The first day

Our cabin was so adorable. It was completely protected by mosquito netting and had a comfortable bed. The bathroom had a vessel sink and rain shower head. All the water is pumped from the river and can not be used for drinking water. It had a porch with a hammock. There was no electricity and at night we would be told kerosene lamps would be provided. The lodge did have a generator that we could charge camera batteries between 5-8 pm. We settled in...amazed by everything. Immediately we saw these huge birds from the deck. Yup...VULTURES playing outside our cabin. (see then cooling themselves off in one of the pictures - they do this by spreading their wings. hilarious to us) They are very important to the Amazon as they clean out the river and are respected by the locals. After we unpacked we met our newest guide (and the one we would stay with the rest of the time), Rafael, in the main commons area. He told us to change into our wellies and put on long sleeves and long pants and deet as we were going to go for our first jungle walk after lunch. The food at Muyuna Lodge was incredible. All traditional Peruvian dishes. Lots of fruit, fish, chicken, etc. Very healthy but filling. After filling our bellies we changed and met Rafael. We learned that Jono and Uta as well as two Canadians named Courtney and Brianna would be our small group that went on excursions with us for the duration of the time at the lodge. This turned out to be just perfect as they all were like-minded folk and we clicked immediately with them. Rob and I had thought we were taking an extended vacation....hahahaha. EVERYONE at the lodge was on vacation for a month or more....well...at least everyone who wasn´t American. (did you know everyone in Europe gets 5+ weeks paid vacation!? and in Canada vacation time starts at 3 weeks. I think Americans should reevaluate their work/life time. it´s just not right how much we work) Jono and Uta had been living in London but were on a 6 month honeymoon. yup...SIX MONTHS. They are moving to Zurich after their adventure is over. And Courtney and Brianna were in the 7 week of an 8 week excursion. Amazing. Anyways...Rafael led us straight into the jungle from a path near the lodge. His abilities on locating wildlife is unlike anything i´ve ever seen. i´m still in shock. He could see things from 50 yards away we couldn´t see three feet away. He located most of what we saw with his hearing. He had grown up in the Amazon. Had taught himself English by reading books and Websters dictionary. To be a guide you had to know English on top of being a naturalist. He is 29 years old and had a passion for animals...and the jungle. Almost immediately...literally 30 yards into the jungle...he found about 10 Mosquito monkeys. They are some of the smallest monkeys in the Amazon, about 7 inches tall and 4 inches wide with skinny tails. They get 50% of their diet from the sap of trees. We stood in silence watching them dart from tree to tree digging out sap. We pushed on and within about 10 minutes he stopped and asked us to look at a tree about 20 yards ahead. He had located a tarantula! FROM 20 YARDS AWAY?! we slowly and quietly moved forward for a better look...sure enough...a female was sitting on a palm. She was about as big as my hand. Apparently they are very still during the day and move around a lot at night, their hunting time. They do not spin webs but hunt like other animals. When they mate the female kills the male immediately afterwards (hahahahaha). The males sometime avoid this fate by bringing a large, live but stunned insect with them to mate and she will kill that instead. After learning all about tarantulas we kept hiking. Rafael had mentioned at lunch that some of the staff had caught a brief look at a jaguar near the lodge the week before. This was extremely unusual as they are uncommon even in the Amazon. It was also one of the animals that slightly spooked the locals as it was very dangerous for humans. They nearby village had lost 8 pigs and dozens of chickens to them recently...and they worried about the small children there. The kids often take themselves to the outhouse (the only bathroom they have and a distance from their huts)at night and they worried the large cats would take them down in the night. They are aggressive cats that like to eat, and need to eat a lot each day. Enough of a story to get us all a little freaked. Then he pointed down...there they were! The tracks!!! There had been two and they were fresh...from the morning. Again...amazing. We walked around them, leaving them for the next group to possibly see while hiking. We then stopped at a GIANT termite nest. These were everywhere..hanging in the trees. These were sometimes used by the locals as bug ¨spray¨. ick. Parakeets also would burrow into the nests for their nests. They actually preferred their nests to be in these. Symbiotic nature at it´s best. It was time to learn about all the plants around us and their medicinal uses. Everyone has heard about how the Amazon has tons of medicines..some not even yet discovered...and that is no joke. 40% of western medicine comes from some sort of plant (or small animal) in the Amazon. The first was a huge tree. Rafael explained used his machete (which he carried with him everywhere) to cut into the tree. You may have seen kids from remote areas that have extended bellies...in the Amazon it´s usually because of a parasite that they have that is growing in their stomach from drinking unboiled water. The bark, he explained, was cooked and given to children. this immediately killed the parasite and healed them. He showed us about three other trees and their healing abilities....all that i can´t remember at the moment. At the end of the hike we stopped at the base of a rubber tree. A commodity that used to be very popular to cut down in the amazon...now not so much...at least in the amazon. Rafael again hacked into the tree and let the sap drip. It´s the SAP that is rubbery. Imagine almost dry rubber cement...that is exactly what this felt like. You could pull it and it would snap right back. And then, just like that, we walked back out of the jungle onto the other side of the lodge boundaries. Rob and I couldn´t believe this was just the first afternoon and we had seen so much already. We were SO tired so we looked forward to crashing hard after dinner. Rafael explained that tomorrow we would go fishing for piranhas in the morning and swim in the Amazon near pink dolphins in the afternoon. We couldn´t help by smile all the way back to our cabin. It rained that night...really, really hard. Needless to say we slept like babies and dreaming about the day to come.