Up the Manamo River 09 15.08N 62 14.95W

Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Wed 9 Jan 2008 16:00
 
 
Well we are as far up the Manamo river as we are going to get so I thought it was time for an update. We have seen some wonderful things since setting out from Pedernales, a small Village at the mouth of the Manamo River. We took a small walk around but as there really was not much to see it was a quick one beer walk. Leaving Pedernales our travel companions ( Gene and Kathy on Dream Ketcher) had a small problem cutting the 1st corner and ran aground. Luckily they were able to get off under their own power and no damage was done, well after a serious amount of ribbing we were off into the wild beyond. We only traveled around 2 - 3 hrs each day which was enough to put us into very different territory each time. We took off up each offshoot that we came across then did a kayak ride each day. We saw a bunch of wildlife, Huge iridescent blue butterflies, bright Green ones and yellow ones. Saw some Scarlet Macaws flying overhead as well as Blue and Gold ones and a bunch of Green Parrots flying back to their roosts. Scarlet Ibis were amazing, must have been thousands of them flying up river at night and back down river in the morning. On one kayak ride we saw some monkeys jumping around in the trees not far from shore. Had plenty of fresh water dolphins jumping around the boat. They have gray topsides and pink bellies, always a highlight to see their pink bellies jumping alongside the boat.
It rains a lot in this part of the rainforest which is good as it wouldn't really be a RAIN forest without it, so we have never been short of shower water and the other bonus is that's it cools the place down considerably also shows up the rainbows which were pretty spectacular.  We spent Xmas day on "Dream Ketcher" starting off the day with Mimosa's followed after lunch with a short siesta then back onto "Dream Ketcher" for the compulsory "Sundowner". A couple of days later we visited the Orinoco Delta Lodge. A very pretty camp with a Puma (unfortunately caged) a blue and gold Macaw and a Spider Monkey, both free to roam at will. The Macaw spent most of its time on the bar tenders shoulder and everyone got to pet the monkey who was quite happy to hold onto Laura's fingers as long as she would let him. Kathy on Dream Ketcher invited a couple of local children onto their boat as they had never been on a sailboat before. I think they were very impressed and no doubt left with a bag full of goodies to take home. Kathy is a bit of a kid magnet, which is kinda good as we both are definitely not, and as we have been coming up the river the local Indian kids have been paddling out to check us out. Kathy went out and bought a bunch of goodies to trade and she has been very successful mainly because we have been leading the way upriver which means we see the kids paddling like mad to come out to meet us and when they see they can't quite make it and are about to turn back we wave at them and point behind us, the smiles we see are just as good as the one they put out when they leave Dream Ketcher.
We have left a bunch of offshoots to explore on the way back so there will be more to report on our return to Trinidad.
Ciao and Merry Xmas to you all