The Adventures of Rob & Lauren

Growing up in North America, you hear amazing stories all about those terrifying, flesh-eating piranhas that live in the Amazon, like their unbelievable ability to devour a human being or cow in seconds. They gain so much notoriety that they hardly seem real.

Well, they are real, but the myths about them are not. Piranhas do not kill and eat a human being in seconds. In fact, they hardly bother humans at all. People regularly swim in water where tons of piranhas live! They are more like scavengers than anything, and seem to only be aggressive when they are caught in shallow water without any food for a long time. If you want to read some more on the habits of these interesting fish, you can check out this article I found on Cosmos. It’s definitely a neat thing to learn about! 

In Peru, we had a chance to fish for these very fascinating little creatures. To experience something like that, something that seemed straight out of an adventure movie, was incredible. Traveling allows you to do things that you never even thought possible, and that is what is so addictive about it for us!

One thing we were surprised to learn is that piranhas are actually frequently eaten by Peruvians, and are seen as just another fish. We frequently saw people out fishing them every day, and they were widely sold in the markets we explored. They probably shake their heads in wonder as to why we travelers go nuts over the chance to catch these things! They are full of bones, and pretty tough to prepare! But all that aside, we were still really pumped to try our hand at catching these toothy fish!

 We headed out in a small wooden boat with our guides. They took us to a spot known to be populated with piranha, and we floated close in to the bank. The sun was shining, it was quiet, and we were surrounded by the jungle. It was incredible. We were given simple wooden fishing poles with a hook on them. We baited them with small pieces of beef, and waited. 

I’m a pretty competitive person, so I really wanted to be the first one to catch a piranha! Not that I could really control it, haha! It was pretty neat though, you’d put your hook in and could distinctly feel the piranhas nibbling at the meat. The strategy was to wait until you felt a big bite, and then quickly yank the pole straight up. It was pure luck, but I did indeed catch the first fish! Hooray!!! And yes, these are pretty small fish! Generally between 15 - 25 cm long, and the ones we caught were definitely on the puny side. We threw them all back to fight another day. 

Me staring down my catch. Grrrrrrr. Check out the hook there. It is distinct for fishing piranha. If you had a regular one, you’d have to get your fingers mighty close to those very sharp teeth when pulling the fish up. Instead it has a super long top so you can keep your digits safe. Smart Peruvians! 

Close up of those teeth. Scary!

BAM! I rock at piranha fishing! I caught another one! It was super duper tiny, but it still counts. 

Our guide showing me how to remove the hook. I did, and got to hold a friggin’ piranha in my hands! Unreal. 

Now, I know you’re waiting for a shot of Rob triumphantly holding a piranha, but, no go. They were just not biting for him that day. Don’t worry though, I caught two so I’ll share that tiny one with him :) This was a really fun experience, and I’d love to go back out again and do some more fishing! Apparently there are many other cool things to catch in the Amazon, but more so during dry season, and we were there during the wet season. Next time!

Finally, a neat little video from Iquitos. Everywhere we went we rode in motocarros, and they are quite the experience. Basically they are a 125cc motorcycle with a three-seater rickshaw mounted on. And by three-seater I mean three small people. We had to become pretty good at spotting the ones with a wider seat so that all three of us large North Americans could fit without being absolutely squished. Peruvians are much much smaller :) These motocarros had major vibrations (my feet hurt every time we took one for an extended period of time!), quick turns, and were open-sided so you could really see everything around you. Very very fun :) I don’t think they’d go over too well in snowy Edmonton though….

A motocarro ride around Iquitos, Peru from Rob & Lauren on Vimeo.

If you’d like to check out more videos, and keep updated on all the ones we’ve posted, make sure to check out the Adventures of Rob & Lauren channel on Vimeo!

http://vimeo.com/channels/taornl

Enjoy!