Getting Around on the Napo River

Transport in the Amazon. In a word... varied.  For the most part we were in lovely dugout canoes. The anthropologists will know how these are made. Burned out, hacked out and shaped. We took took these anywhere we went off the Napo River itself.  We found several that were no longer water worthy and were beginning to rot. All natural materials meant all natural disposal. These were my favorite. Quiet and real.

 This is very similar to what we took from Coca to miscellaneous shore line 3 hrs East.  Basically its a high speed canoe.  Most have canopies. Their narrow shape means that they can navigate between sandbars more easily than wider vessels.

 Speaking of wider vessels, while we did not journey on one of these we saw plenty. The back is basically the wheel house with perhaps some beds, definately a kitchen and a salon/social area where people can eat and chat. The front had everything like trucks as you see below or huge bulldozers. The Napo has extremely variable water heights. It was low while we were there so even the small speedy engine dugouts had to drop knots to navigate the sand bars and dead heads.