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well josh has found out that you cannot beat the jungle, you must become the jungle or the jungle will beat you!!!
so on tuesday we set off for a our 4 day amazon trek. flying from quito to lago agrio, a little ecuadorian town in the north east of the country. from there we took a 2 hour bus ride to the check point. and then after paying our park entry fee entered cuyabeno and commenced on a two hour canoe boat ride to the lodge. the lodge was actually something like a film. all wooden and on stilts with no electricity, only the basics: three beds with mosquito nets, a toilet and a cold shower!!
after experiencing the blistering amazonian sun, and the terrential downfall all in two hours (note to everyone, after experiencing amazonian rain, you can no longer call english rain rain, i would prefer to call it a light dusting of water!) we set off in our trusty motorized canoe to go pirahna fishing. and guess who was the first one to catch a pirahna>?!? thats right. to amy's disgust and jealousy it was me!! with no one else being successful on this first try and the rain setting in we headed back to the lodge for dinner, drinks and card games!!
however, we then found the local boa constrictor, and i was then informed that in every hut there is a tarantula. brilliant. oh and yer, we got shown the tarantula in the roof in one of the huts. not impressed. I then foolishly decided to go on the night trek, which lasted for an hour and managed to find all the creepy crawlies, electric eels. and oh yer, something called a wolf spider. well i can safely say that, i was having the least fun in my life. ever!
day.2 an early start meant we caught the sunrise, and even managed to find an anaconda, the largest reptile in the world. and this one was a bad boy!
we then went for what we thought was going to be a short hike..hmmm. we ended up trekking through the dense amazonian jungle for about 3 hours, locating all the different plants, wildlife we could find. and even managing to find maccaw parrots! after bear gryllsing it all morning we headed back to the canoe and found some shallows to enjoy lunch.
after our short pause we were then lucky enough to to a local indeginous tribe, and found out about their way of life. we even dug up some yuccas, peeled them, grated them and then some 89 year old lady made it into bread!!! The local shaman then appeared (a shaman being the elder in the village who everyone goes to for help, advice etc) and he then shared with us a story about his role, and blessed all of us!
we were then showed how they use a blowdart. everyone had a go and a few people hit the small melon target (amy didnt! just for the record!) and i wasnt all to fussed on having a go, but after the whole group badgering me to have a go i did, and...oh yer, i hit the target thankyou very much! JOSH KING IS THE AMAZON!!
so after what seemed to be the longest day in my life, we then headed back out onto the canoe where we managed to swim in the amazon (and me, the anti-swimming person that i am) even managed to drag myself into the pirahna infested water! the evening activity consisted of cayman crocodile watching (which sucked because my torch is crap, and we didnt find any crocs but you cant win them all!).
day 3. another early start to catch the sunrise and spot some more anacondas. the morning consisted of canoeing along the amazon which was tough work. after seeing different birds, monkeys, pink dolphins, insects and bats we paddled on home, only to nearly get capsized by a manatea (also known as a seacow!).
the afternoon's activity was to catch more pirahnas, however because i had already done this (been there done that!) i wasnt to interested, and finally the others managed to catch some (after what seemed hours :P). But rain stopped play and we headed back to the lodge for more evening drinks, card games and scategories!).
so the last day we headed on back. the girls all chicked out and got the plane back which was 6 times the price of the bus but took 15mins, whilst me and remco (my new dutch friend!) manned up and took the 8 hour bus ride back which wasnt all that bad and even manged to watch enemy of the state in spanish, and a steven seagal film!!
anway im back in quito atm, but will be heading down to cotopaxi, to chill out, relax and maybe do some mountain biking. chow!
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