The Amazon
What was meant to be a 10hr bus journey turned into 17hrs due to a mud slide on the road, plus we were both dubious about going to the jungle at all (mainly because of spiders and snakes), but once we set off up the river in the long boat towards the lodges we were both excited.
The jungle lodges were awesome. I’d never seen anything like them (thy were a bit like massive tree houses) and they reminded Tul of the ones she stayed at in Kenya on safari. The rooms were all sealed off from the inside with mosquito nets which meant we were safe at night (except for the bats apparently sleeping in our porch and the rest of the sounds from the jungle around us). In the lodges gardens we also saw a tarantula in one of the palm trees each night, plus there were always toucans and macaws (one of which took a shine to Tul) around the place.
Was a nice break after the Inca trail (our longest trek through the jungle was a few hours max), and relaxing by the pool and chilling in the hammocks felt amazing.
We were shown around the jungle close to us and taught how all the different plants can be used for medicine and cooking and ate termites which tasted like bark.
We visited Monkey Island which does exactly what it says on the tin. We went on night safari to see caiman and an early morning jaunt to view wild parrots feed on clay which provides essential minerals for their digestion.
What took us both most by surprise though was a small boat trip on lake Sandovale. This place felt like being on a cloud. We were lucky enough to see a family of giant otters pop their heads out of the water around our boat before disappearing and reappearing on the other side of the lake. We also saw a spider monkey which the tour guide tempted out of the jungle with a banana (so much so that I thought it was going to jump into the boat). And then from being blistering hot sunshine we could hear the rain storm getting closer before we were in the middle of it. Still on the other side of the lake you could see the sun shining, while we were getting drenched, it felt incredible. We also saw the head of a 4 metre long caimen sticking out of the water.
We were sad to leave the jungle behind and both wished we’d stayed longer, but maybe we’ll see what Bolivia has to offer in the way of Amazon jungle…
