A Funny Story on a White Sandy Beach

I am going to tell you a story that happened to me in 2006 when we started to cruise the Amazon.

It was early morning in a beautiful sunny day… it was October 2006… all the guest have left to Puerto Miguel Village. I decided not to join them… it was hot… even though it was very early yet…
I decided to go for a walk.

When the river waters recedes, the Amazon forms long white sandy beaches, you can never imagine something like this will happen. Sand that you can almost think you are in the Caribbean, instead, you are in the Amazon. We usually make an activity to let our guest enjoy this type of experience… beaches that will not be there the next year… walking beaches…you will never find the same again. It changes from year to year… all the time…

I decided to go walking this time. Turquoise skies, calm and fresh waters, the whitest sand you can find… and far the deep green forest. So calm… nothing was moving just a soft breeze that help us cool down… a perfect day… hard to describe. I thought … paradise must feel like this… the sand was in that hard point that was perfect for a bare feet walk.

I kept on walking…after a while I started to be followed… lots of terns flying around… making their cheerful noise… flying making huge circles in the skies… wonderful companions…
I was feeling quit unique, having all of them around…making loud sounds.

I felt like I was having a special magnetism towards them, I was looking around to see why this was happening… It felt so good, so perfect and beautiful… as I told you before; paradise must feel just like this… perfect

Then far away I saw one of our captains running, it was Primo…running towards me… I saw he was waving a towel on top of his head… calling… “Señora”… I felt something on my head, I was wearing a big hat… it was very sunny…I was wondering what was happening… why he looked worried and running …?… it was such a perfect moment… that type of moments in life that you feel blessed… only a smile in your face and a warm feeling in your mind and heart. Another weird thing in my head, a stronger one than before… he was still calling out… I couldn´t hear him…, the terns were very loud at this time… flying around and around, closer and closer… the skies so blue that reflected in the calm waters making it feel as if they were of the same color…

I started to hear him… then; I realized what he was saying… “They are attacking you”…!!! I was looking at him as if he was mad…!!! In that moment I realized what was happening, I was getting closer to the terns nesting place…! That was why they were more and more loud, getting closer and closer to me….!

It was not magnetism…! It was that they were protecting their eggs…! They were actually attacking me…! Protecting their territory…!

This birds are quite lazy, they just lay their eggs on top of the sand, little oval eggs the same color as of the sand… the sun warms them all day… they always fly around to protect them from predators… local villagers comes to the beaches and collect them… too…

I felt so ignorant… I started laughing… just picturing myself… I started walking very fast to get away from that place, I didn´t wanted to disrupt them anymore…! Actually I never wanted to stress them in any way… I felt so bad for them… they were protecting and attacking at the same time…!
I kept on laughing by myself…

The Amazon is Pure Life… anywhere you look… everything is alive… even in this huge beach, were you can´t see anything moving…