When we visited the village called Prado — Spanish for meadow — one of the women of the Nauta tribe who live there offered us a sample of their tasty breakfast, an armored catfish. I often eat fish for breakfast, so I greatly appreciated her gift.

The Armored Catfish was Delicious!

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We visited another village for lunch. We ate at at a place apparently called Tiffany’s Restaurant, where Tiffany herself served us the local delicacies: catfish cooked in a large leaf, tender roasted agouti, and a few other specialties that aren’t on my diet, including tapioca and two varieties of plantain and three varieties of tropical juice. The open air restaurant, such as it was, has a prime view of the river, but the ship’s passengers were the only customers.

Back at the ship, we motored further upstream, passing more villages.

A Modern Village Along the Amazon

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A Water Taxi Connects this Village to the Rest of the World

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This Native of the Amazon Fishes a Small Creek

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That evening a shipmate asked me what I missed most from home. My immediate response was my whole leaf single estate Assam tea that I brewed with boiling water. On the ship the water was hot, but not hot enough, and I only had tea bags.

We ate well in Prado village, at Tiffany’s Restaurant, and aboard ship. So food wasn’t an issue.

On further reflection, I realized that I missed being in touch with the rest of the world. Without newspapers, magazines, telephone, radio, television, and the internet we could relax in our ignorance of what was happening elsewhere. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. On the same day, my hometown of Boulder, Colorado, experienced the worst flood in its history, and I didn’t know about it until I returned to Lima two days later.