River Travel: Day 3 and Arrival

8 more hours on the boat. This time we did not even stop on shore for lunch-we ate avacadoes and bread in the middle of the Amazon river in the heat. Everybody was ready to be done with this part of the adventure. Our final destination was Pevas, a decent sized city about 90 miles out from our reserve. When we were in site of the town, two young men rode out a peki-peki with a cooler full of beer to welcome us. All I wanted was water. We had run out of clean water the previous day. We had some boiled tap water from the previous town, but it smelled and tasted like campfire. No thanks. It left you more thirsty than before. I stayed thirsty that entire day.

Lila, one of the natives who traveled with us, and her son

There have been 2 deaths (not ppl) so far on this trip. Yesterday, I was riding in the boat and all of a sudden, CRACK. I thought something hit my sunglasses. The frame split in two on the bottom. They were still wearable so I wore them. About two hours later, CRACK: they fell off my face. That was strange, but I thought little of it. Luckily, the professor on the trip was holding sunglasses for one of the rowers, so he gave me those to use.  Within 2 hours, CRACK the frame broke again. I was like "what is up with this?!" No one elses sunglasses were breaking, how in the world did I break two in a matter of two days? I was not even touching them, they were simply on my face. Later I found out some of the solvents they use in bug spray ruins this plastic. Apparently DEET not only feels disgusting, but decomposes plastic.
By the way, bug spray is pointless here. It seems to be more of a condiment for the mosquitoes than a repellant.
We were planning to spend the next two nights at Fransisco Grippa´s house. He is an internationally known artist. When we arrived, our rooms were not ready despite being reminded multiple times we were coming. He was bringing in matresses for us (not sure where they have been), and his workers were putting doors on our room. His house was huge, but would make an architect cringe. He kept adding on, which left some areas much higher than others, so there were landings and stairs everywhere. It reminded me of a giant tree house. The wood was questionable. The room I stayed in had three beds for 5 girls. One of the girls got out of bed and accidentally created a small hole through our wood floor. Our suspicion was termites. After our 3 day trek down the Amazon everyone wanted to shower. Unfortunately, there was no water for us to bathe in and again no water for us to drink at his house. We had to go into town to buy some bottled water and we bathed in the river. It was gross, since the river is used as a sewage line as well. Once again, kids just watched our every move. Fransisco´s wife owned a restaraunt in town, which is where we ate for dinner. We had some delicious fish and fries.

View from Grippa's tower