Piranhas!

Friday morning we awoke to the ongoing rain that had started in the middle of the night- the rain had just started pummelling down in the night and it was a little light this morning - but still raining.  We headed up to breakfast- eggs, cereal, pancakes and fruit. Victor told us we were going to delay our departure a little as we didn't want to walk in the rain- we hung around unit about 10 and then the rain lifted. Before we left the resident "night monkeys" were in the trees and the girls got to hand feed them some fruit.
Off to the boat at 10 and down the Tambopata river this time, for about 15 minutes- we got off at a path and started our walk down the muddy path- rubber boots are a huge help here. In about 20 minutes we were at the lake- Cocha Tres Chimbadas, an oxbow lake- originally part of the river. We all hoped onto the Flat boat and Victor paddles us out into the lake- we were in search of the giant otters.  Before long we could see the wild turkey like birds all along the lake and pretty soon we heard the call of the otter- they are extremely vocal and loud! Then there they were - all 6 of them following along the  riverbank.  Even now and then you would see them go under pop up and hear them crunching down on the head of a piranha- this is the main dietary source- they have no fear.  We followed them for a while as they chatted and ate- pretty fast and cute animals.  Then Victor pulled over and said we were going fishing.  He threaded a hook- with a long metal tie and nylon onto a stick - attached some raw chicken- popped it in the water and in no time pulled up a small piranha, "and he says that is how you catch them." We all prepped our sticks and popped them in- a few bites and our chicken was gone.  Then pop I caught the first one- a white belly I believe, there are 3 or 4 different types, red, white, yellow and black.  We set him free and carried on trying - in no time we had all pulled on up - different types but all really small- still they teeth are insane, Victor held up a leaf to one that we had caught and it was like a hole punch- chop gone was a chunk. We each caught about 3 - Frank caught a decent size one and we decided to take it back and try it for lunch (?) Danica had a really big one on the hook- but he skated off the line just as fast so no luck with that.  After about an hour of fishing we packed up and headed back to the boat launch.  Hiking back to the boat was hot and there were a lot of mosquitoes about.
Back at the lodge - lunch was served at 1:30, a great jungle stew of squash, corn, peppers and I am not sure what else. And a bbq'd piranha on the side- he was little so not much meat, but what we tasted was really good. Then it was siesta time.
In the afternoon we went on another walk in the jungle - this time we had to wade through some areas as the night before rain had really left the area deluged. Victor showed us many different types of plant and trees and told us what the jungle uses were for- I believe 80% of medicines we use today come from he Amazon- there are some incredible plants here. We ended up at this HUGE tree- a Kapok tree- it was huge and someone had built a tree house at the top. Apparently they have people who come and climb these trees for fun. We waded back to the lodge after this and at dinner Victor mentioned we were doing a 10km hike at 4:30 the next day- we were not too excited by this, so he made a change of plans and we had a 5:30 start to go see the parrots instead. Dinner was Loma Saltado- a traditional meal of beef, onions, peppers and rice- a real fav of mine so far. Another great day and we were out in no time- just so tired from all this humid air and trying to fend of mosquitoes.