Our morning alarm is back, parrots and macaws are scooping down for their daily food. Today’s mission is to paddle 26 miles to the savannahs. We are in the jungle, carved out by rivers. Without help we are lost. Bernie is the man. The plan is he will hang back in his boat, so I can enjoy the paddle without the noise of the engine. This is a calming experience, the river comes alive. A blue kingfisher bird dives down from the banks of the river in front of me and perches on an overhanging tree. Once I reach it, it takes off disappearing down the stream to wait at another overhang. I feel as if he is guiding me as this continues for about a mile. I am in a state of meditation, reflecting on life. The river reveals its many faces, from tunnels of overhanging trees to flat lands of marshy waters.
Four hours into the paddle I round the last bend and I see the outpost. It’s a wooden shack perched on a berm separating the forest from an expansive water and grass savanna on the other side. Bernie tells us, “I got the engine about 3 years ago, it used to take 7 hours to paddle a dugout with rations to and from the outpost.” We are having an adventure, this is their life. I cross onto the other side of the berm where there is a dock with a lady fishing. She has a small fish fluttering on her line. It’s a “Waabra,” cousin to the man eating piranha. The outpost has no electricity so after catching the fish it is stored in a submerged mesh cage till lunch time.
