Sapuena Village and Belluda Caño
After an early morning skiff ride with great birds, an iguana and pleasant conditions, we visited the village of Sapuena. This was a medium sized village of about 600 residents, and they warmly welcomed us into their community. As we made our way up from the river, we passed their thick rice fields and saw how they grow corn, bananas, yuca and mangoes. From there, we progressed to learn about daily life in a village along the Upper Amazon.
As we moved through the village we were welcomed into different houses to see the way they cooked. We also observed the different foods and medicinal plants they were harvesting, and just plain old daily life. The people here were very pleasant and friendly, and the kids were as curious of us as we were of them. In this part of the Amazon fish are abundant, and certain crops grow well, so people don’t go hungry. A potpourri of seeds was drying in the sun, and an array of ornamental flowers decorated the main “street”.
Our final stop in the village was the school. This village has a primary and secondary school and it was a beehive of activity. We were seated in a classroom and soon nearly the entire school was in the room to meet us. Here we traded greetings and stories, and a lot of laughter and smiles were shared. As we departed, many of the children followed us back to the river as we returned to the luxury of the Delfin II.
In this time of the year, the heat builds and builds and then finally breaks with some short but powerful thunderstorms. This afternoon we were treated to one of these storms. Some of us experienced this while walking in the rainforest, which is the perfect place to witness it. It started with a darkening of the sky, a few massive thunderclaps, a bit of wind, and then the rain. While the rain may be light at first, it usually comes pretty hard for awhile. Then, it stops, but the raindrops take hours to reach the floor. Amongst this, we enjoyed viewing Monk Saki monkeys and an amazing mother sloth with baby, starting at eye level and rapidly crossing between many trees.
The day ended with pink light hitting the massive passing thunderheads, the temperature much lower than before, and us experiencing another aspect of the Amazon basin.
