Video produced/edited by Kaelyn.
Hello, my fellow wanderers!
We woke up and got ready for a long day on the Amazon River! We ate breakfast and got stuff we needed for the boat, like boots, rain jackets, and bug spray. We got on the boat and finally had some breeze because we felt so hot and humid on the land—we were like ahhie! We went to a river in the forest where we could see animals.
Daniel, our guide, looked at many animals that he could find and then showed us. We saw the Amazon River dolphin known as the pink dolphin, Iguana, monkey, hawk, and Heron. We were struggling to see it, so Daniel had a green light flashing that he could point to so we could see it. Later he gave us a wooden pole to fish with, and we fished, but no fish came to us. Then, we had to move to another location, but still nothing, so we moved the fishing to tomorrow. We ate lunch on the boat in the middle of the jungle to learn about and experience their culture while eating lunch, and there were dozens of mosquitoes around us. We had to eat while they bit us; we kept waving at them to get away from us. We ate our lunch very shortly; then we left that place and continued to boat around the river; we fell asleep in a food coma. In the blink of our eyes, we arrived in the middle of the river, where we could swim.
We jumped into the river, and we panicked because what if an unknown animal was under there and attacked us? But Daniel said that the place was safe to swim, so we listened to him. We continued to jump into the river, and I had a hard time getting up on the boat, so the boat driver helped me get out. It was nice of him.
After that, we dried up and arrived in the jungle and hiked to see the snake, so we started to hike, and our interpreter warned us there would be a lot of stairs. And we told her we had already been trained by Rainbow Mountain, Machu Picchu, and Puno, and we would be okay with those stairs. Then we started walking. I really hate snakes, so I had to look around to make sure no snake was around or near me. I kept finching when I saw a log that looked like a snake, but I still wouldn't step on it; I didn't want to risk myself. The snake-like branch was so sturdy that we could swing on it, so Jami went first, but she struggled to get on the wood, so our guide Daniel helped us by using his back to stand on it; Malinida were next, and Melanie, Kaylee, and I. I sat on the wood and swung it; I was surprised it was not broken, so it was so fun for us, and we continued to play with it until our guide told us it was time to leave for the next place. I felt terrible because we used our guide's back to get on, so his shirt was so dirty, but he still enjoyed helping us have fun. Later, one man showed us a dead poison dart frog and a baby anaconda, which was around 5 feet tall. I am so shocked that the man handled that anaconda so well; he picked the anaconda up so smoothly, and then that snake tried to attack him, but he avoided it with his skills. Then we were finished with the visiting snake, and we walked back to our boat, but the market was on the way to the boat, so we decided to get some of their things like wooden pans, bowls, brackets, and animals of the Amazon River.
We got onto the boat and 20 minutes later arrived at our hotel. We were thrilled because we had been on the river in the morning, so the total time there was 7 hours. We returned to our cabin but decided to swim near the pool. Kaelyn had a waterproof card game, so we played for one hour and took a shower to freshen up. We ate our dinner with a yummy dessert, then played some card games and walked back to our hotel on our last night together in Peru!
I can't believe the time has come so fast; it has been two weeks and one last night, and we will miss our nights in Peru! See you guys soon!
Good night, and stay curious!
-Lani