Fishy fishy fishy....

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Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

Back from the Jungle… But where am I? Not in Peru… That didn’t work out quite as planned. I made it is far as Coca in Ecuador, I even had a boat ticket to the border. But when we went to catch the boat in the morning they told us it was broken and there wouldn’t be another boat until the next day. Meanwhile we had been speaking to this guy who was telling us that the only boat from the border back into Peru took something like 15 days to make it to Iquitos. Now I am not sure if he was telling the truth or trying to sell me a Jungle tour, because the whole time he keep offering to take us on a jungle tour leaving that morning. Well no one else was able to provide us with more accurate information so, I let my plan of catching a river boat down to Peru slide, as I didn’t have 15 days to spare. But I haven’t give up on the idea, before I leave South America (yes, I will leave some day) I am going to take a river boat to somewhere. Mark my words…

So, what did we do? Well we signed up for the jungle tour. Sounded like fun and fun it was! 4 days and 3 nights in the Jungle, what more could you want. Day one was spent on a canoe heading down river to the lodge, I think in total around 7 or so hours on the boat. By the end my legs were red. Yes, Mum I had sunscreen, but there is only so much that can do. Lucky I had a hat…

2nd day we went traipsing off into the jungle looking for monkeys and what ever else we could find. Well we saw some monkeys, a tiny little frog. Then I found a little bit of snake skin, which turned out to be a lot of poisoness snake skin. Then, well then we found a real snake. A dirty great Boa Constrictor. The thing was huge, over 3 meters long, and so fat. Then…. Then our fearless guide picks up a stick and starts to poke the damn thing. I was getting a little worried at this stage, but hey, I am sure he knows what he is doing… But then, he picks it up, grabs the head, and we all had to grab the rest of it to stop it "constricting" him. That thing was strong, there were 4 big guys holding on to that thing and it was still struggling like demon. It also smelled bad, real bad. Somehow I ended up down the smelly end, and the snake didn’t really like being picked up like that so it shat itself. And I got it all over my hands, it took days to wash that off. I couldn’t bring my hands close to my face with out gagging for the rest of the day. It was rank…

That night we also went out in the canoe spotting for crocodiles. Again all good fun until our fearless guide decides it’s time to catch one and drag it up on the shore so we can all take a photo of the thing. Well the one he caught was about a meter and a half long. Big enough to put up a fair bit of a struggle. But I did get a nice photo of it. We also saw a heap of monkeys and birds a few spiders. Oh yeah we also went fishing for piraña! And I caught 2! Now normally I hate fishing cause I suck at it. But this was easy. Every time I threw the line in I got a bite. Most times they just stole my bait, but I managed to catch a little one, an then a real big one! We took the big one back to the lodge and they cooked it up for me. Tastes ok, but too many bones. They also took the bottom jaw off the thing and gave it to me. Though I left it behind as I wasn’t too keen on the idea of travelling around with that in my pocket.

And that was about it for my jungle trip. We caught our little boat back up to the main river and from there a fast boat back to Coca. But… the fast boat broke down 5 minutes out, so we spent the next hour floating back to the little village we set out from. Then spent the afternoon waiting for another boat which we were assured was coming. And come it did, it came, it towed the other boat away, and left us behind… Not impressed. So we spent a night staying in a little village on the Rio Napo. Next morning we were told there would be a boat. But by now I know that when they say there will be a boat, they mean, there might be a boat. This little village was pretty much cut off from the outside world, no phone or anything. So next morning a military boat with about 70 conscripts rocks up, and our fearless guide negotiates with them to take us back to Coca. He told us this was the only boat going that day. So on we get. What took us about 4 hours on the first day going down river, took around 8 coming back up river. Ok so we picked one of the slowest boats going, but I was just happy to be going somewhere.

So where am I now? Back in Baños, and the place is covered in ash, turns out the volcano is getting a little restless. Not to worry as I am off tomorrow, heading back down to Peru.

Later
Zac