Amazon Jungle

Our first full day in the Amazon! The roosters at the lodge woke us up nice and early at 5am and then it started pouring and thundering!

We had breakfast of plantain (vegetable with is very common to the area), eggs, strawberry juice and tea. Following this, Delfino gave us an explanation of some more customs of the area and tribal face painting. Each person was given a different face painting with various symbols for different meanings/roles. Gab's face painting representing the free and balanced woman (which referred to the fact that previously in the Amazon the women had a lower standing to men and carried the babies and all food on their backs but this has changed). Daniel's face painting represented a tiger in the Amazon sharpening its claws.

We then went for a walk through the pouring rain and Miguel, one of the locals, explained information about different types of plants in the jungle. There were plants for period pain (which actually has a red sap on its leaves), antiseptic plants, plants to help when women experience difficulties with lactating, poisonous plants used for hunting animals and we even ate termites from a nest on a tree (they didn't taste great)!

Miguel showed us a gold panning demonstration. There is gold in the rivers around but the locals only pan small amounts when they need some money for a particular reason. Miguel showed us how he made shelters to hide from predators (or if you get lost in the jungle and need a place to stay!) He also showed us various different types of traps hunters used to catch animals (such as anacondas and rodents). On our way back for lunch, we tried some cinnamon and lemongrass leaves.

After lunch, the rain had stopped and we went canyoning/abseiling through the jungle in our helmets! We made our way upstream through a few different waterfalls and then abseiled back down to our starting point - a fantastic and fun afternoon with our group.

We then made our way back to camp for dinner (which included hot soup and then a large cooked meal of veggies and chicken). We then enjoyed some drinks and cards with the group before bed.Read more