This was followed buy an even more torturous 3-hour journey upstream on a very hard wooden-seated boat, made bearable by spotting the oodles of wildlife to be seen along its banks. These included over 200 crocodiles, storks, some funny pig-or boar type animals, terrapins, chinchillas (little monkeys), a toucan, howler monkeys and also pink river dolphins which was a real treat.
It scared me rotten
After a relaxing dinner we went to the nearest bar to watch the sunset and down cervezas, and followed this with a night boat ride. To be honest all we saw were croc's eyes shining in our torchlight. Sadly it was rather spoiled by our guide leaping into the bushes and coming back with a baby croc in one hand for people to take photos of. El got rather cross and told the guide in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to interfere with nature, but when the rest of the group stared daggers at her she had to shut up and turn away in a silent moral objection.
Our second day saw us having a 3-hour (why is everything in batches of 3 hours?) walk around the swampy grassland looking for an Anaconda. Of course the guide said he'd catch it for photo opportunities and when El objected he pointed out that we'd not see anything.Who cares about a stupid snake anyway. In fact, what self-respecting Anaconda is going to let a group of 16 tourists come anywhere close to it? Of course there was no sign of a snake but some beautiful storks and birds, plus a wonderful array of pretty flowers which were more than adequate to enjoy.
Our 3rd day saw us get up early for a sunrise and then breakfast was followed by Pirhana fishing. Our guide, having decided as El was an eco-warrior that she would not want to fish and made her make a necklace out of beads made from seeds. She was a bit annoyed but in the end no-one caught any fish anyway so at least she got to take something home!
Kieran had a very bad belly ache and on the last day the guide gave him a jungle medician made from lemon, coco leaves and the bark of a tree called Diablo, it tasked rank but got me through the 6 hour back to town trip with out any "accidents"
Chilling in the Jungle
After a few relaxing hours chilling out in the hammocks we boarded the boat and jeep for the torturous journey back home. Tired, dusty, dirty and hot, but having seen some amazing animals in their natural habitat and hopefully given the guides some food for thought about their responsibility.
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