Monday, January 24th 2011- Tupana Jungle Lodge

Unfortunately had to wake up at 8am the day after the Samba.  At least it was for a sweet 3 night Amazon trip.  One hour on a ferry from the ship, 2 hours on a bus, a ferry which carried our bus across a river, another hour on the bus and finally an hour in sketchy ass motorized canoes which leaked.  6 hours later we arrived at our Tapana Jungle lodge where we stayed.  The place was unbelievable, right on the water in the middle of the Amazon Rain forest.  Everything in the Amazon is like a big version of what we have at home.  Spiders, grasshoppers, beetles were all at least 3 to 4 times bigger than I have ever seen.  The type of stuff you see pictures of is what we were able to see every day we were there.  This trip also gave me the opportunity to meet some new people I have not spoken to yet.  The night we got there we did not really do anything because we were all so tired from traveling that day.  We played with their Wooly monkey named Cosheta who was the coolest monkey I have ever interacted with.  One which would actually play with you without biting you.  I have about 300 pictures and video of her but every time you rubbed her back she would roll over so you would rub her belly, reminded me of Schatzi.  It was really funny playing with her because she was just so smart.
The next morning we had a busy day.  Jungle hike in the morning followed by Piranha fishing followed by the alligator hunt at night.  Many pictures were taken of it all and unfortunately no one in our group was able to catch any piranha but we did see the pink dolphins in the river many times.  It was so peaceful sitting out there in the quiet fishing and watching dolphins swim by.  The kind of think you can’t take for granted because while I was sitting in that hot hot sun fishing I pictured everyone at home sitting in the cold ass buffalo weather in school.  We also did not see anything while alligator hunting because we had to go home early.  We were suddenly attacked by a swarm of wasps in the pitch black on the Amazon River in a canoe that tips way too easily.  I came out of it with 2 stings.  It was the worst.  That night we returned to our cabin to find a bat in it.  Took 20 minutes to kill it and get it out, videos to follow.  The following night which was Wednesday, January 26, we were able to sleep out in the middle of the rain forest in hammocks.  It was by far the best night there.  15 of us were hung tightly under a literally 9’X27’ roof.  We ate meat skewers cooked over the fire and right as we finished them it started to downpour.  We all rushed over to our mosquito net covered hammocks and jumped in.  It was such a cool experience to be able to do that.  Not the most comfortable thing but it was super fun.  All in all we lucked out with the weather because that is the only night it rained, and we were under a hut anyhow.  I am actually glad it did rain because it was a nice thing to fall asleep to.  Again, I thought to myself while falling asleep, “Where would I rather be on January 26th than sleeping in a hammock in the Amazon Rain Forest.”     In the morning we went back to the lodge to eat breakfast and began our trip back.  I went back to my stateroom on the ship (2040) and right to bed.  So sorry mom for not having this updated sooner but I was exhausted. We departed Manaus at 5pm and will reach the end of the Amazon River in 2 days, before starting a 7 day journey over to Takoradi, Ghana.