We suffered this morning after last night's jungle juice session. Not all of us made it to breakfast and many of those who did, were not able to finish the pancake breakfast. Some stayed in bed until the last minute before we headed off from the camp. Today we did not have to wear our wellies - no walking in the jungle. We made two stops in the morning.
The first stop was at a small museum which had a display of many of the items the local natives use in the rain forest. The most interesting were the various different traps that they had to catch animals and fish. Some were quite sophisticated and we certainly would not want to be caught in them. They also showed us some of the roots, which had very strong drug effects (one was much stronger than LSD). They did not let us try. Outside the museum, there was a blow gun shooting range. They had a two meter long blow gun and a sheath of darts for us to check out out skills. The target, a small square on a log post, was 12 paces away. The guide showed us how it was done and then it was our turn.
We actually did quite well. Many of us were able to hit the target - even on the first try. After putting the dart in near the mouth piece, we would hold it up with both arms, try to steady it and then blow real hard into the mouth piece. The dart would fly zip out at high speed. Some people even hit the wood post - and the dart stuck into the wood. I would not want to be hit by one of those.
Then back into the canoe for a short ride to our next stop - a pottery maker. Here they make the pottery by hand. The natives had not invented the wheel, so the pots were molded by hand. We then got a chance to check out what they had to offer. After that we headed back to the river bank, where we had lunch at a restaurant over looking the river. Not all of us enjoyed the fried rice - the jungle juice was still having its effect.
Finally, we had a one hour boat ride up the river against the current to finish off the trip. The engines were going full speed and if you looked at the water, we felt like we were going fast. But when we looked at the land, we were not moving so fast. The boat men skillfully navigated the small rapids that we had to cross. Along the way, we found a old canoe coming down the river on the current with no one in attendance. We stopped to pick it up and one of the other guides jumped in to take it back up river. As we cruised along we saw a very drunk man stumbling along the river bank - he had clearly gone for an unintended dip in the river. He could barely walk - he was lucky that he did not drown.
Once back in Misahualli at around 3 PM, we checked back into our hotel and took it easy for the rest of the day. Besides napping, we worked on our journals. We wandered into the town square for a quick dinner and had an early night.