Jungle Fever

Good news everyone!  Since I'm writing this it means I did not get eaten by an anaconda or cayman while living in the jungle!  Hooray! Let me first start by saying the jungle was AWESOME!!! We took an overnight bus (8 hours of not good sleep) to meet our jungle guide.  From there we had another 2 hour bus ride to get to the river.  And then we had a 2 hour motor boat trip down the cuyabeno river! I will admit that I was a nervous wreck on that dang motorboat! Every time we turned I thought for sure we were gonna tip and I would fall in and be eaten by some crazy exotic animal.  It took my friend Michelle talking me through it and about 30 minutes before I finally was able to relax and trust our motorist! The cool part was when we stopped to see some squirrel monkeys crossing the river by jumping from tree to tree...above our heads!  Soooo cool! We saw several monkey species, birds, and an anaconda (but it was a small one and it was cuddled up in a branch so there was no danger...unfortunately!) we arrived at our lodge in time for lunch and then we headed out to swim in the lagoon and take a nature walk.  Swimming was freaky bc the water is literally black.  You can't see a thing! But it was so refreshing! Afterwards we did a night walk to look for insects and such.  Mind you, it was pitch black by this time so all we had were flashlights.  We saw lots of insects and spiders! The guides are amazing at what they can spot.  So many of the creatures have such incredible camouflage that to any of us they were impossible to see but our guide was all over it!  We then had a moment where we turned off all our flashlights and just stood in the dark...wow.  I could never survive in the jungle.  We couldn't see a thing!  Talk about creepy! After that we headed back in to our lodge for dinner.  Our lodge 'supposedly' didn't have electricity (but we think they were hiding it) so everything was lit by candlelight. Two of the guides invited Mridula and I out in a boat to star gaze.  This was by far a highlight! The sky was FULL of stars...more than I've ever seen before! There were two hearts being formed which was cool and we saw a few other designs! 

Some of our other adventures consisted of another nature walk to identify plants that are used as natural medicines for the indigenous people living in the jungle.  We got to swing on some crazy tree vines like Tarzan and we saw some other animals/insects.  We also got to see some dolphins.  We really only saw the top of their heads but it was still pretty cool! We took one night to search for caymans.  There was one that basically lived under our lodge but then we were able to find another one out in the wild! Our next day was cool bc we got to spend time in an indigenous community.  The bad thing about this day was it rained the entire 1.5 hours in bus and even though we had rain ponchos, they were completely water proof so I was a bit damp to say the least.  In the community we had one lady who 'hosted us.' With her we went and picked Yuca (a potato like veggie) and then watched the process of how they make yuca tortillas all from hand!  The process is quite incredible and time consuming.  We only made about 5 tortillas(they were huge) but normally she does about 100 at a time and it will last them about a month.  Once I get pictures uploaded you can see the process there. I could say a lot about this experience but I'm running a bit long as it is so if you're curious, just ask and I'll tell you more on how they live.  

After time in the community we went and visited a Shaman (a healer of sorts). This is also quite an interesting part to their culture.  Basically the Shaman heals the people by either a 'spiritual cleansing' of song and ritual dance or he prescribes some medicine that can be found in the jungle.  The interesting part is that in order to do either of these, the Shaman drinks a hallucinogen so he can 'see into their spirits/body'. He does this about 3-4 times a week.  Anyone who wants to be a Shaman can try...it takes about 20 years in all.  They start their training around age 12. Basically through out time if they can drink the drug and 'control' its effects, they earn the title.  

Our last morning started super early with bird watching before breakfast.  Then we packed up and headed back.  There were definitely tarantulas living on the ceilings of our huts, big ones at that!  But they never bothered anyone.  We slept in mosquito nets but it was more to protect us from the spiders, frogs and whatever else that could have landed on us!  I actually slept pretty great every night in spite of the potential death by tarantula! ;) 

Overall, the experience was incredible!  So glad I had the chance to go.  I was hoping to see a few more cayman and a monster anaconda but it wasn't in the cards this time around!  Pictures to come once I've arrived back to the states! 

Thanks for tuning in!