Day 44: Final Morning on the Boat — Off to Mirante do Gavaio Lodge

We had our usual breakfast with Joshua and Laura, and then packed up our bags. We said our goodbyes to the crew (sad!!).

Then we had one last excursion before lunch:Another pink dolphin experience — this one more educational (funded, along with a lot of the eco-tourism in the area, by USAID we noticed). We sat on the deck and they’d swim right up for some fish snacks. This one guy had a twisted mouth from an encounter with a fisherman’s spear. He had no teeth but he was so cute and sweet. His name was Curuman.

Had a quick stop for some agua de coco.

The owner of Katerre is all about the local economy and responsible tourism, so he helps support a local non-profit dedicated to educating young people about eco-tourism. The goal is to get people fired up about making money/live off the natural resources (aka via tourism) instead of opting for farming/deforestation projects. Some grads become guides or staff in hotels, others are artisans. They made beautiful things out of recycled paper and reclaimed wood. We bought a bowl and some other little items.

We then arrived at this beautiful lodge also owned by Katerre called Mirante de Gavaio. We had a farewell lunch there with Joshua and Laura, before they headed out.

After so much adventure, we spent the rest of the day swimming, reading and relaxing. We even had a video chat with Grammie, Beepaw Jim and Aunt Hardage! Then it was early to bed.

Miscellaneous thoughts from the rainforest:

• Willa was astonished at the idea that these guides could make so many physical things using only raw materials they found in the forest.
• She was also fascinated by their innate knowledge/instincts — I tried to compare it to her deep familiarity with Imagination playground (ha!), but she goes, “These guys are much more impressive.”
• The piranha incident was a good one for the kids, I think? It’s probably healthy for them to see that their parents have fears and even better, Willa proved to herself that she can get back on the horse.
• We almost didn’t do this whole river boat thing — the travel agent we were working with originally kept proposing luxurious boat options which looks insane but weren’t what we wanted. We found this one just by Googling around and took a chance. It would have been a huge loss if we hadn’t done it.
• A lot of factors came together to give us a memorable few days out here: the weather was beautiful, the food delicious, our only other boatmate friendly, there was no internet and our guides were top-notch. We have that post-camp sadness that it’s all over. And we are for sure closer than ever after.
• Cue “I Will Remember You:”