otro dia

WEDNESDAY!

Wednesday January 18^th 2012. Today was our first day in the jungle. We were told that we would have another big day in front of us but never anything that we ever expected! (this long day thing seems to be a recurring theme for our guides from our school to say while on this trip so far! But it sure has been GREAT!) we woke up around 7:15am as we were to be at breakfast ready to go on our new adventure with our backpacks packed for our necessities for the day at 8am in the morning. We arrived at breakfast were Javier greeted us and told us to help ourselves to the coffee and juice and he would be bringing out fruit and then we had our choice of omelets or scrambled eggs. It was a great breakfast! (aka we could get used to it even though it was a lot of food…but little did we know we would need all that food for energy for the trip we were about to embark on in the jungle.) we finished our breakfast and had about 15 min to get our last min things, put on our sunscreen, and our bug spray and then we were ready to go and get our rain boots that they were giving us to use for the time we were here. We put on our rain boots and then headed down to the river were we were going to get into our canoe type boat after receiving our life vests. We got into the canoe two in a seat and off we went. We rode for our 30 min down the river till we made our first stop at a local village to experience their life as well as to stop and see some monkeys in the center….however we did not see any monkeys because they were all following the children to school as it was school time and a lot of them carry their breakfast with them and we are told that these monkeys like to steal from people (SO BE CAREFULL OF YOUR CAMERAS THEY TOLD US!...as they would snatch them from your think it’s funny and slam then on the ground and then go eat some of the pieces.) we were told that the monkey were all in hiding and so we did not see any on this adventure…however we all loaded back up into the boat and headed off for about another hour until we got into a little village where we took the boat through and were actually able to see little monos (monkeys) and we were all in aww! It was soo cool! I love monkeys I really want one! After we expiries the monkeys we headed for about another 20 min on the boat to the “Amazon Zoo” where they help hurt animals survive and hold them in cages so they can get better faster and then take people on tours through the jungle so they can see these different animals…though not all of the animals we saw were in cages. (I had a monkey come sit right next to me without me realizing and then all of sudden my prof goes Allison look and I got a little scared hahaha bc he was a big one!)

After we waited for our guide we began to embark on this new adventure... We met our guide that would be leading us through the jungle, he was from Switzerland and had not spoken Spanish very long but was very good at it (part of me thinks he memorized the script as to what to say and then knew some random words for when we asked him questions…but I give him props bc he could speaking English too so he was tri lingual! I hope to be that one day…or at least become more fluent in Spanish…I have noticed that right now I can understand it pretty fluently but when it comes to having to speak it back it is harder for me to form in the moment…but then moments later I think of all these things I could have/should have said!) It is a work in progress…un dia! Anyways…back to the jungle…

We began our hike up the steps to where we would begin; the hike was up and down hills the entire way through. We would stop to hear some information from our guide and then we would continue on. It was very interesting and we definitely learned a lot about the jungle and the animals there. We hiked for about 45 min until it started to sprinkle a bit which was a nice relief to the heat…though within 5 min it was a full downpour and we lit looked like we had just gotten out of the shower! Our guide told us that we have to turn around and head back as it is not as safe to continue to climb in these conditions so we headed back and when we got there we were so wet and then decided to play in the rain. Our guide from our lodge Alfredo said that if we wanted to still hike we could take about a 45 min different path a different way to meet our boat and then eat lunch there though it was a little bit of a tough hike but it would be good. We decided to go for it and took the hike…it was a bit of a hike up a muddy and wet hill as it had just rained and it was not easy. Though it was a lot of fun and we learned a lot about the jungle from our guide and this indigenous boy who came with us. We learned about how they call our to each other to find each other and it’s not yelling as that is not allowed they hit a tree with a stick until the person finds where they are. After we finally reached the end of the hike we all jumped up and screamed and then proceeded to go swimming in the river as we were all muddy. I wasn’t going to go all the way in the river…but I didn’t realize the rock was ending and down I went into the river ha-ha it was funny and then to get back we were swimming up current un poco dificil! Hahaha after we swam a bit we had our lunch…my fav food Spanish rice with chicken, and a salad! sOOO GOOD! We then proceded to get back into our boat, wet and dirty for about a 1 and 20 min ride to another location where we would experience and learn about the cenchua tribe and their culture. They showed us how they dig through the mud and the rocks to find gold…and oh boy it was a lot of work for such a little thing they then took us into their tribe where they showed us how they made their traditional pottery and their yucca bread. It was very interesting and afterword’s we got to see how they hunt for their food and tries it ourselves. It was like Bowen arrow hunting but you blew the arrow at the target. Then we headed back into the boat and continued on for about 20 more min until we reached our destination of our lodge, we all could not wait to get out of our wet clothes and into dry ones! We had about 15 min to change before dinner around 6pm and then we went to go out eat. After dinner we were all so exhausted after our long day that we didn’t stay up too late and just sang camp songs around the fire while Oscar played the guitar until about 9pm and then went to bed as tom would be another long but exciting day.