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Victoria Amazonica
Otters
She made clear what I could and couldn ’ t do and made sure I didn ’ t miss out on anything . Her goal was that all of her guests would leave completely satisfied with their experience at Karanambu .
Our lodgingsof clay brick and thatched roofs integrated seamlessly into the landscape as if they grew out of the earth . All structures and appointments at the lodge were in keeping with traditional Amerindian culture . I particularly liked the dining room . If Melanie would have let me , I ’ d have shipped that beautiful wood dining table straight to Massachusetts , along with some of the utilitarian antique implementsthat decorated the walls . All the guests at the lodge gathered at the table for meals and shared their experiences of the day . Although the food was terrific , it was the rum punch with dinner that was eagerly anticipated .
My friend Christine and I shared a very spacious , clean room . One can have laundry done , but we didn ’ t . We had electricity in the hours we needed it and could charge our gadgets without issue . Our bathroom was most impressive given that it was even larger than the room with a long corridor that led to it and lots of room upon arrival . We were delighted to find that nature isn ’ t confined to the out of doors . We had a very large , very green praying mantis on the wall by our sink . Even more impressive was that it matched my bright green soap dish . We weren ’ t bothered by mosquitos or crawly things .
Early that evening my friends went out on the river to a place where they could walk in a forest or jungle . Melanie arranged to send me out in my own boat with one of her guides . I noted some of the birds we saw and once home , asked Brian , the birder of our group ( he would not be called a twitcher ) to help me identify them in some photos . I will confess that I was less interested in birds , unless they were very colorful and could be seen fairly well with the naked eye , than I was with great big creatures . Our guide and I spotted the black skimmer , lovely green parrots , the lesser razor-billed curassow , anhinga , egrets , green ibis , northern Cara Cara , buff neck ibis and the ringed kingfisher all in a couple of hours . The highlight for me were the huge caimans . My picture isn ’ t great , given the tree and pile of brush on his side but we could see the huge creature in its entirety and it was LONG !
The next morning at 6am we piled
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