Days 16,17, loitering on rafts

day 16- Before we leave woman gifts us lots of maduro. (ripe platino that’s tasty grilled.) They have platino plantations. Stop early at raft outside Puerto Inca. Lived on a raft a while, seems we are used to squatting rafts. Nina looks for fish bait comes back with a fish. We catch fish with large expanding basket mouths. Look like mini whale sharks. There’s a fishing net strung out nearby. Seems like a communal fishing net. Throughout the day various people paddle past to check it and take out the fishes.

Gut the fish. It has layers of organs I have to cut the heart out of the membrane. Nina makes the fire. Drops gutted fish bringing them up muddy bank to the fire. By the time all the work’s done we’re not hungry. We chuck the food. We were also put off by the suspicion that the fish we caught are fish that suck up detritus and debris, plus we caught them near the raft bathroom. A dog bites Nina. We sleep on the porch of the raft where there is partial shelter. The room is locked. At nighttime the raft people return. It’s about to storm. We hear them wincing from mosquito bites. I hear a voice through the wall. The raft inhabitants tells us to come inside before it starts to rain.

day 17-

Rainy sunrise. No good for travel. It’s a couple from Iquitos looking after the raft, it’s the woman’s sisters raft. They are sweet they swing together sweetly in the hammock. They invite us to go to Caballococha with them, a small city. We go to Caballococha and sit on a couch. The couch is lush. We walk around and buy stuff like lunch and cigarette and chocolate.

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