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We had breakfast, and then got the oars ready for a new adventure: canoeing. 

Paddling down the Yanayacu, we set off for a spot about half an hour downriver.  According to Eutimio, our destination was home to an assortment of enormous water lilies -- so big that they had to be seen to be believed.

Upon our arrival ashore, we hiked down a path

that led us to a pond, completely sheltered from the surrounding rivers.  Here, our eyes were met by dozens of Victoria Amazonicus -- the largest aquatic plants I'd ever seen. 

Out in the middle of the pond, a lone fisherman was trying to catch some food for the day.  He saw us, exchanging pleasantries with Eutimio (they clearly knew each other, which made sense -- they were practically neighbors along the rivers) and rowing out to welcome us into his boat.  Judging from all the fish flopping around inside, he'd come up with a pretty decent haul so far in the morning.

He rowed us out to the middle of the lake, giving us an impressive up-close-and-personal look at the water lilies:

For the second time in as many days, we also got to take turns trying our hand at jungle fishing.  The guy had two different fishing implements: a stick with a line attached (not unlike the ones we'd used for piranha fishing the previous afternoon) and a spear.  The spear was particularly tricky to use; the water was murky and opaque, so "fishing" with the spear basically consisted of flinging it full-bore into the water, causing it to promptly get stuck in the lake's muddy bottom.  Needless to say, blind spear-flinging netted us zero success as far as catching actual fish.  We had better luck with the fishing rods

but even these were tricky to use, as you had to not only move the bait around in a way that'd attract the fish -- you also had to navigate the bait in and around the floating lilies (under which the fish liked to hide).

As we headed back to shore -- with the day's catch aboard --

Eutimio noticed that one of the fish we'd caught was missing.  We searched and searched the boat, but to no avail (and our great befuddlement) -- before realizing that the fish may have slipped beneath the boat's floorboards.  We lifted these up, and lo and behold, the sneaky fish had slipped in between the cracks, and was now hiding beneath one of the boat's benches.  Eutimio grabbed it and set it atop a bench, but the valiant fish wasn't to be stopped.  As we tried to transport it ashore, it slipped away, flying back into the lake.  Admiring the slippery fish's deft escape, we took one last look at the pond


before following our fisherman friend to his nearby village.  There, we were greeted by a great surprise: a big baby sloth, whom the fisherman had found in the rainforest and made into his personal pet:

This guy had a bit of a funky smell, but -- given his monster claws -- it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell that to his face.

As sloths presumably tend to be, he was also rather immobile on land:

After playing with the sloth, we headed back to our canoe, and started paddling back to our lodge.

Upon our return, we had another tasty lunch, with the usual offerings of fresh chicken, fish, rice, plantains, and more, and had some time in the afternoon to chill and play with the lodge's resident critters.  This curious bird walked up to me while I was lying in the hammock

and of course, there's no way I could have gone without a visit to our little monkey friends:

Soon, the lazing about resumed, with Eutimio back on the guitar:

All of us spent a couple hours doing nothing, before we reconvened for our second and final major activity of the day: a visit to a huge lupuna tree deep within the rainforest.

Unlike the previous day's venture into the jungle, this time I was prepared for the onslaught of mosquitoes.  After we disembarked from our boat, I donned Eutimio's baseball cap and pulled it right down to my eyes.  Wearing layers of both clothes and repellant, I was hopeful that those pesky mosquitoes would be a lot more hard-pressed to feast on me this time.

We started down the jungle path..

..which was overridden by vegetation, forcing Eutimio to resort to his machete to clear the way.

At the end of the path, we found ourselves at the feet of one of the biggest trees I've ever seen: the lupuna.

The photos don't nearly do this tree justice.  You had to walk a full 45 seconds to get around the base of this thing -- which I did, snapping pictures in between swatting mosquitoes off my face.  It was a pretty spectacular sight, considering we were just a twenty-minute hike from the river; surely, it was merely one small glimpse into what the Amazon has to offer.  It's mind-boggling to imagine what may lurk in the more remote, less-explored regions of the rainforest.

After a successful foray to the lupuna, we headed back to the lodge for the evening.  The sun set.  There was just one day left to go in Peru.

Map of Peru