In Peru: Sunday PM/Monday AM

Tonight we hopped another plane, this time to go to a small Indian village that is around 60 miles from Pucallpa. We took a seaplane (first time in one), it took around 25 minutes. The flight to the village was very insightful to the jungle community as you see all of the small villages that lie on the banks of the rivers. We land in the village, which is named Utocuro. As we land I look to the banks and I see what looks like the whole town gathered to greet us. When I get out the plane all eyes are fixed on us, weird stuff. You can tell that the children are amazed by the whole experience of watching a plane land and seeing a tall bald white guy with a beard. My experience would be just as amazing, maybe more so. The children flocked to me and the other guys I'm with. Touching my arms, staring at me. I know they were chatting in their dialect about the encounter. As the night progressed I was able to connect with some of these children even though we didn't even speak the same language. I taught them to high-five (completely new to them). You could here children randomly bust out "hi-fi" with their hand high in the air. Very cool. We were set up to sleep in the village medical building, a real treat considering it is the nicest building there. We set up our mosquito nets in several of the rooms, had an impromptu church service with the villagers and then ate some jelly sandwiches to prepare for the caiman (alligator-type thing) hunting expedition we were to go on. We got into our man made dugout canoe and headed down the jungle creek. The noises, the smells, the visual. One word: surreal. Kind of what Disney has tried to create on their jungle cruise, but real. Real monkeys, birds, critters, mosquito's and oh yeah, the caimans. Flowing up and down this river was just amazing. The moon and stars were brighter. The wildlife was more wild. My adrenaline more flowing. We got back to our visited village around 3 AM and hit the mosquito nets for a quick snooze. We woke up with the sun and children peeking into the windows of the building we were lodging. A native gave me a tour of the village. I saw too many disturbing and eye opening things that I don't have room to post on, just believe me. Our plane departed with the villagers looking on in amazement. We arrived at the mission base around 20 minutes later to a totally different world.