Adventures of Living Abroad

We arrived back at the lodge around 7 am sleep deprived and feeling dirty from our night in the jungle. I took a quick shower, sat down, ate some breakfast (see, we didn't really really rough it because we had breakfast waiting for us. It wasn't like we were spending days having to hunt and cook our food.), and then headed back into the wooden boat to try and spot some monkeys.  By now I feel quite secure sitting in that little wooden boat. :)  We spent the morning cruising around all the small waterways spotting as many animals as we could. Unfortunately we didn't see any monkeys, but we saw many different types of birds and watched Joshua do some bow and arrow fishing.   I can't take credit...I didn't catch that fish. Joshua did with his bow and arrow.  Can you spot the iguana on the tree branch? It's in the middle of the picture. 

Day 2 con't: The Night in the Jungle  The time had arrived for our night of sleeping in the jungle. I know some of you may be thinking I have completely lost my mind, but I decided if I was going to see the Amazon then I wanted to have as much of an authentic experience and see as much as I could while I was there. I had researched the tour company and they had great reviews. And yes, we were very trusting to put our lives in the hands of two strangers, but I felt comfortable and safe with them. Both of them have grown up in the Amazon and our tour guide has done many documentaries and survival trips where he spent months out in the jungle. And to be honest, I would not let myself fully think about just how dangerous and just how many animals I may encounter while out there! We climbed back into the familiar wooden boat and headed back to the same spot we had gone for our jungle hike. We hiked about 45 minutes into the jungle until we reached our camp. The camp was already set ...

Amazon - Day 2 Jungle Hike I woke up feeling a big tired as I didn't sleep that well. I usually don't sleep well the first night in a new place, let alone a place that has some mosquitoes flying around, a gecko crawling on the wall, and whatever other little crawling creatures that I couldn't see. We ate breakfast and got back into the wooden boat for our morning jungle hike.  Joshua tells us to wear a lot of bug spray. I knew it was serious when I saw him spray DEET all over himself and his clothes. I wore two pairs of leggings, a long sleeved shirt and a hoodie. We sprayed DEET all over our clothes and then rubbed OFF! on any skin that was still exposed like our face and hands. I climbed back into the wooden boat feeling a little more relaxed and confident today. We cruised down the lake for a few minutes and then docked the boat.  Let the mosquito attacking begin....Even though I had on two pairs of pants those darn mosquitoes bit right through! Thank goodness for ...

After having lunch, we embarked on our first adventure...Piranha fishing. All of our trips from the lodge were in this wooden boat equipped with a small motor. I nervously stepped in and sat down as the boat swayed back and forth from the movement. If I stuck my arm out to the side, I was able to touch the water. John John our captain sat in the back controlling the motor and steering the boat while our tour guide sat in the front.   John John Tour guide Joshua and yes that's a machete he's using to cut the meat.   We found a nice quiet spot surrounded by trees to do some fishing. We used bamboo fishing poles attached to a fishing line with a small hook at the end. Our guide, Joshua, told us Piranhas are smart and you have to be fast when catching them because they are good at being able to get the bait off the hook without letting the hook get them! As soon as you feel a tug on the line, you are supposed to quickly pull up. Well, for anyone who kno...

Ok, so the next few posts are going to be about my trip to the Amazon. I decided it was easier to write a separate post for each day because there are so many things to talk about and so many amazing pictures to share!  So here goes... My friend Suzette and I flew from Porto Alegre to Manaus (with a stop over in Brasilia) and spent the evening relaxing. We tried walking around, but didn't seem to find much so we headed to one of the large shopping malls to grab an early dinner before relaxing in the hotel for the night. I wanted to enjoy the air conditioning and comfortable hotel room before embarking on a 5 day journey into the Amazon.  Because I'm a planner, we already had our tour set up before we arrived in Manaus. We booked with Amazon Green Tours and all trips were already planned out. Let the adventure begin... Day 1:  We were picked up from the hotel at 8:30am. We were pleasantly surprised to realize it was just us in the group. We were told there could be...