Last night I slept with my window open... Just so I could hear the noises of the amazon jungle. However this only lasted until 3.30am, firstly it was too warm, so I put the air con on, secondly I kept hearing big animal noises and it smelt like wet dog, so the window was shut and I slept like a log!!
We woke up early this morning, as we were meeting at 6am to go bird watching. After a quick cup of coffee we set off. Initially we didn't see too much. We heard a lot of bird calls, but really weren't seeing too many birds.
We then headed down to the river and thats where we started to see a lot more birds.
After breakfast, we then met for our amazon jungle walk. Here I was thinking that we were just going to walk around the made paths of the Eco lodge. Not today we weren't. I was wrong!! We were actually going into the amazon jungle to walk around.
So our amazon guide joined us.... machete in hand!!! Perfect, I feel safe!! We saw another group set off just before us.... Their amazon guide just had a wooden walking pole. Yep I'm sticking with our mate. We were introduced to him.... His name translates to frog, however I prefer to call him either the snake slayer or the anaconda assassin!! Whilst the first group will just anger the anaconda with their wooden stick before it kills them all, our guide will behead the anaconda with one slice of his machete!! Slayers our man!!!
We set off. Marko our tour guide shows us lots of plants, what they are used for, what to eat, what not to eat. Yep, I don't think I would last too long in the amazon if I was lost.... I would start to get confused.... Now did Marko say that I could eat the red one, or not eat the red one. Hmmmmm, decisions, decisions!
We saw a few lizards, however didn't see too many more animals. But the sheer experience of trekking through the amazon jungle will keep me going for quite some time!! I mean it's not everyday that you can claim to have trekked through the amazon jungle is it.
Along the way, occasionally slayer would walk quite a distance in front of us and start whacking tree stumps with his machete, or stabbing the ground. One of the guys asked if he was board, should we maybe walk quicker? Marko our tour guide said no, that this is the way that he works out if there are any vipers on the narrow little track that we were following!! Whack away slayer!!!
We then came to an area, where a big tree branch had fallen across the path during last nights storm. It was at this stage that slayer just started hacking away at the branch and all the associated vines and smaller branches that also fell!!! It was exactly like a scene out of a Hollywood jungle movie.
Once our 2.5 hour trek was complete, we then went and got changed into shorts. We were told for our trek that we needed to wear long pants, which is ok when you are in your air conditioned room, however the instant you step outside into the sauna which is the amazon it becomes uncomfortable. Most of our pants were completely wet by the time we got back!! So it was such a relief to get into some shorts. You still sweat when you wear shorts, however with the smallest of breeze it is enough to cool you down. It's evaporate cooling at its best!!!
We then jumped in a little motorised boat and headed for the monkey reserve, which was located on the other side of the river. The boat had just taken off, and frog, who had changed from snake slayer to boat captain, pretty much ran us straight into a tree!!! Alright, as a snake spotter he is amazing, as a boat captain he is crap!! He shouldn't give up his day job as a snake slayer is all I'm saying!!
We did manage to make it to the other side of the river all in one piece, without sinking the boat. We jumped off the boat and walked up the sandy bank. There were woolly monkeys every where!!! They were on the ground sunbaking, up in the trees playing around, others were simply jumping from tree to tree!!!
Then the fruit buckets appeared.... And the monkeys went mental. It can only be described as a scene out of planet of the apes where all the monkeys start jumping from tree to tree up high in the canopy. They engulfed the fruit table, picking their fruit of choice and taking it up high into the trees.... Munching away, then throwing the peel onto the ground. Then back down to the fruit smorgasbord for seconds. The dominant male monkey just took 8 bananas all in one hit and climbed up high into the canopy with his conquest!!
There was one red faced monkey. A female. She was a little different to the wooly monkeys... She doesn't normally eat fruit..... her diet, the expensive Brazil nuts. She will only take it from people as well. So a few people were lucky enough to be selected to feed her a Brazil nut. Then my guide said..... 'Michelle your up'. I sprung to my feet. Always up for something exciting like this, I gripped the Brazil nut firmly in my hand. When she had finished eating her last nut, and was ready for her next one, she climbed down the tree, put her feet on my shoulders and took the nut from my grasp. It was an amazing experience. Hahahaha, I look back at the photos though and I am making the weirdest face.... One of the rules is not to show your teeth to the monkeys especially smile, as this is a sign of aggression and that you want to attack them. So I made sure my mouth was firmly planted shut.... making me look like a moron. But still, I'm a moron who fed a red faced monkey!! Well worth it!!
