After a hectic few days we thought we should slow the pace down and spend the day chilling at the river beach. What we hadn’t taken into account was that the heavy overnight rain had erased the beach completely and turned the swimming holes into swirling, tourist sucking, whirlpools.
Cara and I had a “refreshing” swim in one of the pools further up for “children and old people”. We managed to find some gold but not quite enough to pay for the bbq plantains and cheese we tried for a snack. The stall owner did his best to persuade us to try chontacuro (large larvae) skewers. Apparently they are great for colds, coughs and sore throats. We decided to pass!!
One of the upsides of travelling as we do, without a fixed plan, and our own transport is that you come across places that even the tour guides fail to mention. We saw a sign for waterfalls and after stopping to investigate found the most stunning hike up through the waterfall itself. There were rickety ropes to hold onto and pull yourself up with. An ancient ladder made from tree trunk and a lot of jumping from rock to rock as we crossed the river. Having failed to make the landing spot on one jump I decided to continue by wading through the river – its now over 24 hours later and my boots are still wet inside.
Pirate Travels 