Jungle Day 2

Fortunately, in the daylight, insects fled and our room was clear. We had breakfast and went for a walk to see the coca plantation, which is legal to grow in small quantities, plus pineapple and banana trees. We found a berry that makes a coral stain which Maro used to give Phil warrior facepaint and Kelly and me lipstick.

We had a 2 hour drive and then a 6 hour boat ride. The boat was extremely long, yet wide enough for only 2 people. The breezy ride felt amazing, and we passed great egrets and black cormorants and vultures feasting on dea tapirs and capayberras. We stopped for lunch at a natural hot spring, which was situated in the curve of a brook that fed into the river.

Now we have arrived at our ecolodge, where we lie weating in our netted beds to avoid the bugs and the sun. It is painful.

.....several hours pass.....

Tonight was a step closer to nature than I was ready to take (and I have a feeling tomorrow night might be one step too far). As dusk came, we took a walk in the jungle. We ate assorted wild fruit and waded through streams in our knee-high boots. Marco spotted a cayman from about 20 meters away in the pitch black. He saw the reflection of it's eyes and declared it to be medium-sized. Then he escaped up river, threw his clothes off on a sandbar, and waded down to the cayman to catch it. We waited, flashlights off, with his machete lying in the river bed by us. A lot of good it was going to do there. But Marco stepped on a branch and the snap scared away the cayman, so he promised us one for tomorrow night.

We saw some spiders, but no tarantulas, and mad our way back for a candlelit (and candlecooked, by lack of electricity) dinner. After Phil and Marco played chess and Kelly and I took shelter in our mosquito nets.