Wednesday April 23 Day 7

After breakfast we loaded up the boats and headed for shore to meet the Kombayba tribe of indigenous people. We walked across wide beaches to their outdoor community centre and were introduced to the beautiful Children’s Choir who performed their National Anthem for us.

All the tiny villages and homes for an hour in every direction send their kids to school here. The Government has provided significant funding and numerous fairly modern buildings adorn the campus. Kids can either attend school 7-11am or 1-5pm. 7-10pm is adult classes. Elementary students picked up and returned daily. High school kids come Monday and leave Friday. School holidays revolve around low water level months.

Casaba potato and fish diet twice a day. Land is sandy. Can’t grow much food. Times have changed since they got electricity 10 years ago and now with this school they have a teacher and a fully trained nurse.

Flat head tribe. Board on head from Birth to make flat head and shorter means more handsome.

Deaths - body in canoe with possessions. Set on fire. Take bones and crush into powder. Mix with banana water and drink to absorb the power of their life force.

No birth control means large families.

15 ladies sold locally created goods so we purchased a few things to help support the economy.

We bid the village farewell and returned to the boat for lunch.

A couple hours later, I boarded the speedboat and headed out for some afternoon piranha fishing.

We managed to catch a few and then headed back for supper.

After supper, some people went back out for another boat ride to look for small alligators, but we chose to relax and catch up on some reading. Another fantastic day in the Amazon.