightwalk. Nixon said they were edible and that they tasted like.............chicken (of course)
Giant Toad on the nightwalk
It's now Tuesday morning around 9:00 AM. Our bags are packed for the hour and a half boat ride back to the main lodge. We'll have lunch there before getting another boat back to Iquitos. We have a flight at 8:00 tonight that will take us back to Lima (3rd time). From there we catch a 12:05 flight to Quito, Ecuador. We have about an eight hour layover before catching a flight to the Galapagos Islands for our last stop on this South American adventure.
Before breakfast this morning we had one final adventure. It was actually a repeat of one we did yesterday. Beth requested another piranha fishing trip. We went down river today a short distance to a small lake to try our luck again. The little boogers are very hard to catch. Their razor sharp teeth nibble away at the meat on the hook a little at a time. Todays fishing report: Nixon-3, our driver-0 (he was mostly a spectator today), Beth 1 and me 1/2.. I actually caught one! He was the runt of the litter. Hey, anyone can catch a big fish. It takes talent to catch something as small as this one.
Nixon really put the pressure on me when he caught one
Total Concentration
At last, at last, at last
What an adventure this has been. The idiots are on the move again!
Drop the bait in the water and beat the pole on the water to attract the boys
Nixon spotted this anteater as we were heading back to the lodge
