El Fuerte River Rafting

This morning at 7 we started our trek to the river through a near neighborhood. The rafts hold 9 persons and we were full. There is a oarsman, no motors and the river runs swiftly as it carries water to the agricultural areas between El Fuerte and Los Mochis. Black bass and crayfish abound and are known as the delicacies from this area. I had the black bass last night for dinner.There were two boats. Our guide was in our boat and spoke both Spanish and English as he pointed out the many birds along the river. We wended our way down river and spotted many flycatchers, wrens of various types, ducks, geese and coots, and several varieties of heron and the lovely white. Our stop at a spot to see the flora and some petroglyphs was superb. There was a guy filling two large pails with river water – it turns out that he was watering new trees the owner had planted (from India it was said) and he went back and forth to the river all the time we were on site.Miguelangelo pointed out trees and shrubs used medicinally and explained how they were used. Almost all the leaves were treatments for some ailment from diabetes to colds, almost always the leaves ere placed in boiling water for a tea. I think the boiling water was the medicine. Magically in 28 days the person was cured – 28 days???We also had a lesson in ant predation. There is a Lion Ant that builds a hole with soft sides and waits for the smaller ants to come calling and when they do he pops up and devours it. We saw the whole show, really that did happen by taking a very small gig and running it along the side of the hole gently the ginger ant pops up when the stick gets near the center of his hole. The petroglyphs were studied in 2009 and found to be 8 century BC. They are on the same property as the medicinal plants and the owner is growing his trees to provide a shady walk for what he hopes to be many tourists. I hope his dream comes true.