Life in the Amazon: Day 2

Friday

7:03 AM

I slept very well last night. I woke up once to the sound of Mickayla and Soos being very noisy, so I decided to go to the bathroom with them. They were no snakes or tarantulas to be found. We woke up a few times during the night to different noises - one was a cat crying outside our door rather loudly. As far as Mosquitos in our cabin, I didn't feel any of them! I am now feeling very refreshed and ready for the day.

8:19 AM

We just enjoyed a lovely breakfast of omelets and hot tea. Our tour guide, Jose, (who looks like the Peruvian version of Hiro from Heroes. Exhibit A)

was telling us a lot about the different climates at our current location, the Cloud Forest, and the Amazon, which we are scheduled to reach today. He also said that the Cloud Forest is like a natural pharmacy, and he took us down a path to find a tree that would help Soos's finger. After about five minutes of cutting into the tree, he brought down a strange looking sap and applied it to her cut. It is still raining here, so we might not be able to go on our wild water rafting journey, so I'm hoping the sun will come out soon!

3:29 PM

We headed back out in the van, and soon arrived at a small village where we could pick up fresh bread for the next days. The bathrooms there were quite primitive (holes in the ground) so that was quite interesting. We also got to try the fresh bread there

and our tour guide cut off some bark of a cinnamon tree for us. We headed back on our way and noticed two Roadside Hawks on the telephone poles. Since they kept flying away we kept following them until we finally gave up. We then reached our destination for white water rafting. The building had two beautiful macaws that were such funny characters.

We headed down to the river, and since we were only wearing flip flops we kept getting stuck in the mud. Soon we were all sitting in a large boat and headed downstream in the large brown river. It was so fun.

We didn't get quite as soaked as the last time, but it was almost scarier. We got to the end and after about 30 minutes, we hopped onto a small river boat and headed to our cabin.

It was such a nice peaceful ride, and the scenery was stunning. We are now at our cabin, very similar to the last.

We enjoyed a yummy chicken and fried rice lunch, and also some cold showers. Now we are waiting to go on our night hike, and saw our favorite little hummingbird visitor, there are so many hummingbirds here!

8:45 PM

We got fitted for rain boots and soon began our night hike. It started out light, but once we got into the rainforest it was very dark, and once the daylight was completely gone it was pitch black. Thankfully we were all equipped with either flashlights or our lovely smart phones. Also, Jose carries around a huge machete, which was comforting and alarming at the same time.

It was really strange walking in the dark and not knowing what's around you, but it was peaceful at the same time. At one point, Jose had us turn off all our lights and just stand there in the dark and take in the nature around us. It was incredible. We didn't see any animals although he told us it was possible to see spiders, snakes, wild pigs, armadillo, monkeys, or puma in this part of the Amazon rainforest. We did get to see a lot of different plant life. It was really fun, but by the end I was pretty exhausted. We got to come back and have a nice dinner of soup and lomo saltado (one of our favorite Peruvian dishes). Now we are tucked in bed with our mosquito nets around us!

9:14 PM

So Soos decide she had to go to the bathroom right after we were all settled in, so she and Mickayla went to the bathroom together. All of the sudden, I heard screeching outside. I got out of my bed to see what was going on, and they came running into the room. They quickly told me a moth had been attacking them in the bathroom. For some reason however, Soos started to take off her pants and suddenly I pointed to her leg. The moth had been inside her pants. She starts to scream and stomp around the room. I'm pretty sure the whole cabin shook. We can't find it, so I decide I'm done searching and climbed back into the safety of my bed. All of the sudden I look up, and the moth is inside my mosquito net! So I scream and jump out. Mickayla starts smashing it with her hiking boots and finally the psycho moth was dead. We had a good laugh (I think I shed some laughter tears) and now I am back in bed, but now slightly paranoid...