Dec 15th
I’m not sure if it was my malaria medicine or my thoughts of what I saw on the hike but I had horrible bug nightmares all night long. It was also approximately 95 degrees so I was constantly dripping with sweat and miserable. All in all it was a bad night of sleep for me. Hugo told us that he had a guest last week who couldn’t take the heat and insisted on being moved to a room with air-conditioning. Since the lodge doest have electricity changing rooms wasn’t an option so the man forfeited his whole trip and demanded to go back to the airport. I wasn’t quite at that level but I can understand what the guy went through. Hugo woke me up at 5:45am since my phone was locked in the wardrobe drawer and I could get to it. I met Hugo at the dining hall at 6am the time we were supposed to meet but the family was a bit slower moving and didn’t arrive until 6:15am. We had ham, bacon, eggs, toast and fruit for breakfast all of which was really good. We left the lodge at 7am and took a twenty-minute boat ride to a trail where we went on a one-hour hike. We saw all sorts of neat things like butterflies, birds, and tons of ants. We also saw so many neat trees like the pregnant palm and also some of the biggest trees I've ever seen in my life!
We finally reached another dock where there were canoes parked. We jumped on a canoe and paddled around a while.
We saw more birds, huge “strangler” trees (which were really neat because we could stand inside of them)and more Macaws.
It took us another hour to hike back to the boat and then another 20-minute boat ride to get back to the lodge. It was only 11am at this point, so we had some free time. I showered and napped. I set my alarm for 12:45pm so I would be on time for lunch at 1pm. Somehow I managed to sleep through the alarm and woke up at 1:11pm. I frantically got dressed and walked quickly to the dining room. The family was also running late, and I ended up beating them, so I didn’t feel so bad about oversleeping. For lunch we had chicken, tomatoes, fries, and papaya. After lunch we had more free time. I continued to look for my key, which was still missing and rested a bit more. From 4- 5:30pm I went to the river with the family. The river is runoff from the Amazon and the water is the same dark brown color. I was nervous about going in the water especially because I couldn’t see into it, but Hugo promised us that it was safe. I enjoyed relaxing in the cool water. The heat here is killer. The three boys in the family had a great time playing; I wasn’t as brave and only went up to my waist. Afterwards I showered and we met at 6:30pm for our evening activity, crocodile hunting! I guess hunting is the wrong word to use since we didn’t actually kill the crocodiles, more so just spotted them. At 6:30pm the Amazon is DARK. Without the help of lanterns and flight lights its nearly impossible to see anything. We all loaded onto the boat and turned off all of our lights and Hugo used a huge spot light to scan the banks of the river. Hugo claims that when the light shins on a crocodile the eyes shine red and its easy to spot and get close, however I have good eyes and I was looking hard and somehow never managed to spot any of the crocodiles until we were up close. Hugo even was able to catch a baby crocodile and bring it onto the boat for us each to hold. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me! I loved every second of it!
It was really cool being on the Amazon at night because there was heat lightening that would illuminate the sky. It was beautiful. At one point we turned off the boat and all of the lights and just listened. Its clear most of the millions of living things that live in the jungle of the Amazon are nocturnal. I was so impressed at the sounds as we sat in complete darkness. We had a buffet style dinner with steak, soup, and lots of veggies. I was exhausted after getting up so early and having a full day of activities so I went to bed early at 9:30pm!
Bye for now.
Love,
Katie
No comments:
Post a Comment