We woke up at 5 am, there's not a lot of days in the year when I can say that. We quickly found that there was no water in the bathroom and luckily I didn't have to use the toilet !
So what were we doing up so early you ask, well the plan was to catch daybreak on the Amazon. So we did what we were so used to doing by now, we hopped onto our ferry with our 3-day 2-night package-friends (there were about 15 of us - 2 girls from Miami, a sweet couple from Canada, a German and a Floridian, a Brit and a Croatian, 3 guys from DC and us 4 from India) and headed out to a spot on the river from where we could see daybreak. We had to wait for about 20-30 minutes, no-one can rush the sun apparently. There was a huge cloud right in front of the sun and we were unsure if we'd see anything off the daybreak but we did. As daybreaks go, it was a glorious site, the reflection of the sun on the river was beautiful. After snapping up as many photos as we could(I'll post some of them here), we headed back still sleepy but now hungry too ! Thankfully a breakfast of eggs, coffee and coffee-cake was waiting for us.
After breakfast we hopped on to our boat and went on a hike in the rainforest. To reach the rainforest our guide basically had to machete some bushes and make a clearing for our boat to reach shore. It was quite the sight with Stefano waving the machete at the front of the boat, many a reference to Tarantino movies were made.
Once we were in the forest we engaged in some activities that might have been typical of the Amazon natives but highly unlikely. We smoked a tree, yes you heard that right. Apparently it was a tree that had herbal powers and a really nice scent, so Stefano cut off a twig for us which he then lighted and passed around as a natural cigarette. The smoke from the twig is not harmful to our lungs we were promised. To our surprise within the next 10 minutes all of us were naturally high, just kidding, I don't think any of us really felt anything other than some pleasant smoke in our throats.
We next saw some armadillo holes. We then climbed some vines to satisfy our inner primates. We found an ant-nest which had a scent to it and were told that rubbing the ants on our skin was a sort of insect repellent. Apparently insect repellents were made with extracts from the ant nest. Stefano found something on the ground that looked like a pine cone but upon cutting in half contained a larvae inside, he went on to explain that the larvae could serve a good snack. Luckily, none of us were hungry enough to eat a live larvae so the other guide was kind enough to show us how it was done, it made my day (not really).
We got back to the Lodge after that and some of the folks decided to take a dip in the Amazon water right outside the lodge. Thanks to my poor swimming skills I decided to stay on land but it looked like a ton of fun. Walker and Boochi jumped in too, later we learnt that the water was about 20 m deep where they had jumped in, they were terrified to learn that but also glad that they hadn't known about it earlier as it made their swim less stressful !
At around 3 pm we headed out to the forest again, this team it was the real deal, we were going to camp out in the Amazon rainforest. Typing that line out makes me excited so let me type that out again, we were going to camp out in the Amazon rainforest !
We headed out with 2 beers for each person and a bottle of Cashaca, the Brazilian rum. About 2 minutes after we left the lodge in our boat we heard shouts from the lodge and we went back. Apparently we had forgotten the lemon and salt needed to make the Caipiranhas and the lodge owner did not want us to miss out on the complete camping experience. Thank God for Brazilian hospitality.
We found the camping site which had a shack setup already. All we had to do was to eventually setup hammocks and sleep underneath the shack. We were making ourself cosy at this spot when another group of tourists from the lodge showed up, apparently they had a bigger group which meant we had to find a different camping spot. Luckily there was another camping site fairly nearby, this one had a slightly smaller shack than the previous spot. But it was perfect, for some reason which we never understood the second campsite had way fewer insects and when you camp outside that is a huge win!
First line of action was to get some seating ready, we found a couple of logs that we arranged around the fire. Second we passed some beer around and started chatting. Zoran our friend from Croatia taught us a Croatian soccer song which we would in a couple of days hear sung by thousands of Croatian fans in the stadium.
The guides first setup our hammocks for the night. Then they got started on dinner. Dinner was going to be simple, chicken and rice. The chicken had to be cooked over a fire and seasoned with what I believe was just salt. It took quite a while to make rice and cook the chicken(couple of hours) in the makeshift kitchen. In the meanwhile a few of us setup a manual Caipiranha assembly line, some of us were cutting the lemons, some were mixing the sugar and rum, some were crushing the lemons, you get the idea. Caipiranhas were then passed around to one and all. One round turned into two and then , just like that, the bottle was empty. We were a merry lot by then, just hanging out and having a jolly good time, we even had a round of introductions where each of us had to introduce ourselves and say something cool about us, it really was a great time !
The chicken was soon ready and boy was it good, rarely have I had a meal that tasted so good which was made with such few ingredients and cooking resources. Apparently cooking with the moist wood in the forest adds to the flavor of the chicken. Trust an Italian to make delicious food even in the Amazon :) After dinner some of the group decided to head to bed, it was only around 9 pm but felt like much later inside the jungle. The sounds of the jungle were already all around us.
Some of the more adventurous amongst us decided to play a game of "Never Have I Ever". I hadn't played that game before but once we started we kept playing it over and over again, for about an hour. Everyone seemed to be impressed that Walker and I had ridden on top of a bus before (they probably thought we were crazy) . Similarly we learnt some secrets about some really cool people whom we might never meet again in our lives !
