Before we leave in the morning, Ruben tells me to have my camera ready. There will be macaws. Not too far later, we come to a place where there is a high cliff by the water. At the top there is a big flock of macaws on the trees. They have beautiful colours, blue on the back and orange in the belly. The way they fly is beautiful and elegant.
Ruben notices that a tube is leaking. We land on the beach to repair it. There is an indigenous person living nearby. After fixing the tube, Ruben goes to chat with him. They make a deal to barter: The indigenous person gives Ruben a big portion of fish, half way sun-dried. In exchange, Ruben gives him 4 bun breads, some coca leaves, some cigarettes, and a half cup of whisky. Ruben tells me that indigenous people love whisky very much.
We then take a hike into the jungle. It's not so impressive though, except that we see the head of a dead warthog. It was hunted by indigenous people. The body was taken away, only the head and gut was left in the jungle.
The hike is about one and a half hours. Ruben wants to cook lunch on the raft while we continue to float, in order to save time. So we switch positions. I go to the front to navigate and paddle, he goes to the back to cook. It goes well until we get a flat tube. At that time both of us are eating, our raft runs into a hidden stick in the water. The previously leaking tube is punched. Ruben has to rearrange the tubes to keep the balance of the whole raft.
Later in the afternoon, we meet a motor boat heading upstream. Ruben barters again. This time he gets back almost the same things he previously gave to the indigenous person: 4 buns, coca leaves and cigarettes. What he gives away is the bunch of plantains he cut 2 days ago.
At night, I finally have a chance to take pictures of the night sky. With 30 seconds of exposure time, we are able to see the milky way in a picture. Do you notice that each star appears to be a very short line? That's because the earth has rotated a little bit during the 30 seconds!
