Last day on the river
Topic: Peru
Breakfast was unusually leisurely. Cristian, the cooker, proudly brought out a panetone, a kind of fruit bread that they have around Christmastime. It was horribly dry but we ate it so we didn't upset him. It was ok with drinking yogurt poured over it.

Nicolas, ever the optimist, told us that despite last night's thunder and rain storm, the river levels were low and we might have to pull the boat during part of the day's trip.

After breakfast, everyone came into our room to see the monster from the pits of hell which sat next to David's bed. Mark said it was like a land-langostine. It even beat the six cockroaches that they had in their tent the previous night. After the freak show, we motored off for the final river section, much slower than usual, up river. It was a cool, hazy day which we were all grateful for. We never even had to pull the boat.

Lunch was watery potatoes covered with bland yellow sauce eaten on the move. Cris was back to his previous standards. I looked back at one point during the afternoon as the cooker and the two boat guys had a water fight. This turned into a food fight. They were having great fun. I remember laughing at a pair of pants hanging from the ceiling drying, splattered with yellow peanut sauce.

We reached the end of our boat journey and after forming a human chain to empty the boat, we said goodbye to the lads and hello to our driver proudly polishing the new truck. We drove for a short while and then were dropped off to walk the remaining hour. The locals going past in the back of trucks (local transport) thought we were mad to be walking in such heat and they'd be right. I'm not sure we were even consulted. Nicolas did his usual. "Get out". "Walk". Then stomped on ahead of us. Finally we arrived at the town of Pilcopata and the lodge we had stayed at on the very first night. We remembered how primitive it had seemed at the time and how luxurious it seemed now - indoor bathrooms and electricity! We spent the next few hours chatting ad drinking cold beer. Very relaxing.