Piranha Popcicles

Everything in the Amazon is edible…the first time .

This is what Junior liked to say. In my case, it also applied to the Piranhas, because I didn’t think they tasted very good. They are quite boney and the meat tastes a bit stale, probably due to their diet of only jungle meat and not enough plants and berries. They'll eat any defenseless living thing that falls into the water, such as small birds falling out of nests or baby monkeys falling from trees or playing too close to the water. They definitely don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables.

Of course, since they don’t taste very good, they are very easy to catch. Just lower some line a few feet into the water with a piece of raw chicken on the end and WHAMO! - you have a piranha. You have to be careful pulling them off the hook because the 2 tiny rows of 1/4 inch razor sharp teeth would love nothing better than to bite off the end of your finger. If you put a twig (or a plantain chip) in their mouth they snap through it like it was a Dorito. It’s pretty funny watching everyone in the canoe lifting their feet and hopping around because they don’t want to get bit by flopping piranhas. Valdoo was easily 'king fisherman'. Gussy and I started timing how long it took him to catch his fish: less than 10 seconds from putting the line in to pulling the piranha out.



After putting them on long wooden skewers the crew bbq-ed 'em on the grill we had on the top deck of the riverboat. Mmmmmmm...Piranha-on-a-Stick. I prefered the other whole fish they would throw on the grill: catfish, sardines, jaraque, otoombo. It was incredibly flavorful, and would always be served with a nice helping of manioc and often rice and beans. This was one of our favorite ways to take meals, right from the river to the grill to our mouths while watching the sun go down or storm clouds roll in over the Amazon.