Day 6: Fishing and Visiting the Shaman

Today we went to check the other traps that we left at Puente Palos #1 and Puente Palos #2, which were sites we added the day before over a suspended bridge, similar to the canopy walk bridges.

Puente Palos #2 was a dry creek bed today as compared to the day before. Josh joined us to film a short documentary about the aquatic team.

In the afternoon, we went to see Don Guillermo and Don Desiderio, both shamans at the Napo Lodge. They walked us through all of the medicinal plants that help treat various ailments such as dragon’s blood for mosquito bites or lemongrass as tea.

Don Desiderio blessed me in his local native language and I smeared some aromatic oil all over my face. I rubbed a lipstick plant seed pod in my fingers and it turned my fingertips red. I also got a temporary tattoo of a “piranha” from Don Guillermo. It looked more like a barracuda to me. 😅

“Los pescadores” were successful at catching tons of fish in front of the Napo Lodge using the seining method since it was a larger area near the floating dock.

In the evening, we went fishing in Quebrada Grande in the boat. It was so much fun. Don Percy was our guide. Marie sat next to me and Jhoanna next to Marie. Instead of fishing, we were killing wasps. 😑 The wasps were attacking us and we were hooting and hollering about it. Marie tried to step on the wasp and it remained alive. 😭 It was hilarious! She also started cracking up about fishing with the smallest net. Meanwhile I caught two fish with that tiny net later on. We were all laughing so hard our bellies hurt. 🤣

Percy spotted a Fer-de-lance and started taunting the snake by splashing water at it. We were all screaming because he was crazy to taunt a venomous creature! Meanwhile, the other boat of the night boat riders was sneaking up on us in the dark. We were supposed to be the quiet boat, but from the other people’s perspective, we were the “party boat.” We saw an oilbird that uses echolocation to catch its prey. Lots of cute sleeping birds were also spotted. 😚🦜😴💤🥱

Moises lost the “jamo” (net) to the creek. We marked the spot it was lost in order to retrieve it at a later time. 🤷🏻‍♀️Read more