Lost On The Amazon

Lost on the Amazon.

A guest post by John Kazanjian

John Kazanjian, fishing on a cruise with Dawn on the Amazon.

To start off, the Dawn on the Amazon tour to me was perfect! It’s everything a cruise should have and has some things that others don’t. The food was fresh and well prepared, the ride overall was enjoyable (as far as the “smoothness” of the boat expedition), and the atmosphere was welcoming and helpful. Also, it really helps if you are paired up with another group of tourists, because you never know if they can share some useful information about other attractions in Peru. For my mother and I, we were paired up with three people from Quebec who were actually backpacking around South America. So they, for me, had useful information to share with us about places we haven’t gone to yet (in this case, Cusco).

The things we all did on the tour were fun as well. We went to the village of Michana, and met all the friendly people there. In fact, one of the villagers, Mr. Ferencia, came aboard for the rest of the tour to help out. We also went hiking through the jungle and got to see how actual crops wre grown. Obviously, like any place for an Amazon tour, we also went sight-seeing (particularly for wildlife). We all saw dolphins, monkeys, and many kinds of birds. But my favorite part of the tour was going out all the time to fish!

John and Edson with one of the fish John caught on a cruise with Dawn on the Amazon

I would go out with my mom and Mr. Edson (the motorist of the boat) for about an hour or so in the mornings, and then come back fishing for an hour in the evenings. It took a lot of patience, (just like any other fishing experience), but it also took a lot of bait. I’d throw the cast out and when I would reel it back in, there would be a smaller amount of bait on the hook each time. Overall, I caught two Fasaco and one fish closely related to the Fasaco.

John on board Dawn on the Amazon

All was going well, until the third day came. On the third day, we were all supposed to go on another hike to another village, but then all of a sudden, the boat’s motor goes out. Right when all was peaceful and everyone was familiar with the program, it looked like all was going to go straight downhill. The crew did everything possible to try to fix the problem. Some of us even went to the extreme of trying to paddle our way home using a “peque peque” tied to the bow (I was one of them). Mr. Edson however, used his canoe to go back to the village of Michana (which was pretty far off by now) to go get a motor for the “peque peque” that Mr. Ferencia brought along. With a motor working (on a “peque peque” tied to the side of the tour boat), we were able to head back at a faster rate (but still very slowly). The next day, however, came a larger tour boat to get us home even faster (which took about three hours).

John and Richard towing Dawn on the Amazon when the motor quit.

Even though the motor went out (thus cutting the trip short), I wouldn’t even think about giving this tour a bad comment. In Peru there is a saying, “Go with the Flow”, and we all did that (literally and figuratively). Everything on this cruise was perfect, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good time!