We awake bright and early for our true jungle adventure to begin and I can finally see my surroundings. We're staying in an L shape collection of bungalow rooms, with white washed walls and terracota tiled rooves. In the centre of this is the grassy area for our combi, and behind about 50m away is another little out-building which were the bathrooms.
Either side of our hostel, like a backdrop to an Indiana Jones movie, arose two gigantic peaks of jungle hills that made the hostel look like it was buried in the cleavage of the jungle. And I found out what the rushing water noise was: it was coming from the rapid river lacing behing the hostel and off into the distant jungle, wide and shallow, filled with rocks galore.
Still feeling a bit iffy as we set off for the jungle, I just hope I can last till this evening! We arrive at the orange suspension bridge leading across the river from safety towards the unknown of la selva. It was truly something out of an action movie: a long swinging bridge with gapes in the boards. A sign of things to come I feel.
Our guides, Jordan and Nelson, gave us a crash course in jungle wall climbing before we set off. Key is not to fall :P Warnings about snakes were given and we were also shown the plants that could save our lives: the feminine of the plant had slender leaves with x4 the potency of it's fatter male counterpart. I say save what I mean is prolong, rubbing the plants on the bite could give you enough time to get to hospital before the venom killed you. Withou the plants you'd die in minutes. But beware, the active ingredient is deriavitve of penicillin so anyone with any penicilin allergies best be ware of the female plants as they'll probablly kill you faster than the snake :P
Great. So now I'm suitably on edge with the imminent fear of death. We begin our trek into the depths of the overgrowth, stopping on the way to chew on fresh coca leaves and termites. Tasty. When we get to our first true obstacle I realise that when the other volunteers had said "you'll get wet" they weren't joking. It turned out that the way we were going to go through the jungle was through the numerous waterfalls gushing through its' interior.
And we scaled these waterfalls with only a rope for support. Gotta love peruvian health and safety :P Jordan our guide was like this nimble elf-footed creature that'd dart up and down the waterfalls, tying ropes and literally running down waterfalls back to us to help us up. It was so unique to have such freedom in an adventure activity.
Not only did we climb up them but we ducked under the waterfalls and slid down them without breaking any bones! I really felt like we were adventurers in search of a forgotten city :P I got rocks in my hairs, my bikini, in my clothes! I was a mess afterwards but it was so worth it. Our exit route out of the jungle involved scaling a 10m jungle wall. Just don't think about the nature I had to keep telling myself. But all was well and after a knackering day hiking and swimming (!) through the jungle we made it back to base.
Sadly my illness had returned with avengence in the evening and I couldn't go to the club in the jungle (odd I know) So instead I tried to recover my energy and health for the last part jungle tour the next day.
hasta luego
xxx
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