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Got up early for the internal flight. The bread at breakfast smelt like garlic (eww!), not what you want to eat at 4am. The flight went via Cuzco and then on to the Amazon. The view from the plain was incredable - the rainforest just streches on and on.
We left our main bag and took a motorised boat up the Amazon. The place was a very remote lodge surrounded by jungle. I am staying in a wooden cabin on stilts with a dry leaf roof, mosquito nets for windows and a hamock on the porch. Went on a 2 hour jungle treck and was shown loads of plants and trees in the forest.
Walking Tree
The walking tree walks to sunlight by growing new roots that push or pull the tree trunk in the direction of the light. In a year it can walk 2 feet.
Fire Ant Tree
The fire ant is an ant that secretes acid from its feet as it walks. If it runs accross your skin it looks and feels like you have been burned. The ants are in a symbiotic relationship with the tree, the ants live in the tree trunk and stop all the other trees growing in the area by eating them. It just looks like a normal tree until you tap the trunk and they all run out. In simpler times when a native tribe caught another tribes member they would bind them to the tree and then knock the trunk - death by ant!
Snakes
2 particularly agressive and nasty snakes are the Trail Master and the Fer-de-Lance which bask in the sun on the open ground of the trail, both can kill.
Waqtched the sun set on the Amazon. Stayed in the bar playing pool and drinking 'Pis'cola. Pisco is the local fire-water normally serves with lemon, lime and egg white - it tastes like a margaritta.
Went out in a boat along the banks of the Amazon at night. Saw some camans which are like crocodiles but smaller, also saw wild guinea pigs which were massive!
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