6/13/2014

6/13/2014 On Clavero

On our last full day on the Clavero, we slept in until 7:30 am. As we enjoyed our pancakes and ham and cheese omelets, we steamed toward the village of Monte Alegre (Happy Forest). Disembarking, we clambered up a steep bank overlooking the Maranon and visited a local family of 15. We sat in a thatched-roof room about 20 by 20 feet built on stilts with two sides open as to the elements as 24 year old young man (one of 10 siblings) answered our questions about life along the river. His mother showed up with 75 pounds of bananas on her back having walked in from the farm an hour away. It was about 10:30 am, but already fish and bananas were grilling on the open fire box, with fish soup as a side dish. The younger children were spooning in the soup with delight.

There were friendly young children everywhere, but no teenagers.

We bought some handicraft from the family and walked on visiting other houses, including one in which the family had just returned from fishing and were sitting on the floor untangling fish from a gill net. They must have had 100 fish all more or less the same size which included armored catfish (the prehistoric looking black fish that we saw in the Iquitos market) plus sardinas and others.  Some they were going to eat in the next day or two and others they were fileting and packing in salt for later consumption or even sale in Nauta or Iquitos.

After the Monte Alegre visit, we returned to the boat and steamed a bit more down river where we were met by three locals in dugout canoes who invited us on a short ride just to see how tippy they were. We paddled up a small stream and back without too much trouble.

The final act of our tour was a hike into a high ground jungle. This was an area high above any flooding so the vegetation was dominated by very tall trees. We saw some more tiny poison frogs and many strange beetles. We didn’t see the tinamo (large partridge) which whistled nearby startling us. Back at the landing a group of locals had gathered to sell us handicraft. From there, it was a short run back to Nauta where we will spend the night, returning by tour bus to Iquitos after breakfast tomorrow.