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The following is our trip to the Amazon! we booked flights even though they were more expensive as we couldnt stand another 14 hours there on a dodgy bus with no aircon and then back again, when the airport is 15 away and the flight isonly 1 hour! the hour on the plane absolutely FLEW... we are so used to up to 36 hours on buses that we couldnt believe it when they said we were about to land! the view from the plane was amazing and totally different from every other mountainous view we have seen in the last 6 weeks. flat and green with just a pink tree once in a while!
we got of at the airport to a day probably just under 40 degrees, crazy for us when we have been in countries where it has been winter for the last 6 weeks!
the jungle airport was ok, more up to date than i would have thought though! we had a sign with our names on it... and i WISH so much i had taken a photo of it... it said something similar to:
krisi lincilst
Shar lina
we tried for ages to work out if that was us or if it was a major coincidence that someone with those names was there haha... turns out it was us :)
he took us through the market in the centre and showed us the different fruit they have there (including apple bananas which Seb swears tastes just like sweet bananas and Julio our guide swore it tasted like apples! haha) and other things like their seaded bracelets, and brazil nuts i chocolate mmmm. was good to look around there.
we got driven to the port 10 or so mins away and got on the boat for our first ride on Rio Madre de Dios. An hour on the boat and we were at Tambo Jungle Lodge where we where to spend the next 4 nights. we got there and met the pet Macaws, Pepe and Maria (Pepe hated me and kept trying to attack me!) and settled for a great 3 course lunch which was a sign of what was to come. the meals they served us were huge, and EVERY MEAL had 3 courses! breakfast was fruit salad, then some sort of eggs, with panacakes and jam and butter with fruit juice. lunch was example half an avocado with pototo and carrot and cheese over it, then a main with meat and rice, then fruit on plates for us eg sliced melon. then dinner was very similar to lunch but soup for entre and a sweet for dessert. always with fruit juice! it was crazy. im lucky i got sick from a stomach bug and had to stop eating cos otherwise it would have been crazy getting back after having eaten so much for so long! when i got sick our guide was so nice he decided to play mum and wouldnt let me eat ANYTHING. i got fresh veggies, a light veggie soup, or fruit or bread. very funny how strict he was - i wasnt allowed fruit juice or anything with dairy in it! they were great though and went to town and got me some pills which fixed me right up for the rest of the trip.
ok so i got sidetracked, the first day we got there we set up after lunch, had a sleep from 2 - 4 (we did this every day as it was so hot we were exhausted by this time!) and then started our night walk at 430. on the night walk we saw heaps of spiders, heaps of wildlife and ants, but the highlights were the fireflies which ACTUALLY look like fire! it was AWESOME. The other highlight was the Chicken Trarantula. it was huge... insanely big - must have been bigger than a males hand it was enormous - not sure if you can tell that from the photo but it was crazy. our guide surprised us the entire time picking out and pointing out stuff which we had trouble seeing even after he pointed it out!
After the night walk was dinner and then we went straight to sleep we were so tired, i think from the heat.
The next day we were up at 530am to have breakfast and be at Lake Sandoval early. I think we needed to do so much early cos itwas so hot! we walked for 5km to the lake, amoung crazy muddy walk ways and seeing stuff along the way like wood peckers and leaf cutter ants. Then Julio took us out onto the lake in a canoe for about 2 or 3 hours in 43 degree heat. me and seb thought we were going to fall asleep/become delusional from the intense heat! we were so hot but cos of the mozzies we couldnt and didnt want to take off our pants to have shorts on. we had singlets on but with 80% deet insect repelent which is GREAT stuff, but its so oily you feel like you have bathed in cooking oil or something! after the boat ride where we saw a Caiman which is a crocodile thing, and some other stuff like Taticayas (turtles) etc, we walked 3km back to the boat utterly exhausted and hot as all hell! lunch was back at the lodge and then of course our ritual sleep.
