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This morning we headed to the wildlife rescue center (aka amaZoonico) by canoe. The ride over was pretty chill until we hit rapids that kept teetering our narrow 10 person canoe from left to right. We arrived fairly dry and were greeted by a wooly monkey named Ester. The amaZoonico reminded me of the San Diego Wild Animal Park. A lot of the exhibits were fairly big, capturing a good chunk of natural habitat and allowed for the animals´ comfort during their rehabilitation.
Afterwards, we went tubbing down the Napo river which was such a blast. I lay sprawled on the tube with my bum centered in the middle, submerged in water, and my arms and legs wrapping dryly above (until it rained). Didn´t matter though ... I leaned my head back to take it all in. I´m in the freaking Amazon mofos! On a river, surrounded by the jungle and listening to the sounds of the swaying trees, chirping bird, noisy critters and the upcoming rappids. Amazing!
We stop for a short deour to the Santa Monica tribe. A 10 minute trek in flip flops through the muddy crop fields which constantly attempted to extract my shoes ...my feet completely cloaked in mud and slipping out sideways through the thongs with no traction between foot and shoe & shoe and ground. I have no choice but to finish the trek barefoot and paranoid of all the creepy crawlies and parasites that may be lingering in the mud.
The destination was completely anticlimatic. We didn´t have enough time to tour the village and hang out with the locals. Instead, we sat in the hut listening to stories told by Sergio of the tribe´s shaman wizardry (basically making the patient consume some hallucinogenic and extracting the illness from their body by slapping them with bushy leaves). We then headed back the same path to continue tubing down the river, racing the sunset.
Unfortunately, when we hit land, we discovered that someone (Fabio) didn´t seal the group´s waterproof pack filled with all of our cameras. I´m not quite sure how long my camera was submerged in water but I took the battery out as soon as I got it and water poured out from inside. I´m letting the camera dry for a couple days before I attempt to turn it back on ... don´t want to short the circuitry. Wish me luck. Sad Panda :(
Day ended on a sour note so I´m eating dinner and heading to bed early. Night.
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