Day 3 - Canelos to Sarayaku preparations

Canelos was the place where Isabela entered the river to begin her journey to the mouth of the Amazon. Canelos is situated on the Bobonaza river. The Amazon river has many sources, and tributaries that run into various rivers, including the Maranon (translated as sea or not) before the great body of water finally becomes what is known as the Amazon many miles downstream in Peru.

Isabela’s father had travelled 1 month ahead of her and her party to arrange for a fleet of canoes to be waiting for her upon her arrival to Canelos. The Canoes would take her downstream along the Bobonaza river until it reached the Pastaza river. We had arranged with Juan and Heraldo (two men from the remote indigenous village of Sarayaku located on the Bobonaza river, to take us to sarayaku for a couple of nights and then down along the Bobonaza to Andoas on the Peruvian boarder. (Please see my specific page about Saryakau and their international success and struggle against the Ecuadorian government and oil companies).

It was clear Jaun and Heraldo wanted us to take the fibre glass ones, but with a bit of insistence we learned that it was still possible to take a wooden one – but not before we were first given every excuse why the fibreglass ones were better. Some of these reasons were quite legitimate.

The wooden ones weigh a lot more, sit lower in the water (and the river is low at the moment, and require a lot more gasoline. It will also be a lot slower.

Also we were told that there are not many really big canoes anymore. A canoe only last 8 years and requires a very big tree. Given their stance on saving the jungle they don’t want to be seen to be cutting down really large trees that are hundreds of years old. That was all fair enough. But we weren’t asking them to build us a canoe and there was one available the right size that they could take us in if we were prepared to go slower and use more gas and potentially get stuck and have to push if we got stuck on the river bed. We were ok with this .. and so the arrangements were made.