Amazon Adventure

This morning we got up at 5am to head to a clay lick where you can see lots of tropical birds. They come there every morning to feed on the clay. Apparently, a lot of the fruits they eat here are toxic to them and the clay neutralizes the fruits. This is the view from our bungalow.

We all boarded our river boat and headed down river a bit to hike in to the clay lick. There was all this steam rising off the water.

We had to cross this log bridge along the trail. We had to run up the other bank because there were a bunch of fire ants.....crazy place!

We had to wait under this little hut built to hide us from the birds for a long time, but eventually the birds started coming out. There you can see to Macaws.

A little later we saw two in the tree directly above us so you can see their colors a little better. They are so dramatically red against the green of the jungle.

A group of parrots came and started feeding on the clay lick as well. Besides seeing them it was really cool to hear all their calls.

While we were waiting, someone in the group saw something moving nearby and we got to see these two night monkeys. So rad! Guess they hadn't quite made it to bed yet, so we were lucky to see them during the day.

Here we are in the little hut.

We headed back to the boat and on the way passed through a jungle hostel and farm. This bird came running at us really fast and kept squatting down and opening up his feathers right around all of our feet. Victor told us that it was just a friendly chicken.

Here is a better view of the lodge's lobby.....so rad!

This is our bungalow. No windows, only netting and not bug proof by any means, but pretty sweet for being out in the middle of the jungle.

Here we are in front of the main lobby area. The bar is right behind us there. We made sure to get Inca Cola's there pretty regularly.

After a little down time we hiked out into the jungle about 30 minutes. We passed this little structure. This is where we will be sleeping tonight.

In tents.....on the second story thank heaven. Victor will sleep in his tent on the first story - as bait for all the crazy jungle animals I guess....

We hiked passed that a little ways to the place they have a zip line and ropes course set up.

I feel like getting to the zip line might have been just as crazy as the zip line it self. We had to walk across this little rope bridge way high up in the air.

Since it is spring here in the jungle, there are lots of butter flies out, so it was fun to sit and see them all while we were waiting for others to zip line.

I made it across without too much anxiety and then it was up another shady little ladder to the zip line platform.

I kind of blend in with the trees there, but there I am anyway, zip lining. It wasn't that scary at all except for the jumping off the platform 100 ft above the ground.....that was a little intense.

Next was the ropes course. I know it looks like I am walking on air here....but I am really tight rope walking. It was actually pretty hard and I was super wobbly at it, but pretty fun.

Then a cross this crazy rope bridge. Mostly I just liked being out in the jungle and it was also really fun to hang out with all the other people in the group. We had a fun time "competing" in everything.

Our next adventure was kayaking down the river. There were some really chill parts. My oar broke about 5 minutes into the trip so I was grateful for quiet waters until I could get a new oar.

And then there definitely were some rougher parts as well, which were really fun.

Wish we could have done those rough parts again, so awesome!

After this we had a little down time. We picked some star fruit from the tree we pass every day and snagged a hammock.....amazing! I began to notice all these massive welts coming up everywhere with little blisters in the middle. I got eaten alive on the river.....blasted mosquitoes! Thank goodness for immunizations and malaria pills.

Then it was time for dinner! Just as we were coming in from kayaking, we saw two of the other employees heading out onto the river with fishing gear.....they brought home dinner....a huge cat fish, which they cooked in that banana leaf and served with rice and yucca root. Soooo good! Everything we ate out here was incredible and really fresh, and much of it came directly from their trees and from the jungle. Our little group of six now has the whole lodge to ourselves as the other tour group took off. So nice!

After dinner we caught this killer dusk and then headed out to the campsite.....

We had to run back to our bungalow for a minute to grab our overnight stuff, and this is what was waiting for us tonight in the bathroom.....yikes!!! Rosey and I stood there for a while trying to come up with ways we could trap it, but the only thing we would have been brave enough to do would be to throw a towel over it which would not eliminate the problem at all. So we went and got Victor. Victor informed us that this is a poisonous wolf spider....what! He was smoking a cigarette and blew smoke on the spider to tranquilize it and then picked it up and took it outside. The jungle is turning out to be a very stressful place!

So after that little incident, we tightly tucked our pants into our socks and headed to our tents in the jungle. On the way we saw this scorpion eating a cockroach....I totally support that.

We got out to our hut, lit some candles and continued a game of hearts that we had started previously. Introductions - Rosey then Me, then Charlene and Pam. Then Dan who is Charlene's boyfriend and finally Sandy who is Pam's husband. They are all friends from LA. Really fun group of people.

While we were playing cards, Victor was off in the jungle for a long time. He eventually came back with this little gem of a discovery. A baby poisonous snake. He says that when they grow up they are all black and are very poisonous. I am glad I got to see him when he is small. We actually slept really well out here. Something about knowing that you are zipped in tight to a tent is really nice when there are snakes and spiders a foot.