Amazon Trek Day 2
22 January 2014
In short, it started with a tarantula and ended up with me drinking liquid V*agra… If that’s not a day to remember, then I don’t know what is.
Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!
It’s 4.00am and time to get up because we have somewhere to be. Apparently.
4.30am breakfast call and by 5.00am we were off to the river boat to get to Oxbow Lake – a lake that formed due to the original river changing paths over time that this section got cut off and became a lake.
Monkey tales
On the way to the boat there was a hell of a noise rumbling through the trees. It sounded like a very unhappy bear, with a growl that went on and on. But to our amazement Louis advised that this noise was in fact ….a monkey. A MONKEY? How can a monkey make that booming sound? Monkey’s are little things and this noise was so deep and loud and went on forever.
The Monkey is actually called (rightly so) a Howler Monkey clearly for a good reason and it makes this noise in the mornings and at noon to mark its territory before it heads out for the day. Wow. Consider your territory marked mate! No challenges there.
Boots are the best
As mentioned before, all excursions from the lodge are done with Gumboots, helpful for things like mud and knee high water. Also protection from things that might jump out and bite while on walks. They’re bloody hot but well worth it. They don’t smell the best either as no doubt a plethora of people have walked and sweated in these before me… but anyway. The things we do. And I have to say, I was dam happy to have these today.
You’ll understand why in a moment!
What is THAT?
It is overcast and a little cooler than yesterday which is a welcome reprieve, but I guess it is also 5.00am in the morning. What is it about early mornings over the past week? No sleep and early mornings makes for a really attractive Paula right now….. The joys of travel I guess.
Turns out the early morning was so very worth it as we had a great 1/2 day out on the lake.
We got the river boat to another section of the rainforest on the other side of the river. Then had to walk inland for about 45 minutes to get to the lake landing.
On the way though folks, we stopped by a tree where there was a big hole at the base. Sitting on the outside of that hole was a big fat tarantula. Ergh.
Shivers immediately went up my spine and the movie arachnophobia came screaming to mind. Flying spiders, that’s just what I need! There were lots of other interesting critters along the walk but we stopped in our tracks at the tarantula. He froze when he saw us all looking at him as he crawled out of his hole. We were petrified, standing as still as statues (as you can imagine).
Our guide Louis tuned on his lamp and slowly moved the light toward him. This guy was cool as a cucumber considering we then followed suit and all had our flashlights and camera’s pointed at him.
Then one person had a red laser style light that Mr Tarantula didn’t like and (he jumped out a few centimeters), then quick as a flash, he went back into the hole. I can’t tell you how high we all jumped when he scampered. Man he moved fast. Such a shame because that’s when I took my rather blurry photo. He was pretty big and very hairy.
What a start to the day though! REALLY happy I have gumboots on now.
Life at the Lake
The lake is well known for birdlife, of which we saw tons and tons. Again I had Louis’ binoculars and could oooh and aaah with everyone else at how gorgeous some of these species were.
We were lucky enough to see the Harpe Eagle, the Horned Screamer (Yes Mellie, as the itinerary said, this is a rare bird and we saw it dead front on) Macaws, Toucans and many more.
First Class Travel
We were making our way around the lake in a ‘catamaran’ paddled by our captain moving ever so slowly and parking in high grass to not make noise when certain animals went by.
I’m sorry – we are fishing for what?
We saw a small cayman (aligator) drift by, not really interested in us. Then after probably about 2 hours we stopped and Louis said – right, who wants to fish for Piranha?
Um, exxxqueeze me, did you say Piranha? Yes he did and Yes I will thank you very much.
I have not fished much at all in my life but I am certainly not going to give up the chance to fish for a Piranha. With the simplest of rods – a long stick and fishing wire with a hook, Louis attached the meat, and we were off.
It didn’t take long till Trish caught the first one. Needless to say we were all pretty excited at seeing the real thing up close. Louis caught one and held it between his thumb and middle or index finger (the best way to do this), put a leaf to its mouth and we saw it take a huge chunk out of the leaf with gusto – this fish may be a lot smaller than we thought, but those teeth are lethal.
After the obligatory piccy he was thrown back in.
Our turn
Trish caught a second one, then Linda caught one. Brian didn’t have the camera ready so he said to her to put the rod back in the water and he would film her bringing it out of the water again. I wasn’t so sure this was a good idea, and in the end the Piranha got lose before Brian was ready. Poor Linda had to settle for the one that got away.
It took a while before I was quick enough to get my first bite out of the water. I was super excited and exclaimed out loud ‘gee he’s a small one’ to which Louis said laughing, ‘That’s not a piranha Paula, that’s a sardine’. A bloody sardine! Everyone else is catching Piranha’s and I get a sardine.
Not one to give up though, I have a few more goes and am successful – twice this time. Yay. 2 piranha’s and a sardine. Woot!
An Otter of a time
Just before we started to meander back to the pier, we were very fortunate to see the rarely viewed family of 6 water otters moving about the lake. For Trish and Sheena this was a highlight.
They were shy things only popping their heads up here and there, but we got a good look in any case.
All this before 10.00am. What a day!
Remember: Gumboots and binoculars are a must in the jungle.
The Botanical Gardens – what a delight!
The afternoon had a couple of other outings you could choose from. One was to the Botanical gardens which I took up, and where I was the solo visitor.
Despite the black haze of mosquitos, I trudged through one of the their 8 garden beds to learn about the natural plants grown in the Amazon that are used for medicinal purposes. This was absolutely fascinating.
The gardener showed me a number of plants and explained the process of how they are then taken from being a plant and turned into medicine, whether it be that the stems or leaves are boiled, crushed or mixed with a number of other elements to create the final output.
In short, I was shown:
- Ayawaska – a psychotropic plant that gets you ‘high’
- A plant that when liquidised assists cure stomach cancer (if caught early)* A love plant that attracts ladies to the men
- A plant that when crushed and rubbed together creates colour paint. ladies use it for dyeing clothes, lipstick, hair etc
- A plant that helps with arthritis and female menstruation* I ate a leaf that after 5 seconds sent the right side of my mouth numb. Yes, it was an anaesthetic plant.
- Then there was the plant that whittles down into liquid form of what gentlemen refer to as ‘the little blue pill’ , that’s right folks, it’s the liquid version of Viagra
Taste test anyone?
At the end of the mozzie infested tour, I was treated to a taster of three of these plants in liquid form. The stomach Cancer plant, the arthritis / menstruation plant, and yes folks… I drank liquid Viagra. Boom!
Not something you do every day now is it?
The images below show my reaction to the big V tasting.
And like that, another day is done
Back to the resort, I shared a drink with the other Aussies before dinner. The group are chatting really well and learning more about each other.
I realised that I had three rather large bites on my ankles at this stage which were quite itchy. Given we were at the end of day two, I thought it would be a lot worse, so I was ok with this. I put on some cream and kept my feet up on the chairs.
I think we were all pretty beat from the early morning and the heavy humidity – up to 85% at one stage. Today was not as hot as yesterday but it is still heavy and I think that plays a toll on you. Plus I think I spent the last two and a half hours in a mosquito infestation, and the constant swooshing and wiping things away from your face is quite tiring!
Ah, the peace of bed… sort of
I’m ready for another adventure-filled day tomorrow.
I check my loo 50 times again before sitting down and I realised this morning when I went back into the bathroom and looked at the shower, that the thing was still stuck in the drain hole. That nasty leaf that took 5 years off my life. So I got it out and threw it out the non-existent window from whence it came.
What an incredible day!!!!
Travel is the best.
