Into the Jungle

We just spent 4 days in the Amazon Rainforest at an “ecolodge” called the Explorer’s Inn in the Tambopata National Reserve. Even though the place was fairly remote (it was about 3 hours by boat up a river into the jungle) and had practically no electricity, we were impressed with the high level of food and service available. On one night, we went camping a further 3 hours up river and there were 4 members of staff serving just us two (one boat driver, one guide, one chef and another support guy). As well as our own tent (which they erected for us) they had effectively built a separate kitchen and dining room tent (with proper table and chairs) as well as put candles throughout....all just for us. Very unreal.


It was all good but very hot and sticky. Humidity was apparently close to 100%. Don’t know what that means but it’s the maximum (when we came back, we had to wash ALL our clothes...even the ones we didn’t wear, because they were all damp).


When we weren’t being served and looked after, we spent the remaining time either on hikes with our guide, or relaxing. During the 4 days, we got to see a good amount of wild animals.

No sooner had we stepped off the boat on arrival, than we saw monkeys in the tree above us. We saw a number more over the next few days and Kadi even got to feed one. As well as monkeys, we saw....

Snakes! A tarantula! Loads of Macaws (like a big parrot). Caimans (a type of crocodile). Capibaras (giant guinea pigs). Toucan (the bird from the old Guinness ads). A herd of jungle pigs (sorry no photo). “Stinky bird”. Giant sea otters. Turtles. Loads of big colourful butterflies. Plenty of big insects and frogs. Jungle turkey and chicken. We never saw any Piranhas although they were lurking in a nearby lake that we took a boat ride on.

This part of the planet is very diversified and as well as varied animals, birds and insects, there are also a huge number of interesting plants around. The bark of one tree smelled like garlic, and another smelled like menthol (it was actually a menthol tree). Some of the plants are used as natural remedies (to treat snake bites for example) and we tasted some leaves that had the effect of numbing our mouths like a dentist injection....good for tooth aches apparently. We also saw some glow-in-the-dark fungus (real cool)!

Oh....and hi to the 3 Canadians: Jason, Bill and Paul. It was nice meeting you guys and sorry we couldn't spend more time with you.

Overall, it was a great experience. Love the jungle :)