Saturday

We asked for another early morning excursion so Segundo took anyone who was interested in an early morning bird outing. It was a nice morning and we took the skiff and were just slowly going down the main channel and slowing or stopping when we saw something. We saw a couple of big green monitor lizards up trees and some beautiful birds, but only a few were close enough to really see well. But it was still pleasant and there were no mosquitos bothering us even.
When we got back we had the best breakfast yet of pancakes and cereal and other stuff. We by this time were docking in Nauta, which is a fairly large size town. We got off and did a walking tour through the fruit and vegetable and meet markets. Then we had some free time but did not find but one market with native craft type stuff. That family had a 5 month old red howler monkey and I felt since we took photos, we should buy something so we bought a basket. The monkey was really cute. So was the basket. We walked on over to the square where we were to meet as a group. From there we got in the auto-taxi which is a motorcycle taxi like a tuk tuk and they took us for a nice ride through town and out in the country. Our driver was a bit interesting-we had an accident right off the bat when he cut it too close to another one and hit it….nothing was hurt or at least the damage fit with all the rest of it! Then we got back to Nauta and were at the native market so there were a few more places. We had a few minutes to look but there were not many things, though we did buy 3 more baskets for gifts.
We walked back to the skiff and back to the boat for lunch. After lunch we did our packing and getting ready for our flights tomorrow.
We went on our last skiff ride late in the afternoon. It was beautiful and while we still did not see any big anacondas or other snakes and such, we did see more beautiful scenery and birds and had a good time. Our only snake of the trip was a dead fake coral snake in the road on the tuk tuk ride. A fake coral snake is a real snake and looks like a coral snake but is not poisonous-it has a white belly. A couple of people did see a snake on their canoe ride but the rest of us were not so “lucky”.
We finished the evening with our farewell dinner on board the ship. It has been a wonderful group of people to travel with and the Arapaima staff and OAT team has been great. We spent our last night on the ship in the dock at Iquitos. We have an early wake up call so we can get to the airport in Iquitos for our flight to Lima. Then we have a hotel room in Lima and they take us to a restaurant for lunch. Our plane leaves right after midnight so we have all day and head to the airport about 8 PM. It has been a great trip but we are tired and ready to be home. It has been very interesting and we have seen beautiful things and met wonderful people and are blessed to have done this.