I heard many noises during the night, as if the boat ran aground.  In the morning when I woke up and went out, I noticed that we really were aground but not unintentionally. Less than 100 yards away, I noticed a family of natives living in a house that is standard for Amazon inhabitants. The floor is built on stilts, 6 to 8 feet above ground. No partitions or any outside walls, in effect a built in air-conditioned dwelling. A mother is washing a little baby in the cold water of the morning, a combination of bath and play.  She seemed to be enjoying that part of her daily routine. After breakfast when everyone was up, we set off on the first excursion of the day and of our trip. We set out on one of the two launches that was always in tow behind our boat and went on to discover the real Amazon and in the canals and valleys God made and all the fauna that was grazing such a beautiful view. I was not much of a bird watcher although I have enjoyed them all equally. But some other members of our group were really getting excited when a rare species came our way. We had our first encounter with what was going to be the most exciting visitor on our trip, a sloth. This creature is one of the friendliest wild animals in the forest. Slower than the slowest turtle and not threatening at all even though he was wearing two-inch swords for nails. We also saw the first and only trace of an anaconda. A floating monster roughly 20 foot long and fortunately already dead. We visited enclaves, narrow passages, and tree-shaded tunnels and saw a variety of beautiful flowers. Back at the boat we had lunch and set sail again on the main river. We went by a town that seemed to be deserted.  Then we docked and went on a hike through the jungle, which turned out to be the hardest of the entire trip. We sweated profusely because of the high humidity but we enjoyed the vegetation and the sight of a huge tree, which in my estimation was over a thousand years old. We also admired one of the most beautiful phenomena. The leaf hauling operation by an ant colony. It is incredible a see a million ants carrying pieces of leaves twenty times their size. We came back to the boat and visited with a few natives, beautiful happy people with wonderful kids who although sparely dressed looked healthy and fit. I bought all the available fans that they had to sell so that I wouldn’t upset anyone and then we set sail on our way. After dinner, the excursion was highlighted by a million fireflies, but me and Joanne did not participate in it.  We stayed back and admired the clearest sky I have seen since childhood and the brightest stars coupled with a full moon rise that made the night very romantic.