The day after the rainstorm, we breakfasted on fish and boiled bananas. We were at this point quite mosquito-bitten, the natural result of sleeping with our feet too close to the mosquito net, or not reapplying the DEET immediately after washing. But that didn’t matter to us, because today we were crossing the region thickest with bufeos colorados.

The pink dolphins didn’t disappoint us. They were everywhere – in the deep stretches, following us through the flooded forest, leaping full-bodied out of the water so we could see their eraser-pink fins. Sometimes they would exhale sharply and loudly through their blowholes.

They were hard to photograph, as they saved their most dramatic leaps for their most surprising one, namely the first in a set of surfacings. And since this was whitewater, it was hard to predict where they would surface, though of course Señor and Señora were better at this than us.

I was most thrilled at the dolphin couple, which surfaced together every time, the bigger male and the smaller female side by side. I held the Professor’s hand and made goofy eyes at him.

We had been seeing them for a good hour, and frequently one or more would follow the boat. Señor and Señora were not pleased. Eventually, Señora asked Señor to pass her back one of the plants he had uprooted while we were on dry land. He had shown them to us, and said they were a good remedy for arthritis, and also to heat and revitalize the body (and make a man potent, which seemed to be a property of most of the plants he described,in addition to whatever else they did). These plants smelled just like garlic, though they did not look at all similar.

Señora took the root and made the sign of the cross on the paddle of her oar! I asked if that was good against dolphins. She said yes, and that one had been right next to her in the water, which was way too close.

Later, another dolphin followed us and I delighted to see its odd, smiling face turned right at us from just behind the boat. Señora tied the plant to a string and dropped it it he water, so it would drag behind the boat and ward off the dolphin.

It is so odd to think about the relationship these people have with these animals. The Professor said, and I agree, that the closest parallel is to the faery: people, but not us, and not safe.

We also saw big iguanas on this day, as well as squirrel monkeys and a special type of ant whose nickname is the “balls-seeker.”

That night, we stayed at Poza Gloria, the nicest of the cabanas. We had a treat – another tourist was there! I will call him Kindergarten Cop, because he is a former kindergarten teacher who is traveling before he begins the police academy. A German man, he did not speak much English, but we all made the effort for a while.

Another woman at the cabana had heart trouble that night, so Señora gave her one of her own heart pills. It helped, and we all turned in. It was our last night in the jungle.

– The Private Eye