Today, Saturday, December 27, 2025, is our last day on the boat. We had decided last night that we would do the 6 AM skiff ride and then that would be it for the day. The other outings were walks and we weren’t interested enough in insects and snakes to deal with the heat.

The time logged for this photo is 5:59am. I’d even slept in until 5 or so which was nice and unusual for me.

Above and below: these pretty birds were right next to each other.

Final selfie in the skiff, with Teddy and his mom Jen behind me. There are 3 families on this trip and we have enjoyed time with them. 11 year old Teddy and Ash clicked right away.

Jorge of the Jungle again, driving us into a marsh looking for frogs.

Above and below: The red lines drawn roughly in the middle of each photo separate dark wood from lighter wood, which shows the flood line. We are at the beginning of the rainy season and luckily for us, it has not rained this week at all, which is a very unusual. (Except for a very small amount after lunch today. ) So the water has actually dropped a little bit since we’ve been here. But all of these trees have these flood lines which show there’s another 10 to 15 feet to go once the rainy season kicks in. Something like 1/3 of the entire Amazon basin goes underwater when the rainy season is in full swing.

More pretty birds – marsh birds known as Wattled Jacanas.

This is the second time we’ve witnessed a flock of egrets flying, but I messed up the first video from Monday, so was thrilled I had another opportunity this morning. And we are even closer now, so this is actually a better shot. It really is a stunning National Geographic moment for us.

A single egret looking the opposite direction from where all of the others have flown.

We were back in time for 8 AM breakfast 

An adorable puppy dog origami on our bed when we got back, complete with my sunglasses on him. I had left them on my side table because it wasn’t very sunny this morning so they used them as an accessory on the towels. 

And then we had an origami demonstration by the staff that was pretty entertaining. The detail on that frog on the upper right of this collage was incredible.

Lunch was a fish appetizer with corn, beef tips with vegetables, and a camu camu flan. (Although they called it a cheesecake but it wasn’t really. ) Camu camu is a local fruit they we’ve had a lot of on this trip.

Towards the end of lunch, someone spotted dolphins outside the dining room window. There are two kinds of dolphins in the Amazon basin: gray ones that you’re used to, and pink ones. We have seen both of them throughout the trip, but it has been difficult to get them on film. This is the closest I got and these are of course the gray ones. 

At 2:30pm we had our departure briefing from Jonathan, going over all of the details of tomorrow. We disembark at 8:30am and get to Lima about 4pm if all goes well.

Ash worked with the pastry chef to make chocolate chip cookies. He had never made them before so Ash got in there and took over a bit, adding salt, sugar, and orange zest. They turned out great. We had some with coffee and shared the rest with everyone else.

We skipped the 3:30 PM outing and instead spent some time managing bills and stuff. We were laughing at doing this while in the middle of the Amazon like it’s normal.

At 7pm we had a slide show put together from everyone’s photos which was fun. Dinner was at 7:30 pm and I forgot to take photos.

After dinner, the staff performed in the dining room. It was entertaining.

Especially when Teddy went up there with the little maraca he bought at the last excursion – and they handed him 2 full sized ones. He played with them the rest of the evening.

And that was our day. Tomorrow is a full day of travel with a stop in the morning at a Manatee Rescue Center on the way to the Iquitos airport.