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Neil's Round the World Trip!
We got up around 8, had some breakfast and fresh fruit picked from the garden. They have these cool pink bananas here that are delicious and much sweeter than normal bananas. We packed our daypacks and were all given long-sleeved denim shirts as there are many plants that will rip t-shirts, skin etc. Not to mention lots of insects that will happily bite your exposed arms! We were also given water bottle holders.
We drove to a nearby river and were then taken across in a wooden dug-out canoe which a local man punted us across using a bamboo pole. The sun was intense and we were all dripping with sweat before we'd even entered the jungle. Once we were in the jungle the humidity became apparent and we struggled uphill through thick foilage with our local guide Freddy and Ronald slashing a path with their machetes.
We reached a little hill and Freddy took us through some bushes. We then saw miles of coca plants (illegal) it was like in "The Beach" when they come across the miles of cannabis plants in the middle of the jungle. It was crazy, we couldn't go any further as it wasn't safe. We trudged through a river to a small lagoon and had our lunch there. There were US Drug Enforcement Agency helicopters flying overhead looking for cocaine factories and henchmen.
There were huge, brightly-coloured butterflies flying around. We ate cheese rolls and cucumbers. We continued walking through the river, Freddy would point out strange plants, berries and fruits. We could hear monkeys but unfortunately couldn't see any. Freddy warned us to be careful when walking through the water and riverbank grass as there are lethal snakes here and if bitten you have 24 minutes to live! We saw a huge spider on a log that was bigger than my hand and black. It freaked the girls out a bit (and me if I'm being honest!).
In the late afternoon we walked out of the jungle along a country road to a wooden hut. Next to the hut was a Diablo tree (Devil tree) so-called because there are vicious biting ants that live within the trunk. The area around the tree is completely devoid of vegetation. Apparently (Freddy informed us) the indigenous tribes back in Inca times used to tie criminals to the devil tree and leave them to be eaten by the ants. There were some coffee plants nearby, we chewed on the skins which had a mellow coffee flavour it was really strange.
We walked back to the river and got the boat across. We drove back to the villa and chilled out in hammocks munching on some fresh fruit from the garden. We had a huge dinner of risotto rice, squash and carrots. Later we played cards and drank beer until late into the night.
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