Between the sunrises, papayas and pineapples, and boat rides, we did get to go on some cool adventures in the Amazon.
Adventure Jungle Trek
Our guides with their machetes took us on a trek behind the jungle lodge to see what we could see. We learned which tree sap is good for stomach problems, to let ants crawl over you as a natural insect repellant (t tickles though!), how to build an animal trap, and which tree to bang on and hide in when your lost in the jungle to be protected from jaguars and wild pigs. All information I'm sure I will be using again very soon.
They lured a Tarantula our of it's hole!
Adventure Piranha fishing
Of these two pro-fisher people, who do you think caught more?
I'll never tell ;)
And because we were just fishing for piranhas, why not go for a swim?!
Our cooks fried up our fresh fish. How did it taste? Well, the crumbs of meat with fried batter tasted...salty!
But this one food was worth playing with. How do my teeth compare?
Adventure Sloth Hunting & Animal Spotting
Our guide, Nigel, was sure to explain that we would not hurt the sloth, or use and knives or guns. Phew. That's a relief. Turns out, I am terrible at sloth spotting. Our native guide was up a tree, with sloth in hands before I ever saw it. He then started to climb down the tree towards us, and when he was about 10 ft up, he dropped it to our other guide who caught it below. Meanwhile, the sloth barely moved. It's no joke that sloth is synonymous with slow and laziness. We passed this little lady around the boat, and she went back to sleep!
Those of you who know me, know I'm not an animal person (hence why most of these are Robin's pictures). But we were in the jungle, and seeing animals is just something you have to do. Plus they were pretty cool.
Jacana
Grey Dolphins (the Amazon also has Pink dolphins)
Poisonous frog (like the kind you can lick for psychedelic effects)
Squirrel monkey!
And I must say, for all the warnings about poisonous animals, we didn't
see a single snake, terrifying spider, or flesh eating mammal. But then
again, I do live in Australia now where deadly animals are the norm.
Adventure Caiman Grabbing
Some of our animal hunting had to be done at night. Caiman hunting! Caimans are crocodiles. We drove around in the night, shining a flashlight into the water looking for glowing eyes. And with a swoop, Nigel was over the bow, and holding a baby Caiman.
Robin caught this one on his own. Maybe.
And then, with another swoop, Nigel was holding not one bird, but two. He caught two birds with his bare hands! Who does that?! Our super de duper hardcore jungle guide. That's who.
Adventure BIG Tree
And then we went on a morning adventure to a Big Tree. Yup, we went on an hour boat ride to find a tree. But it was really big.
And the winning adventure...
Adventure Night in the Jungle
As I mentioned, we were living a life of leisure. We covered ourselves in long sleeves and pants, doused ourselves in mosquito repellant and hopped in the boat for our wildest night. It turned out to be quite tricky to get there, paddling between trees and leaves
and marshy things. Good thing our barehanded bird catching leader was in the front.
Luckily the other gropu had already made camp. Being a girl scout failure, I was fire starter and we cooked chicken and eggs over the fire. (Who knew you could put raw eggs on a stick, though one did explode).
We were only about 15 ft from the river, and as we sat around the fire
in the dark, our native guide kept shining his flashlight into the water
and spotting those distinctive caiman eyes. Do caimans come on land?
Yes. Good thing we had our hammocks about 6 inches of the ground to
protect us!
With the mosquitoes finding any skin or single layer of clothing (Nina wore her rain jacket to keep them away), we soon found ourselves in our mosquito-netted hammocks, covered in layers of dirt, sweat, smoke, and repellant, listening to the sounds of the jungle. Frogs, splashing water, birds, mosquitoes buzzing and more mosquitoes buzzing, and howler monkeys. There is no sound like a pack of howler monkeys. I can't even describe it. But even 3 kilometers away (Robin thinks they were in our camp in the middle of the night ready to attack us), it is a very impressive sound.
I can't say we spent a night sleeping in the jungle, but we did spend a night in the jungle. I'm not sure we're cut out for the hammocked jungle life. But I do love me some good camping, especially when it's an Amazon adventure under the canopy. Or back in the outback of Australia, under the southern cross...
Tchau from Brazil!
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