Etiquette Tips While on a First Date in the Peruvian Amazon
Simple courtesies for a complex environment
The steamy headwaters of the Amazon — how dreamy! It takes a while to get there, which will afford you plenty of opportunities to acknowledge his thoughtfulness in choosing such a creative and surprising venue for your first outing together.
Once you arrive, expect to spend most of your time in the rear seat of a two-person kayak, paddling through majestic passages of mahogany-colored water. Keep alert to his signals, so as to establish effective communication patterns early in the relationship. A raised palm means stop, a thumb jabbing in your direction means reverse, and so on.
While you’re getting a nice workout maneuvering the kayak, his role will be to share his love of this precious ecosystem by pointing out different birds in the dense foliage on either side.
For each new avian species, you should ooh and aah, unless he’s raised an index finger for complete silence. But even if you can’t quite make out the rare crested caracara or whatever, an appreciative remark about his bird-finding prowess is nonetheless expected.
Understand that he is not always able to pass you the binoculars in time. He has to verify the sighting, after all.
