We woke up as the sun was rising. The bats were coming back to roost. It was a noisy night with our imaginations speculating on what we were hearing. Big splashes and a slapping sound on our back porch led us to believe massive fish were trying to break into our place and rob us. Luckily the door to the porch gets stuck easily and this must have foiled them.
After our breakfast, we got on the boat for what we were told was a short (maybe 15 minute) ride over to a local community. Over an hour later, we arrived. As it was still not that hot and we were told it was as short boat ride, I didn’t even wear my adventuring hat. This was a mistake. I sat or stood baking in the sun for the entire morning. The name of the small village was Caburini and it doesn’t show up on maps. As the local guide explained to us, there are about 11 families living there. He himself was the school teacher, instructing in all subjects and multiple grades at a time.
The village had everything it needed — a water purification system, satellite tv, and starlink internet. Solar power and generators gave them all the power they needed calling into question why the Uakari Lodge is making us live so primitive. The village even had their own pousada for tourists to stay at. At the end of the tour, a couple villagers set up a quick crafts store where Nicole ended up buying a wooden turtle to add to her shelf of handcrafted turtles. They had engraved the name of the village on it to at least add some air of authenticity to it all. The villagers help the Amazonian turtles protect their eggs during the vulnerable hatching season. They showed us a couple that were pretty young and still smallish. Evidently the local guide’s kids got upset when the turtles were heading back to the river, and a couple were brought back as pets to keep the kids happy. Though cassava and other crops are grown, the primary industry for them now is tourism.
I admit to fading during this village tour. I honestly couldn’t wait for it to end. I was getting “museum legs” as I call them, from all the slow walking and was feeling quite fatigued from the early wake-up and prolonged time under the sun. It seemed to go long and both of us were a little irritable knowing that the boat ride was very much not going to be 15 minutes back to the ecolodge. As it was now almost noon, we roasted on the river. They stopped a couple times to try and point out some howler monkeys, but they were so far away it wasn’t worth it.
When you’re as jaded as Bricole, you have a lot to compare things to. We saw howlers staring us in the eyes this year in Nicaragua, so seeing them at more than 100m and lost in the shadows isn’t nearly as exciting. We finally made it back after being exposed to the sun for almost five hours straight without relief. As structured as the lodge is trying to be, it’s frustrating to experience them also not fully following their structure. I have to plan my poops. Greg would understand.
As expected the persistent lack of cool air is draining us a bit. Being back at the lodge when it’s 95 degrees isn’t exactly reinvigorating. We drank room temperature water and collapsed onto our bed for a spell. I sat out on the porch to try and catch one of those monster fish (arapaima) coming out of the water. It’s obviously difficult to know where they will surface and when, so this was a bit of a challenge, but I think I was able to get at least some video of it happening. I’d estimate the length of the ones I’ve seen to be at least four feet and chunky, though they can be as big as 12 feet. They’re the reason legends of sea monsters exist.
Nicole took a cold shower which gave her relief from the heat right up until the moment she stepped out of the shower. We met up again at 330pm for another outing on the boat. This time I remembered the adventuring hat. The guide promised us that we would see a Uakari monkey. Nicole and I were both skeptical. This monkey, which gives the lodge its name, is endemic to this small pocket of the Amazon and is therefore a fairly rare sight. It was on the endangered list until recently after the area was made into a protected reserve. The Uakari is an ugly monkey — looking like a normal monkey that had the misfortune of going through a few aggressive laundry cycles, ripped its own face off, and then got it sunburnt.
We were on a two hour boat ride, and at the halfway point, things didn’t look promising; disappointing of course, but we were realistic about our chances. As most people say, if you want to see animals, go to the Pantanal. The Amazon is a bit more guarded with its creatures. And with that being said, one of the guides killed the motor of the boat and we tried to bring us closer to the riverbank believing he had seen something.
Sure enough, if one timed their shots carefully, you could make out the homely faces of the Uakari between the branches. It appeared to be three climbing in the trees. They were quite far away and almost at the tops of the tall trees, but Nicole seemed to be spotting them with ease. I had to keep asking her to try and describe their location. So again, this was hardly a close encounter with the Uakari, but still neat to at least say that we saw such a unique species.
Being at a distance perhaps had its advantages. It has a frankly homely countenance. I know they can’t help it that they’re so ugly, but my god what a face. If you feel the need to see them closer up, I’m sure google image search has some real nightmare-inducing stuff, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. After lingering for maybe 15 minutes and asking Nicole to point out to me their latest movements, we headed back to the lodge on the boat.
We had a couple hours before dinner and then another lecture on the Mamirauá Reserve, where we find ourselves. The guide talked about why the reserve enabled the uacari monkey to be removed from the endagered species list and how our money to the lodge goes back into the communities like we visited today. It is part of a grander plan to encourage people living in the Amazon to profit from ecological preservation rather than destructive agriculture or cattle farming. It did feel a little bit like we were in school today. The Frenchman from Tahiti skipped the lecture because he seemed burned out from it all.
Tomorrow we head out on boats again — a theme for this whole trip. As, but tomorrow it will be a canoe. We are not sure of our destination if we even have one, but that is also a theme for this trip. I will, however, be sure to wear my adventuring hat.
passports & pepto bismol 