Hacking through the jungle

We thought that it rained really early this morning, but in fact it was just all of the moisture from the trees way up high dropping down onto the jungle floor. We also got to listen to the otters playing for a bit, and all of the fish jumping around all night. We had a quick breakfast of fried egg sandwiches before setting off for a 5 hour trek through the jungle. Before we left, we had to stash our bags in the trees so that passing fishermen wouldn't raid our camp while we were gone. This was probably needless since in over 3 days we only saw 1 other person out there in the jungle.

It was slow going hiking around in our galoshes as every 5th step was preceeded by a few hacks of the machete in order for us to pass through. And it was incredibly hot traipsing around in the humidity. We were only loaded down with some water (which proved not to be enough), our camera and binoculars, and a machete. Oh yeah, and the shotgun too. Just in case. We hoped and hoped to see a jaguar (very rare, but the last guys to come to this area saw one a few days ago), but then again, maybe we didn't want to see one...

After the first 10 minutes, we reached one of many streams to cross. There was no visible way across it, so Gary just chopped down a tree to make a bridge. I wasn't too happy about this, but at least the log stayed in the forest rather than being removed. We saw so many varieties of trees, and tons of vines hanging down to the ground. Halfway through our hike, we stopped for Gary to chop down a palmito tree so he'd be able to make us a hearts of palm salad for lunch. The edible bits are way at the top of the tree inside the trunk, so it's necessary to chop the whole thing down. Again, I wasn't too happy to see this. Although the salad we later ate was absolutely delicious, I'm not sure I'll ever eat palmito again, knowing what is necessary to get it. I'll have to look into it.

We headed back to camp and were absolutely knackered by the time we got there. In all, we were a bit disappointed in the lack of wildlife we saw. But it was nice to see 2 toucans and a few macaws flying around. Also a fresh water stingray and some jungle chickens too, which Gary wanted to catch for dinner. After a much-needed splash off in the river, we all went into our mossie tents for a little nap. Nigel and I then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing. After dinner, we waited for it to get really dark, then set out on a night cruise up the river in the canoe. It was so incredibly dark out, and so silent...except for the thousands of bugs and other animals making their night noises. We used a flashlight to try to spot animals on the banks. But after about an hour, all we saw were some huge spiders. It was tough in the boat because there are so many logs under the water. They are extremely difficult to see in the daytime, and impossible to see in the pitch dark of night. At one stage we got stuck and we were sure we'd be swimming with the piranhas, but we made it through. I was glad we had left some candles burning at the camp or I don't think we would have been able to find it coming back. We watched the glow bugs for a bit then went straight to bed.