It's interesting, as all of the monkeys located at the reserve have been brought there after people who had bought these monkeys as babies for pets realised that when they matured and were ready for mating that they became very aggressive. Unable to control their behaviour, or after being attacked by the monkey they were surrendered and brought to the reserve. Here they are rehabilitated and where possible released back to the wild. They actually tried to release the red faced monkey back into the wild, however they were so unsuccessful. She refused to leave the cage. She just sat in the cage waiting to go back to her island!!! After a week, they had no choice but to return her to the monkey reserve, where she has spent the last 10yrs.
We returned to the lodge and then tried our hand at piranha fishing again. We had a lot of nibbles, however no takers for the full hook!!! Many times we put our line in the water, and within 30sec our bait would be gone!!!
After lunch we had a couple of hours of free time. I decided just to relax in my cabin. In the morning I had turned off my air con, just to do my part in conserving some energy. Well, I regretted that decision, when I returned to my sauna after lunch. My room was so hot!! I turned the air con on and just waited for my room to cool down. It only just started to cool down when it was time to meet the gang a couple of hours later!! Lesson learnt.... When in the amazon, do not switch your air con off!!! It's there for a reason!!!
At around 3pm, our group met again, and we caught a boat to a local village, where we were able to get a taste for local life here in the amazon. Again slayer was our captain, and we managed to get across with no further incidence!!
The village was great. We saw them preparing food that is common for locals. Whilst we were watching them prepare their food, I had the living bejesus scared out of me when a tarantula was just hanging around in the rafters of the structure.
We had a look at how they produce rubber as well..... now that is a demanding job. They have to tap the rubber trees at night, and spend the whole day smoking the rubber ready for sale. So essentially it is a 24hr a day job. Did I also mention that there is also a very high risk of being bitten by a snake or eaten by a jaguar whilst tapping the trees?? Sounds attractive doesn't it. And all this to produce about 20kg of rubber, only to be sold for for about $1 per kg. Anyone thinking of a career change to rubber producer??
We caught the boat back to the hotel, and along the way came across some dolphins frolicking around in the water. These were grey freshwater Atlantic dolphins. So beautiful!!!
Once we made it back to the hotel we again tried our luck at piranha fishing. We were having no luck what so ever. Slayer must have taken pity on me, so he decided to throw a line in next to me. He had his line in for all of about 1 minute.... When bingo he's hooked a fish. It wasn't the much desired piranha, it was a cat fish. He picked it up and showed me that if you stroke the fish gently on its side it makes a squeaking noise. What he didn't tell me was if you stroked the fishes side, he would push his fins back and pincer you, yep another case of let's all laugh at the tourist!!
It soon became time to go and grab a few supplies before our sunset and night canoe ride. As I was walking up the path back to our room I managed to stumble across a sloth just hanging around in the trees. I madly ran around getting the other tour group members who yet hadn't seen a sloth, and who were desperately searching for one all day!! We took all our photos, grabbed our supplies for the canoe ride and made our way back to the beach where 2 canoes laid waiting for us.
Now the boys and Marko were in one boat, and us girls and slayer was in the second boat. Hmmmm, slayers track record on boats is at 50:50 so let's see how we go in the canoe!!
Whilst we all put our life jackets on, slayer was busy hooking up his spot light.... which consisted of a globe, with wires attached that were then hooked on to a car battery. It did a pretty good job actually!!!
We set off.... Firstly we watched the sunset.... How surreal, watching the sun set over the amazon whilst in a canoe!! Definitely a once in a life time opportunity.
Then we continued on our journey. I actually felt bad, as slayer was the one doing all of the paddling, whilst we were just sitting in the back. Granted we were doing our best just to stay steady in the boat. To add paddling into the mix may have just been the thing that would have pushed us over the edge and seen us become either caiman or anaconda food.
There was some scary times in this tiny little canoe. Slayer thought it was great to continually paddle us into these little side sections of the river, where there were lots of emerged trees and over hanging branches. All I could think about was anacondas coming down from the trees, and thinking how delicious we look!!! And I noticed that slayer didn't bring his machete for the night canoe trip. The other problem with this is that slayer would then need to reverse the canoe out of the river pocket we narrowly fit into. He successfully reversed us out of most pockets, only occasionally veering us into the low lying branches and backing is into a big tree once. He actually did a great job considering that he was paddling us out backwards with the spot light being held between his teeth.
We did mange to see a lot of eyes reflected in the spotlight. I managed to recognise the caimans, as they were the red eyes floating around in the water. The others in the trees I wasn't sure about, and slayer doesn't speak English. It wasn't until we returned to the hotel, that I asked Marko to ask slayer what animals they were, and he translated that they were night monkeys!! Cool!!
We arrived back at the hotel at about 8pm. We thanked slayer for doing an amazing job with us today!! Then we hit the restaurant for dinner. Again we enjoyed another Amazonian fish for dinner, and again it was so yummy!!! It was then time to call it a night!!!