No Show Jaguars but all not lost
At 2:30 Gene and I meet up with guide Tom and our boat pilot to head out on a serious search for jaguars. We failed. At least, we failed with jaguars. Tom spotted--and I don't know how--two iguanas in bushes on the river bank. With the first one, we got within ten feet of it and I still couldn't see it. His spotting skills are amazing. Soon after, while racing to a spot where we heard on the radio and another boat had sighted jaguars--two of them fighting we heard--we came across four or five giant river otters. Reclusive and shy, they escaped my camera but a nearby snakefish with its dinner caught my eye and I got it.
We are very fortunate, Gene and I, in that we are but two in a group. There is nobody else here except staff. I didn't realize how lucky we are until we passed a tourist laden boat full to the brim with mostly sour looking folks aboard. Too crowded. Not all jaguar safaris are alike to be sure.
The river is beautiful, there are countless caiman, more birds than you can imagine, capybara here and there and now iguana and giant river otters (trust me, they were there) to occupy us on our three hour cruise on the smooth yet fast moving river water. Ensconced in comfortable seats with rigid backs to lean on and plenty of leg room, all you have to do is hunker down in your floppy sun hat and sun shirt and long pants, take care with the sunscreen on exposed faces, necks and ears and take it all in. The ride is smooth, the weather is perfect and, well, this is the kind of thing that I really enjoy doing. Even with no jaguars today.
In the United States it is summer solstice time; the days are longer now than any other time. Up at 5:54 and down at 8:48 giving almost 15 hours of daylight, that makes for a long day. Here, we are in the southern hemisphere so things are opposite. Up at 6:11 and down at 5:23, we have just over 11 hours of daylight. The sunset was lovely, by the way, with a few clouds turning bright orange and red accompanying a rapidly dropping temperature. The high was 92 and the low 65 with the high feeling hotter in the sun and the low feeling colder on the fast moving boat adding a bit of wind chill to the mix. Gene and I will, tomorrow, bring a jacket for the final hour of the day--and maybe also for the first hour as well.
This lodge is rustic and lacks a public space to "hang out" in. There is a dining room but it holds what Gene described as "the last supper table" and a buffet. If you want to lounge with a cold beer or vodka tonic, you have to sit at the dining room table. In our "suite" of three bedrooms there is a tiny common area with a love seat. I am writing from that spot while Gene and Tom are doing something else--one showering I think.
My hot shower was perfect; I jumped in the moment we got back to the room at about 5:30. Dinner is 7:30. As I finish this entry it is almost 7:00. After dinner there can't be much and I didn't bring either a book or my kindle to save weight. The WiFi will have to occupy me until sleep takes over.
We will hear at dinner about our river schedule tomorrow. I anticipate an early breakfast and a lengthy river cruise in search of what eluded us today.
Please think kind things about B4 as one of her childhood friends is living out the final days of her life. Sweetheart, I wish I could be there to hold and comfort you. Know that I hold you in my heart from 5,000 miles away.
