Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We drove to an eco-lodge called Shangri-La just outside the small town of Tena. When we got to Tena to have lunch, there's been so much rain recently that the whole main street has washed away! The lodge was pretty cool - like a higgledy piggledy wooden house. We dumped our bags and then went for a jungle walk. There were 2 groups as one involved an obstacle course at the end and I didn't fancy that so 5 of us did an easier trail. You still needed to hoist yourself up and down slippery tracks with ropes. Anyway, we sawtarantula's web (aaaargh!!), lots of flowers, including some beautiful orchids and then got a view of the nearby volcano and river that leads into the Amazon at Peru. Thank goodness I didn't do the other trail as it sounded horrendous - they had crawled through a bat cave and had to negotiate some recent landslides, pull themselves up a vertical surface without any ropes and then balance on a tree at the end (high over the river) that apparently sounded like it was going to break any minute. No thanks! We had dinner and then one of the guide suddenly appeared with a bloody tarantula on his arm. It's a resident of the lodge and just roams freely! I wish they hadn't told me that. So I was then constantly on the lookout for it. Then the fun began. I went to bed while most of our group sat up drinking and started on the games. Seriously, is this what life has become? Night after night of blind drinking and no conversation unless it involves something to do with getting pissed? My room is right next to the dining area so it was as though they were in the room with me. 3am they finally crashed out, and that was only after Michael and David had to be separated for trying to punch eachother. I didn't get a wink of sleep until then, even though I tried to deafen their noise with my ipod. I then got woken up at 6am by the kitchen staff. Once again, not amused and counting down the days for the end of this leg and these people!
On Friday we set off fairly early to go to an animal sanctuary. This in involved a ride in the back of a pick-up truck followed by a dodgy narrow boat thing down a very brown river! The sanctuary is staffed by volunteers, mainly German it seemed and takes in animals that used to be pets or have been seized at the airport from people trying to smuggle them out to be pets elsewhere in the world. It was quite interesting although it's never nice to see animals in cages. At the entrance though there's a monkey running free and I don't know if it was all the people freaking it out, but it kept having a bit of a fit and screeching and oohing like a maniac! It also had as serious case of the itches and was even using its tail to scratch itself. There were a lot of monkeys in the sanctuary, parrots, capybaras, a young anaconda (that was still 2m long!), some other odd but very cute things called kikijews (I think - or something like that - they had stupidly long tongues!) and some other bits and bobs. We got back to the lodge for lunch and then a few of us went tubing down the river. I did this years ago in Indonesia and had forgotten how relaxing but fun it is. It was bloody cold though and no hot water when I shivered my way into the shower!
Found out tonight that the volcano in Banos (where we've just come from) erupted after we left and everyone got evacuated. The smoke reached towns that are a 10-hour bus ride away. Timing or what?! Would have been great (but scary!) to see though!
Had an unsurprisingly peaceful night. Another truck had arrived on Friday afternoon. They had been in Rio Verde with us and had been really rowdy and drunk the whole time. After my experience the previous night I was not looking forward to it! Most of our group were still tired and hungover from the night before so were in bed at about 8pm. I took a super strong sleeping pill (still left over from some of those horrible dark days in Honkers) and knocked myself out. Slept like a baby and apparently the rowdy truck were in bed by about 11pm anyway.
On Saturday some of the group were off to do a waterfall trek thing. This sounded good but a wee bit dangerous for my liking as there were no ropes or safety equipment and the activity was to climb up and down waterfalls. Not being a sure-footed mountain goat at the best of times, I decided I might be pushing it if I did this and would probably kill myself so I skipped it. Instead, myself, Stine and Anita got a taxi into the nearby town or Tena. When I say taxi, I mean open pick-up truck with no seats - but a great blow dry! When we got there we discovered that the whole town had no power due to flooding overnight and the power cables coming down - b*****! So, most of the shops were closed and those that were open were dark and dingy! Never mind, I got myself some new Ipanema flipflops and found the fastest internet connection ever - even though it was being powered by a portable generator! We mooched around then had a lazy lunch, by which time the humidity was stupid so we squelched our way back to the lodge in a pick-up and I spent the rest of the afternoon having a nana nap. It was another dreaded night tonight as it was the 'jungle party' when we were supposedly getting dressed up in nothing more than leaves. Call me a spoilsport but since when did I sign up for an 18-30s holiday? Luckily the other truck were quiet again and hardly anyone from our group wanted to partake so we listened to a band playing local tunes, I then ran a mile as the tarantula appeared out of its nest (and I subsequently discovered there was another resident arachnid in the bar area - never saw that one though - thank goodness!!) and by then the excitement was just too much so I went to bed - no sleeping pill required!!!
So, that was the end of our jungle adventure. I have to say that although I'm glad I haven't seen anything nasty, I'm once again disappointed that I haven't seen anything! After my Brazil experience, everyone I met who had been to Ecuador had raved about it and told me I'd wish I was back in Brazil they'd seen so many creepy crawlies. I'm sure I'm going to e some things I'd rather not in Central America and Venezuela so I won't moan too much or speak too soon!!
Latest photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lindylou73
- comments