I have so
much to tell you about my wonderful trip to the Amazon River and Rainforest. Our
accommodation was located about 35km from the city of Iquitos. It was called
Cumaceba Lodge, there was no electricity so a little adventure for 4 days and 3
nights! First day we arrived it was so hot, I had a headache because of the heat and lack of water. We visited an animal shelter near our lodge, we visited
it again on the last day because we requested. My camera emptied itself in the
end of the second day, I lost over 300 photos :( I cried but luckily I got Juhos
photos that he had taken so I have a lot of memories and pictures of myself
also. He took about 900 photos so I have a lot to show when I travel back to
Finland.
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| Our room. |
In the end
of the first and second day we went to the lagoon for some night canoeing, it
was pitch black and we only used flash lights. We wanted to see alligators but
managed to see only shiny eyes from the land, they did hide when we went closer
to see. It was amazing to hear the night sounds of the jungle. Far away from the
noisy million capital Lima. The tour also included night walk searching for
insects like spiders. I saw a huge tarantula and many other creatures. We had 3 meals a day. I tasted Catfish, Piranha and Alligator (all delicious).
On the
second day we explored the jungle, our guides had machetes with them and showed
us the way through the bushes. The trees and plants were so big that it is hard
to explain. Our jungle guide taught us how to use different plants to different
diseases and how to survive if you ever get lost there. The third day we went
fishing and I got one quite big Piranha and a small catfish. I got the eat my
Piranha at dinner, it tasted a lot like the Finnish Kampela, very salty and
tasty :) Niina
and Juho got Piranhas too, team Finland got the biggest! Many of the guests left
after one or two nights so on the third evening we got a private tour to a small
city nearby, La Petrolera (3000 recidents). I got the chance to feed Piranhas
and the biggest fishes in the Amazon river (Arapaima).
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| The boat was stuck many times because the water is really low this time of the year. |
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| Our guide, Armando, said that it is almost impossible to see dolphins this time of the year but we were lucky seeing grey and pink dolphins! Pink dolphins lives only in the amazon river. |
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| La Petrolera |
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| Sunset at the Amazon |
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| We visited a tribe called Yagua, they accepted me as their guest when they painted my face. I was invited to dance by the chief. |
This trip
included three most scaring nights of my life. Every night I woke up about 1am
and heard some weird noises from the jungle, drumming for example (maybe a
tribe far away). Also something or someone circling the lodge and under our
room. It sounded that some animal were searching for something right outside
our room, our room had only tree walls and the fourth one was almost just
mosquito net so it is easy to break in :D One of the jungle guides told stories
from the jungle, that between 12-1am the spirits of the jungle are most active
and if you want to see some weird things you should go out at that time. One
time an American couple had visited the lodge, the boyfriend was playing cards
with the staff and the girlfriend was alone in their room. All of a sudden they
heard the girl screaming in a panic attack about 100m from the lodge, they ran
there and one of the staff ran to the nearest village to get an witch doctor to
help to find out what is wrong with the girl. After a moment the girl told that
she had heard a knock on the door and it was her boyfriend wanting to take a
walk (the actual boyfriend was playing cards meanwhile). After walking a while
the guy said that wait here I’m going to catch some fireflies, and then it got
pitch black and the girl was left alone. Our jungle guide told us that this all
happened because the girl had earlier said that the Devil of the Jungle could
come get her and laughed because she did not believe in it. If you do not
respect the Jungle spirits, God and Devil they will punish you. This is just
one of the weird things that have happened, the guide did not want to tell more
stories because he noticed how scared I was and couldn’t sleep well, even though
I wanted to hear more! He said that if you hear someone knock on the door twice
at night, do not open or react in any way. The history of the jungle gods go
way back, people still gives gifts to the Gods before entering the deepest
jungle. Gifts like a bottle of alcohol and a packet of cigarettes. They still
believe in this mythology and I started also to believe in it after hearing all
the noises at night. If some of you are interested in this subject, you should
watch the tv-show THE RIVER, so you know what happens if you don’t respect the
jungle.
Yesterday we went for a one day-trip to Lunahuana, south of Lima, 35km from a city called Cañete. There we went rafting and driving with mönkijät in Finnish :D It was really fun! It took about 4hours to get there. And on Friday I finally got to ride, it was only about 30min but still I was very happy, I got to ride with two different horses. The last one was better to work with, it is just like riding with a bike, once you learn it you won't forget it. I had 2,5 years pause in this hobby. Here are some of the best pictures from Lunahuana.
