Amazon!

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (literally it was 5:00am) to go on a sunrise hike. I coated my body in bug spray and tucked my pants into my socks, ready to face the jungle in style. We treaded softly through the trails, keeping our ears and eyes open. The sound of the insects in the Amazon was almost deafening. Birds were really active, singing their beautiful songs and flying from tree to tree. We spotted a colony of squirrel monkeys about thirty minutes in and watched as probably over 100 monkeys swung from the branches, eating the fruit. At one point in our trek, Alex stopped me and handed me a stick. He told me to rub it in my armpit and then stick it in a small hole in the ground. This was a little disconcerting, but as directed I rubbed it in my sweaty arm pit, and then slowly guided it into the hole. I felt a little pinch and then he told me to pull out slowly. I pulled out the stick and to my surprise and terror was a huge tarantula. Tarantulas are blind, and are attracted to human sweat, hint the armpit thing. The walk was about an hour and a half, and at the end we came upon a tower in the middle of the forest. We climbed up and on one side we could see the Amazon river and dolphins breaching, and the other was the thick Amazon rainforest. A really pretty sight.











After another delicious meal, we took a nap on some hammocks before our next excursion at 9:30. With Alex and another one of our guides, we were back in the jungle. This time though Alex took the time to explain to us about some medicinal and other functions of specific plants and animals. At one point he found a tree vine on a ledge, and had us take a running start and swing on the vine. I felt like Tarzan. We hiked the woods for about three hours checking out different birds and plants. The whole time I felt like that kid in Charlie Brown who constantly has a swarm of dirt around him, only mine was a swarm of mosquitoes. I had no idea what the natives did without bug spray or anything.

Our guides made us crowns and deemed us queen and king of the jungle


HUGE ant hive

We came back from our hike sweaty and panting, but after a couple hours break we were back on the water. We went out on the boat and visited a small village, where they make small crafts. Alex showed us a flower that the locals use to paint themselves, and Jason proceeded to put it all over his face. We also had another run in with a snake, where I was able to employ my professional reptile modeling abilities.






After the village, we took the boat into a flooded forest. They call the trees floating trees, because it looks like they are just resting on the water’s surface. We were in Brazil during the “winter” months (I find it hard to say 85 degree weather is winter, but hey), and in this time the rains increase the size of the river substantially, flooding forests and trails. We took the boat down a path that is typically a walking trail, and turned off the engine to listen to all the wildlife. It was so peaceful listening to the birds and the hum of the forest. We saw tons of toucans, and even a sloth monkey resting in a tree with its baby.






We got back to the lodge and ate dinner. After dinner we had a free night. No one at the lodge except Alex spoke good English, and even his was a little rough, so Jason and I were kind of outcasts. With no TV or open bar, we were on the brink of severe boredom. Luckily for us though a big rainstorm came, so we watched as rain pelted the lodge and lightening broke over the river. The next morning we were leaving around ten so we got up to take the short hike to the tower again. We saw some great wildlife, which was a nice end to an incredible trip to the Amazon.



Annecdote:
Yet again, both of our planes were delayed on our way back to Salvador. I was really starting to hate Brazilian air, but I forgave them when they facilitated one of the funniest moments on the whole trip. So in the middle of a flight, Jason pressed the flight attendant button to get a drink. A lady came scurrying over, and Jason asked “Can I have a coke?”. The lady looked confused, and he repeated it. Her eyes popped open and she became really frantic, and said “I don’t speak English” and ran off. A male flight attendant came next and asked us what we wanted and Jason said again, “can I have a coke?” The male flight attendant threw his hands in the hair and yelled “oh my gosh” laughing and went off to get the coke. When he got behind the curtain we saw him talking to the other flight attendants and everyone broke out laughing. Jason and I were really confused. A couple minutes later the girl sitting next to me turned to me and said “In Brazil, coke means cock.”