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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JWN Andrewes" data-source="post: 1649285" data-attributes="member: 7131">19th November 1989A relatively quiet day, stuck at Panacocha. We were looking to start heading back upstream, and couldn’t understand why the various boats dropping in were all asking for an exorbitant price for lifts. We had more or less been getting around by hailing passing boats and negotiating a nominal fee to be dropped off a few settlements along the river, but this system seemed to have broken down somewhat; prices had rocketed overnight. Turned out that a local scumbag who obviously ran various rackets and had some kind of hold over the locals had instructed all the local boat traffic to fleece the gringos and cut him in. Fair enough, we were in no hurry, we’d hang around a few days and see how things panned out. We christened the scumbag Captain Yossarian cos he looked like Alan Arkin in Catch 22. As a result we were at a bit of a loose end, not wanting to go too far in case an opportunity to split arose and we missed it. Just the three ticks for the day then – Northern Waterthrush, Southern Lapwing and Greyish Saltator, all birds I’ve seen plenty of since. Stuff I’ve yet to catch up with in the past twenty years were a female Bare-necked Fruitcrow, Blue-headed Parrots at the nest, 3 Greater Ani and a Sulphury Flycactcher.James</blockquote>