Yesterday, we paddled 56 kilometers in 11 hours, and the light of a cooking fire signaled our late-night arrival to the small Cocama community of Yarina. We stretched our stiff legs, which had not touched terra firma in over two days, by hauling all of our food and equipment to the thatched hut that we currently call home.

Like many of my companions, I spent a good portion of the next morning lounging in my hammock, watching chickens scour the local soccer field for tasty morsels, and chatting with students from the US in our chatroom.

The local school is next to our hut, and after school some curious kids came over and invited us to play games with them.

Adam, Jesse and I joined our new friends for a few hours of soccer and dodge ball.

Between games we took breaks to eat guava, a sweet treat that grows inside three-foot-long pods. Its texture and taste remind me of a natural form of cotton candy, and local kids are quick to scamper into the treetops to collect an armfull of pods for their friends.

Covered in mud from the soccer field, Jesse and I put on our bathing suits and walked to the river for a swim. Our new friends soon followed, and a rowdy game of "king of the dock" soon developed. As soon as Jesse or I would climb onto the slippery log dock, several kids would begin trying to push us back in. Squeals of laughter would follow as we tumbled back into the water, usually pulling our attackers in with us.

Now the sun is setting over the Yanayacu River, and the kids have returned to their homes for the evening. Tomorrow we will continue our journey down river. It has been a great day, but I am anxious to find out what animals we will encounter as we paddle down river tomorrow. The diverse habitats brought on by the flooding of the forest allow for an amazing amount of biodiversity. Howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, leaf cutter ants, or bullet ants, perhaps even some poison dart frogs...we never know what we are going to find around the next bend!

Keep exploring,

Dave

High Temperature 84
Humidity 78%
Combined hours spent lounging in our hammocks today 16
Guava pods consumed 8 to 10
Number of students at the school in Yarina 30
Chickens running around Yarina too many to count