We began the day with a symbolic tree planting ceremony. The company that operates the river boat is owned by the ex-minister of tourism. They seemed to be genuinely ecologically minded.

Intrepid tourist, fully equipped. We had to wear the black gaiters/spats to protect against snake bites. They were heavy and sweaty.

This guy followed us for a while, wondering why we walked in the mud, not the trees.

Not all wildlife is beautiful. This is a mata mata turtle

Brown Tortoise

Anaconda - safely in a pit

We started off on a catwalk to get a sense of what the monkey who followed us meant

After a while it became apparent that we were following what was once a boarded path - but we were not walking on the path. It was rotting and had fallen into a state of disrepair

Sometimes logs were simply placed on the riverbed

Other rivers were crossed on "bridges" of logs, with the gaps filled in with soft, slippery mud, deep enough to cover shoes if I stepped into a crack.

Hilda wisely sought assistance on the really slippery parts. I. on the other hand, slipped and fell on my rear. Camera was saved. The thick mud also pulled off one of my shoes - fortunately I could get it on again without stepping in the mud.

After a few hours we came to this tree . We were told many things about it - unfortunately in a language we did not understand. All we wanted to know was how long it would take to get to the end of the walk. We were shown a watch, and the guide swung his finger from the 12 to the 3. I assumed he meant 15 minutes. He really meant meant 11:15 am - another hour and a quarter. When we told our guide that we had reached the tree, he was amazed. It was a holy tree, apparrently. He said that most groups turn back before reaching it. He said it was a three mile walk each way. We thus walked 6 miles through mud and hilly terrain in a little over 2 1/2 hours. Buttress roots are common on many trees in the rainforest. They stop the trees from falling over in the soft mud.

After the walk we went to a local family in the village of Monte Alegre for lunch.

The side dishes included grilled plantain, farhina (toasted manioc), and manioc root, shown above, I think. Other sides were a hot sauce made of yellow tomatoes, cilantro, hot chili pepper and salt, mashed green plantain, toasted macambo ( relative of cocoa), boiled peach palm fruit, and boiled bread fruit seeds. No, I do not have a great memory. Our guide gave us a "menu" at the end of the trip. Drinks were plantain juice, manioc juice, masato (jungle beer, also made from manioc), lemon grass tea, and peach palm fruit juice.

The main course (for us) was fish wrapped in wild banana leaf, flavored with cilantro, tomato, onion, sweet pepper, garlic and salt, and then grilled. The meat (far right) was described as "rodent". Something that he hunted in the forest. The fish was delicious. The rodent - well, sometimes it really pays off to keep kosher - with a clear conscience we did not eat it!

The family played while we ate.

After lunch we strolled through the village

The village church

Our next adventure that day was a ride in a dugout canoe. We were each assigned a dugout, and were paddled off into the flooded forest.

Families played along the banks of the San Regis creek

The canoe could go places in the flooded forest that bigger boats could not get to.

By this time I was getting tired, and grew a little concerned when I saw the vultures waiting on our path

The night excursion on the Pucate river turned up little other the some great bird noises and this frog

Getting back to the boat was a relief