It was already light out when I woke up past 6am, and outside we were greeted by this lovely pair of small birds.
Birds outside the lodge in the morning (Click to Enlarge)
After breakfast we headed up the river to go for a jungle hike on a trail. However, we ran out of motor oil so we had to take a slight detour to an unmarked area. At the beginning we found an ant nest, which locals use to mask their scent (especially from the hornets). You let the ants crawl up your arms before smashing the ants and spreading their guts all over.
Chao spreading ants on herself (click to Enlarge)
For our hike, our guide took a machete and essentially sliced a trail through the jungle, cutting through foliage along the way. The jungle was quite dense throughout, and there were a lot of neat things to see. Our guide showed us many twigs and branches that the locals extract from for medicine. We also found some brazil nuts, which have a nice crunch to them. One of our fellow travelers also tried a bug that's found in a fruit, saying that it basically tasted like the fruit.
The jungle is dense stuff (Click to Enlarge)
A furry caterpillar (Click to Enlarge)
After a few hours of going through the jungle, we returned to the boat to head back to the lodge for lunch (slowly of course, since the motor was going pretty slow).
For lunch we ate the piranhas that we caught the day before. The fish itself is pretty bony and lean. The taste is probably closest to those really flat fish that are common in asian supermarkets and took a lot of effort to eat cleanly.
Piranha for lunch (Click to Enlarge)
After lunch we went to visit a local family that lived on the river. Many families in the area live without electricity and some don't have running water, but they're all mostly self-sufficient. The family we visited kept their own animals (goats, pigs, and chickens among them) and their own farm (where some of our food came from). For drinking water they take river water and treat it with some form of chlorine before it can be drunk.
Shades on pigs (Click to Enlarge)
When we arrived they were constructing a new pig pen. We spent some time in their house, which consisted of four rooms and a lot of hammocks for the kids in the house. The family had some lights, but they only turn on the generator for a hour or so every night. After seeing the house we headed to their pineapple farm. A lot of pineapples had just been picked, so we only saw young fruits that weren't ready for consumption.
The local family's house (Click to Enlarge)
The pineapple farm (Click to Enlarge)
A passionfruit flower we stuck on the boat on the way back to the lodge (Click to Enlarge)
After dinner we socialized through the evening. There was plenty of enjoyment to go around, including our guide's homemade fermented pineapple drink, which was very delicious. The evening wound down late for our final night in the Amazon, and featured a few dares and games.
No comments:
Post a Comment