Nature Walk, Yagua Village, and Pink Dolphins

September 5 Thursday

Accommodations: CIEBA TOPS LODGE

First of all… did you all run out and look for that Masato beer I mentioned yesterday? I know you were all “salivating”( pun intended) to try it! 😂

Anyway, this morning after breakfast we got in our boat to cruise the Amazon in search of pink dolphins.

Freshwater Pink dolphins swim all through out the Amazon and we had a great time trying to spot them as they surfaced. They stay under the water for about 3-5 minutes and then they surface to breathe.

It is thought that the dolphins turn pink whenever they get excited. Since their blood vessels are visible thought their skin, it is very easy to see the pink color, almost like they are blushing. When they are very active, they get even pinker.

The baby dolphins are born tail first and the father (or another assisting dolphin) waits until the head is born and then they take the baby up to the surface to breathe. If the baby came out head first, since it can take a few hours for the baby to be born, the baby would drown since by the time the rest of the body emerged, the baby would not have gotten the breath needed to survive. After a baby is born, it suckles a thick milk from its mother until it is able to get fish on its own.

It was very difficult to photograph the dolphins because you never knew where they were going to pop up. I was happy that I actually did get a pretty good shot of one. Caesar sent us a photo he took last year of the head of a dolphin as it surfaced and you can see it below.

Dolphins are mammals and these dolphins have a bulge on the top of their heads and a long thin snout. We really only saw their backs in the water.

Caesar said some of the local tribes are very superstitious about dolphins. Some people believe that a male and female dolphin can come out of the water and take a young child living on land away from its family and keep it for their own. Others believe that touching a dolphin will bring very bad luck. However, on the Internet, I found this information: “In the Amazon region, the pink dolphin is seen as a symbol of fertility and is believed to bring good luck to those who encounter it. In some indigenous cultures, the pink dolphin is seen as a protector of the water and is revered for its wisdom and power.”

I’m not sure which folk lore to believe, but the pink dolphins we saw were beautiful creatures and I’d like to believe they will bring good luck to all who encounter them.

We passed many rice fields that the natives plant along the Amazon, which provides much of their carbohydrate needs. They eat a lot of bananas and vegetables as well as the fish they catch from the river. Just about everything they need to live can be found right outside their door.

After a few hours on the boat, we came back to the lodge and had lunch. Our appetizer was a Peruvian dish called causa. Causa is a cold layered dish of lime, potatoes, mayo, avocado, tomato, black olives, and hard boiled eggs. It was delicious!! I also had dorado fish wrapped in a leaf and steamed. Very tasty!

And then it was off to meet the Yaguas tribe, an indigenous jungle-dwelling tribe who shared their life in the jungle with us. There is social pressure for the tribe to learn Spanish to assimilate into Peruvian culture. If this continues, the culture and language of the tribe will one day be lost for good.

The members of the tribe did a traditional dance for us and then they grabbed our hands and had us all participate in the dancing.

They also showed us how to use a blow gun. The gun itself is made from two pieces of wood that are hollowed out and then glued together with sap. The gun is quite long with a mouthpiece on the end. There is a site on the gun that helps the hunter zero in on the prey. They use long dart-like arrows that are sharpened to a point with the teeth of a piranha. They put a cotton like substance on the arrow so it becomes similar to an arrow with a feather.

You have to seal your mouth around the end of the blow gun and take a deep breath through your nose and then blow. All the men on our tour gave it a try and I’m proud to say, my “hunting” man was the ONLY one to hit the target! So proud of him! (You Tarzan…me Irene !!! 🤗)

The tribe had a lot of items for sale that they make and I bought a few things.

We bid our goodbyes (the tribe only speaks their own language) and we cruised back to the lodge for drinks and then dinner.

After dinner Caesar took us on a night nature walk through the jungle which was amazing. We had to put on insect spray and bring a flash light for the walk. Allan and I had our mosquito hat nets with us, that we had used when visiting Alice Springs in Australia, so we were really prepared for the walk.

Caesar has an eagle eye and spotted all kinds of jungle creatures and pointed them out to us. He spotted an owl on top of a pole, a beautiful butterfly which he was able to catch and unfurl its wings for us, and a katydid eating a caterpillar. He also found a hole where a HUGE tarantula lived. He got a stick and poked it, and then he said… okay… let’s go, which I was very happy to do. Fortunately the tarantula stayed in his hole.

We paused a few times and turned off our flash lights so we could hear the beautiful sounds of the rainforest. What a chorus it was and just so beautiful to hear.

We started to hear thunder and see lightning in the distance and the animals were calling out. Caesar said we have to leave because the wind would kick up quickly and it’s not a good time to be in the jungle when that happens. He was right! The wind did start to blow and we made it back to our cottages just as the heavens opened up.

We have to get up early in the morning for a long day. Unfortunately I won’t be participating in the canopy walk that is scheduled because of my fear of heights. I don’t think Allan will either. But we will be with the group afterwards for lunch and to go on a tour of the botanical gardens.