Piranha fishing

Even at night it hardly cooled off. At least the net kept the aggressive mosquitoes at bay. Because the makeshift mattress was anything but comfortable. But we are also spoiled by our beds! There is a local specialty for breakfast: deep fried banana mash with cheese. We can do this ourselves right away. Not bad, but the whole thing is a bit dry.

Then we drive in less dugout canoe Come on. A little further downstream, a tributary of the Rio Ibare bends and we are soon in the typical seasonal alluvial forest of the Amazon. The way is hardly going any further. The The arm of the river is blocked by aquatic plants, but somehow we pave our way through this obstacle as well. To make matters worse, that has rotten boat also has a leakwhich results in constant scooping work. Suddenly Niki and my bench burst and the alternative is even more uncomfortable, yes that can be cheerful.

Then we reach one wonderfully idyllic lagoon. Macaw pairs fly by and we throw out our homemade rods. It doesn't take too long and I have my first piranha on the hook. The little fish with its impressive and feared teeth is said to be mainly in the hardly flowing side arms and lagoons.

While everyone else is still waiting for a success, I've already fished the second piranha. At one point the bark of a caiman can be heard. We try our luck in different places until we have around ten fish in the boat. Meanwhile the sun is burning down mercilessly and we are on our way back.

There the fish are gutted by the woman and immediately cooked. So for lunch we have the choice between rice, fried bananas, chewy ragout, or chicken Piranha boiled in broth or - as always - deep-fried.

We’ll be going soon way back upstream. Unfortunately this time no river dolphin can be seen. Nevertheless, we enjoy the wonderful landscape again. Arrived in Puerto Ballivian we unload the boat and say goodbye to the crew. We are driven back to the hotel, where the well-deserved shower awaits us. For dinner we only have a fruit juice with milk, as the whole bananas have been pretty full for the past two days.