After that we were done, we just slumped into our hammocks and tried to sleep. Personally, I have a lot of trouble trying to sleep in new places and the Amazon rainforest in a hammock was very new to me. It took me a couple of hours to first get used to the orientation of my new bed. The sounds of the jungle were next. Needless to say I kept waking up. There were sounds all around me and I had no idea what was making them, might have been the monkeys, the birds or the jaguars for all I knew. I think I must have gotten around 2-3 hours of sleep over a 8 hour period so I wasn't the most refreshed person the next morning, but who cares, I had just spent a night in the Amazon :)
So what were we doing up so early you ask, well the plan was to catch daybreak on the Amazon. So we did what we were so used to doing by now, we hopped onto our ferry with our 3-day 2-night package-friends (there were about 15 of us - 2 girls from Miami, a sweet couple from Canada, a German and a Floridian, a Brit and a Croatian, 3 guys from DC and us 4 from India) and headed out to a spot on the river from where we could see daybreak. We had to wait for about 20-30 minutes, no-one can rush the sun apparently. There was a huge cloud right in front of the sun and we were unsure if we'd see anything off the daybreak but we did. As daybreaks go, it was a glorious site, the reflection of the sun on the river was beautiful. After snapping up as many photos as we could(I'll post some of them here), we headed back still sleepy but now hungry too ! Thankfully a breakfast of eggs, coffee and coffee-cake was waiting for us.
After breakfast we hopped on to our boat and went on a hike in the rainforest. To reach the rainforest our guide basically had to machete some bushes and make a clearing for our boat to reach shore. It was quite the sight with Stefano waving the machete at the front of the boat, many a reference to Tarantino movies were made.
Once we were in the forest we engaged in some activities that might have been typical of the Amazon natives but highly unlikely. We smoked a tree, yes you heard that right. Apparently it was a tree that had herbal powers and a really nice scent, so Stefano cut off a twig for us which he then lighted and passed around as a natural cigarette. The smoke from the twig is not harmful to our lungs we were promised. To our surprise within the next 10 minutes all of us were naturally high, just kidding, I don't think any of us really felt anything other than some pleasant smoke in our throats.
We next saw some armadillo holes. We then climbed some vines to satisfy our inner primates. We found an ant-nest which had a scent to it and were told that rubbing the ants on our skin was a sort of insect repellent. Apparently insect repellents were made with extracts from the ant nest. Stefano found something on the ground that looked like a pine cone but upon cutting in half contained a larvae inside, he went on to explain that the larvae could serve a good snack. Luckily, none of us were hungry enough to eat a live larvae so the other guide was kind enough to show us how it was done, it made my day (not really).
We got back to the Lodge after that and some of the folks decided to take a dip in the Amazon water right outside the lodge. Thanks to my poor swimming skills I decided to stay on land but it looked like a ton of fun. Walker and Boochi jumped in too, later we learnt that the water was about 20 m deep where they had jumped in, they were terrified to learn that but also glad that they hadn't known about it earlier as it made their swim less stressful !
At around 3 pm we headed out to the forest again, this team it was the real deal, we were going to camp out in the Amazon rainforest. Typing that line out makes me excited so let me type that out again, we were going to camp out in the Amazon rainforest !
We headed out with 2 beers for each person and a bottle of Cashaca, the Brazilian rum. About 2 minutes after we left the lodge in our boat we heard shouts from the lodge and we went back. Apparently we had forgotten the lemon and salt needed to make the Caipiranhas and the lodge owner did not want us to miss out on the complete camping experience. Thank God for Brazilian hospitality.
We found the camping site which had a shack setup already. All we had to do was to eventually setup hammocks and sleep underneath the shack. We were making ourself cosy at this spot when another group of tourists from the lodge showed up, apparently they had a bigger group which meant we had to find a different camping spot. Luckily there was another camping site fairly nearby, this one had a slightly smaller shack than the previous spot. But it was perfect, for some reason which we never understood the second campsite had way fewer insects and when you camp outside that is a huge win!
First line of action was to get some seating ready, we found a couple of logs that we arranged around the fire. Second we passed some beer around and started chatting. Zoran our friend from Croatia taught us a Croatian soccer song which we would in a couple of days hear sung by thousands of Croatian fans in the stadium.
The guides first setup our hammocks for the night. Then they got started on dinner. Dinner was going to be simple, chicken and rice. The chicken had to be cooked over a fire and seasoned with what I believe was just salt. It took quite a while to make rice and cook the chicken(couple of hours) in the makeshift kitchen. In the meanwhile a few of us setup a manual Caipiranha assembly line, some of us were cutting the lemons, some were mixing the sugar and rum, some were crushing the lemons, you get the idea. Caipiranhas were then passed around to one and all. One round turned into two and then , just like that, the bottle was empty. We were a merry lot by then, just hanging out and having a jolly good time, we even had a round of introductions where each of us had to introduce ourselves and say something cool about us, it really was a great time !
The chicken was soon ready and boy was it good, rarely have I had a meal that tasted so good which was made with such few ingredients and cooking resources. Apparently cooking with the moist wood in the forest adds to the flavor of the chicken. Trust an Italian to make delicious food even in the Amazon :) After dinner some of the group decided to head to bed, it was only around 9 pm but felt like much later inside the jungle. The sounds of the jungle were already all around us.
Some of the more adventurous amongst us decided to play a game of "Never Have I Ever". I hadn't played that game before but once we started we kept playing it over and over again, for about an hour. Everyone seemed to be impressed that Walker and I had ridden on top of a bus before (they probably thought we were crazy) . Similarly we learnt some secrets about some really cool people whom we might never meet again in our lives !
After that we were done, we just slumped into our hammocks and tried to sleep. Personally, I have a lot of trouble trying to sleep in new places and the Amazon rainforest in a hammock was very new to me. It took me a couple of hours to first get used to the orientation of my new bed. The sounds of the jungle were next. Needless to say I kept waking up. There were sounds all around me and I had no idea what was making them, might have been the monkeys, the birds or the jaguars for all I knew. I think I must have gotten around 2-3 hours of sleep over a 8 hour period so I wasn't the most refreshed person the next morning, but who cares, I had just spent a night in the Amazon :)
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