Yesterday at noon we started loading the Zodiacs. We were called by color groups and we were the 4th of 6 to be loaded. Our wait wasn’t that long. Since it was to be the longest ride of our entire trip, the driver re-stated the safety rules. If someone were to fall overboard, keep your eyes on them, get my attention and follow my commands. He said if he fell overboard the engine would automatically shut off and all we needed to do is laugh at him. It was a long ride for sure.
As we got to the river’s entrance, we were met, actually surrounded, by War Canoes. There were at least 40 of these canoes, each with 4 painted warriors in them. It was actually kind of scarry. We had to remind ourselves that we were invited guests, but that’s not all that settling considering they are direct descendants of Cannibals’!
As we got closer to the village, we could see a huge crowd of villagers, lots of children. They were all waiting for us. As we got off the zodiacs, they all just parted and made room for us.
When everyone was on shore the ceremonies started. I must confess that it seemed a bit disorganized, and it was hard to know exactly where to look or what we were seeing. There was chanting, drumming, dancing and the center of attraction was the raising of three totem poles. The totems were carved and on top of each of them was a statue of a man with a huge phallic symbol.
When the show was over, I noticed some of us were loading onto the zodiacs. They had told us that whenever we wanted to return to the ship, they would start loading the boats, but they had to be full, and we had to use the buddy system because it was a long way to go. Kim wanted to hang around so, I got on one of the first boats to leave. The drivers had used a tracker app on their phones as we were led into the river. They used this to retrace the channel out to sea. There are two sizes of boats, the small one will hold 8 guests while the larger one held 12. The larger ones have bigger engines and can go faster. The first two boats to leave were small. Once out to sea, 2 larger boats pasted us, then 2 more, when we arrived at the ship a third pair of the larger boats had caught up to us. I commented to my boat mates that it would be just my luck that Kim got back aboard before I did. Well, she was on the boat right behind us. She had stayed in the village for at least half an hour longer than I had. So, I guess the “stupid” question about the ride back to the ship wasn’t so stupid after all, mine was a half hour longer than Kim’s. I’ll leave you with more pictures of the village people.
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Hi Steve, Wow, that was quite an experience visiting that village. I look forward to discussing it live! Best, Joe