The Amazon - Part 2 of 2

This is the second part of our little Amazon post. If you haven't done so, I'd recommed you read the first part first before reading this. 

Have you read the first part? Good. Let's continue, then. In the afternoon, we went to an indigenous village where we were to spend the night as well. Tourists are still a rare sight there, which is probably why the locals were very friendly towards us.

  

 

Our accomodation was rather basic - we slept in the house of our guide (well, it's really a single room with a roof but no walls), sharing with himself, his wife, his kids, and his parents. We went to bed at around six, as it got dark and there is no electric lighting. Next door, a shaman was singing to help an old man to recover from his sickness. We slept on the floor and in hammocks covered by mosquito nets. A truly great experience.

The next morning, our two indigenous guides took us gringos for a proper hike into the rainforest. We had to wear rubber boots, mainly to protect us against snakebites. It is hard to describe the wealth of knowledge the indigenous have about the forest - they know every plant, every sound, and every animal. Since it is so hard to describe, let's not get into this.

Around midday, we set up our basic campsite in the middle of the forest using machetes to clear the ground. Afterwards, we went fishing. Judith turned out to be quite the pro, catching 8 (albeit small) fish, which we later ate in the classic tamales style (steamed over the open fire wrapped in leaves).



Due to the different layers of vegetation blocking the light, it got dark quite early, which is why we went to bed at 5pm. Even though 5 of us shared a tent designed for 3 people, we were very happy to escape the incredible number of mosquitoes. In addition, there are several nocturnal animals which are quite aggressive (poisonous snakes which attack from up to 7 meters away for example), so you shouldn't walk at night. Around midnight, it started to rain rather strongly, but our makeshift accomodation performed well.



The next morning, we tried to get moving as quickly as possible to escape the trizillions of mosquitoes. Those little f****s bite through your clothes, and don't really care about your insect repellent. We estimated each one of us to have gotten bitten around 80-100 times.


Back in the village, we spent the remainder of the time with the locals. In the afternoon, we took the boat back to Leticia, looking forward to our cold shower in the hostel and a night in a proper bed.

The next stop of our trip would be quite different to the very basic Amazon - Bogotá, the cosmopolitan Colombian capital.