An early start – fruit for breakfast and
fruit juice to drink – my body is not going to understand! I am not a big fruit lover so my body will be
in shock – they drink freshly juiced pineapple like its water – in fact they
prefer you to drink it rather than water as there is a shortage of water (hard
to believe with so much rain!)
So at 6am we set off through the jungle to
the look out tower, which is about 30 mins from the lodge. We get to it and I look up, OH MY GOD…. Do I
tell Fernando at this point I am not too keen on heights or do I just suck it
up?!
And here I am back at the top of the world! So I sucked it up and didn’t confess my fear
of heights! It was a bit of a scary
climb but I only looked up and when I got to the top I only looked at the treetops
and tried not to look down.
Its pretty amazing and the big tree in the
background is a Brazil nut tree – they can’t tell how old brazil nut trees are
as they don’t have rings like our trees – because there are only two seasons in
the jungle apparently the trees don’t have rings – interesting. Fernando said some of the Brazil nut trees in
the area are 1000 years old – that is really amazing – they have seen so much
time pass and so much life pass by. I
bet they have a tale to tell.
We headed down the tower – coming down is
harder as you have to look down – no choice really so I took a deep breath and
started my journey down then this big huge red f*cking thing landed on my scarf
– I was so determined not to be a big girl if I saw something that I didn’t
like but it didn’t last long – the first big thing to land on me and I am
screaming like a big girl and flapping my arms and everything else around –
turns out this mother f*cker was a cockroach but it was 3 INCHES LONG!! No
wonder I screamed like a girl. It was
weird when it was flying it was like it had loads of wings – weird big thing
that it was.
So onto the next scary thing – my
Arachnophobic friends (Dawn and Lindsay) go and take some Rescue Remedy to get
through the next bit….
We are walking through the track when
Fernando stops and points and says 'that is a Tarantula nest' – I said ‘NO WAY!’ and he said
‘yes look’ and he pokes a little stick down the hole – well if it hadn’t all
happened so quickly I would have been running in the other direction instead he
is whispering at me to get ready with my camera so I do wondering what is going
to happen and then I see this little spider – well I say little, in comparison
to the size of everything else in the jungle it was wee – it was black and
about 2 inches long with big up and down legs – that I could cope with but then
the wee one runs back into the hole and the next thing MUTHA comes out – O M
G!!!! THE WORD MUTHA WAS INVENTED FOR
HER!!! I have never in my life seen anything like it – can’t believe I actually
took pictures and didn’t run screaming to catch the next flight out of the
jungle!! Here are the pics – Dawn and
Lindsay look away now…
After a few seconds MUTHA let go of the
stick and headed back into her hole – PHEW!
That was incredible and can’t really believe how calm I was about it all
– apparently the first spider was a baby and the mother came to protect it!
So after the big MUTHA encounter we carry
on our walk to the Lake which is called the Condemned Lake – unfortunately the
reason it is called the Condemned Lake was lost in translation between Fernando
and me – something to do with the way a bird makes a noise like a donkey –
didn’t really get it but whatever, I am sure its not that important. We get to the lake and have the nicest most
peaceful boat trip, Fernando just occasionally paddling as we gently more
passed the shore watching all the different birds, I saw Macaws – I saw one
really close when I was up on the look out tower and I saw green parrots from
the boat – I can’t believe that in the UK we think its acceptable to put these
beautiful big intelligent birds into cages – they belong in the jungle in their
natural habitat being able to act out their natural behaviours – they can’t
cling to the side of a clay wall and get the minerals they need to survive if
they are stuck in a cage. I don’t really
agree with birds being bred in captivity either – it’s in the genes to act out
these normal behaviours so we just end up with unhappy, unfriendly mixed up
birds.
Sorry rant over…
I also met some long nosed bats – sorry the
picture is not great but hopefully you can make out their long noses! They are daylight bats – how cute they are.
After the Condemned lake – I did hear the
bird that makes the donkey noise but still have no idea why its Condemned –
anyway after that we headed back to the lodge for a fresh pineapple juice and
an hour of rest before heading out on the Jungle Medicine walk – my favourite
bit. So I was taken round by one of the
medicine staff who tends the garden area where a lot of the medicine plants are
grown for easier harvesting – he didn’t speak any English so Fernando translated. The first plant we come to is used as an
anaesthetic – I was given a big of the stalk and told to break it open and put
it on my tongue but not to swallow it – well I was glad I hadn’t swallowed it –
the tip of my tongue went all tingly and then completely numb – it was like a
local anaesthetic – AMAZING! Apparently
they use it a lot for toothache which would make sense – the feeling in my
tongue didn’t come back for another 10 minutes!
We walk along the trail talking about all
the different plants and their uses and eventually arrive in the gardens and
Fernando starts to tell me about the Cats Claw and how its used for the big
virus – so I ask which big virus and he says its called SHI – and I can’t think
what he means so I suggest MRSI and he says ‘No this virus is all over the world
– lots of people have it’ and I am really struggling to think what he means and
then he pipes up – like Freddie Mercury – OK I GET IT – HIV – ‘YES’ Fernando
exclaims ‘that’s it!’ So cats claw is
used all round the world to help HIV and AIDs and is quite affective according
to the medicine man.
I saw all kinds of plants – I have taken
pics of them all with the name tag so I can look them up because I will never
remember all the uses so I will do a separate blog on all of the medicinal
stuff when I get home and have the time to do the research properly.
One of the plants I loved – can’t remember
the name but it was right next to the toilet – apparently it is used for
constipation and works that quickly that you eat one leaf and off to Poo Poo
you go!
In the afternoon we went off to the fruit farm which was great, lots of different fruits and lots of different types of bananas too.
I saw this cute Daddy and Kitty - you wonder how I guessed he was the daddy?! they are like two pea's aren't they?
As we were walking through the fruit farm suddenly our boat driver came running through the bushes bare foot and ran off down the track shouting in Spanish - apparently he hadn't tied the boat up and it was floating down river! so he was running to catch up with it!! We must have been at the fruit farm for about an hour and we headed down to the riverbank to get on the boat to cross to the other side of the river - but still no boat! Oh dear, poor boat guy! I could see probably about a mile down the river and couldn't see the boat so have no idea how far it got before he had to swim out to retrieve it. We waited for about 10 mins then we heard it and then saw it coming up the river - well done Boat Guy! but next time tie the boat up - saves a lot of exercise! Here is the boat coming back to us...
Oh and just heard Fernando has organized
for me to move rooms – I am next door to a couple with a brat boy who talks
constantly and loudly – there is only bamboo cane between the rooms so its like
being in the same room as the wee shite so I am being moved to the other side
of the lodge – thanks Fernando you have just earned yourself a really good tip!
suzxxx
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