In the arvo we went to monkey island to check out monkeys (obviously) but were really scared when we found our guide carrying a machette... we had heard the monkeys were feral but to this we were scared! we had two guides one at the front and one at the back while we walked through monkey island with them yelling ´CHIKO´ which apparently is the name of the head honcho monkey who gets angry if you dont bring him a present, hence the fruit and the machette! crazy... anyway this chiko didnt turn up unfortunately but it was fun. then we went night fishing for animal like and saw more caiman and a night owl and fishing bats! dinner was after this at the lodge, and then we were awake so we watched daddy yanke in spanish with english subtitles until they turned the generator off on us :(
the next day we got a sleep in and then went to the animal hospital where volunteers come from all over the world to work and help the animals. we saw heaps of stuff like the jaguar which was INSANE... they are BEAUTIFUL in person, their spots are amazing. oh and a toucan and monkeys! very cool.
we went and did this canopy walk which doesnt look too bad but was 100m-150m i guess long and for the first 3rd was fine... just straight, then it goes STRAIGHT UP and its VERY scary. finally got to the top and realised we were standing on like a tree house thing, 42m in the air... wasnt too happy about that! going down was even harder and added to the 40 degree heat we were stuffed when we got back to the bottom! both of us being not to happy about heights we didnt do too bad! our guide stood on top of the cable wires and then ran down the canopy walk... he´s not scared of heights like us haha.
after lunch we took it easy cos i got sick, and we just went back and went to sleep that night so i could recover for the next day where there was FISHING which me and seb were both very excited about. we got up that day and went into town. the most exciting part of this was when me and seb went to a cafe and... wait for it... got a COLD drink! we were escatic! Julio made me buy bananas too and said they were good for a bad stomach, part of his mothering/doctoring of me!
after he port and then lunch we started off fishing. the boss had bought real fishing rods which they were excited about... i was a bit worried though when i had to show them how to rig them up! not many people go for the whole 5 days, most go for 3 or 4 at the most so i guess they dont need to use the rods much! the good news is tha Julio now knows how to rig up a real fishing rod haha. we took the boat again an hour or so away to a little channel and as soon as i threw my rod in i caught a fish! they were astounded and were like ´Professional!´ haha just luck... then i nearly caught another, and in the next 2 hours only one more fish was caught by Julio! at least we had something to come back with though. we really needed different sized hooks but given one of the guys was fishing with a sharks hook on a piece of wood... we didnt really have legs to ask for different sized hooks haha. we had the fish with our buffet dinner woohoo! yum catfish... was good to eat it straight away too!
The last morning we got up at 430am to go see the Claylic which is a cliff where the birds go to sharpen beaks and get nurients from the soil and stuff and saw HEAPS of parrots, it was absolutely amazing. the binoculars me and seb bought before we went definitely came in handy there.
breakfast and then our flight home which was again quick and amazing after our hell on buses! we appreciate everything now like our hot showers, shampoo, clean and changes of clothes! haha
We did want to go swimming at some stage but it was too hard when we wanted to, and i think we were both a bit scard of being eaten by Caimans or piranahs! our guide was hilarious too... seb kept saying stupid stuff like could we ride the Caimans and he would just laugh this cute little south american laugh haha... he was hilarious and his english was fantastic. we are used to being able to talk quickly and have side convos i front of people but with him it just wasnt possible cos his english was so good! our trip wouldnt have ben half as fun without him though and we were both really sad to say bye to Julio our guide, Saul and the old guy who always did ´thumbs up´to us, our drivers, and Brandy our Waiter. Not so sad to see the back of Pepe though after two tries at attacking me haha.
it was an amazing time and we saw lots and experienced something i think is really unusual and surreal. lots of fun.
Things we learnt
- ´Cruda´ means ´undercooked meat´ in spanish which we were (we choose to think affectionately) called throughout our time there by all the guides! in effect they were calling us ´Whiteys´ cos our skin was so white and they are so dark!
- If you go up or down something in South America, you always have to do the opposite later, and its always worse the way back!
- Mosquito nets rock! We would have died without them
- I wouldnt be able to survive in 45 degree heat every day
- Massages, hot showers, clean clothes, and NOT wearing 80% deet or suncream is all heaven i never knew...
So we are now in Cuzco for another 4 days (then matt comes woohoo!) and then the Inca trail. bit scared about the inca trail cos everyone is saying it will be hard, but we should be pretty used to the altitude by then hopefully!
Another blog after the Inca Trail if i get time!
Check out the photos of the Amazon, i have put some detail in the captions about the animals and photos where i could remeber it!
xo
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