El mejor fin de semana de mi vida

Title: THE BEST WEEKEND OF MY LIFE!

I can't wait to post the pictures and videos from this weekend.

To start it off we had a 30 minute flight then we waited at a hotel for our canoe to arrive. While at the hotel [we were the in the furthest city to the east without being in the Amazon] we saw a parrot, two monkeys and lots of peacocks. The monkeys were squirrel monkeys and were adorable. I was scooting up close to one for a picture and it jumped on me. I was the first person to get jumped on so I was a bit scared to see what would happen. It nibbled me and hopped right off. The monkeys really liked to bite [not hard but still not comfortable]. The peacocks didn't really like to be photographed but I got a picture after a while. They are surprisingly fast! The parrot also liked to bite toes and chase us, he wasn't very friendly. He did say "hola" though, so that was cute.

After waiting at the hotel for about two hours our canoe arrived and we sailed down a river [don't know the name] for another two hours. After the boat ride we took a chiva [doorless bus] for two hours over a gravel road into the forest. Last, we took another canoe for two additional hours down the Tiputini River until we reached the Tiputini Biodiversity station.

We arrived and had a quick orientation then settled into our cabins. The cabins had metal mesh protecting us from bugs and were really nice. I loved that we could hear all of the nature sounds as we slept, and of course the rain. True to its name, it rained A LOT. I didn't mind because it was super humid so the rain made it cooler and kept the bugs away. During the first night I saw the shadow of a tarantula on top of a ceiling pane and some bats then we ate dinner and went to sleep. The lights go out at 9:30 to conserve energy so we went to bed pretty early every night. Breakfast was at 6:30 every day so it was good that we slept early. The food was pretty good too. They have staff that cooks for the people there since there are a lot of researchers that live there through the year. The way the director put it is "if there isn't good food, people get pretty grumpy being sweaty and without civilization"

The first day we were there we went to a lake and hiked The Anaconda Path. We paddled a canoe around the lake to see the wild life and then the best day of my life happened. First we saw a caiman [small crocodile] but it was raining really hard so we didn't get any good pictures. Then as we're casually joking about seeing an anaconda, our guide says "BIG BIG anaconda in the marsh" we laughed and thought he was messing with us but he was 100% telling the truth. He pulled the canoe up through the shallows but we couldn’t get close enough so the crazy dude hops out and pulls the canoe [as a piranha goes flying through the air]. We stepped out of the canoe into a muddy marsh and saw the monster of a snake in front of us. Our guide said it was about 5m so I estimated about 15+ feet. It had just eaten [you could see the bulge in its stomach] so our guide said it was really docile. We reached down and touched it and it moved a little. After we regained our confidence, my group reached down again and pet the anaconda as it slowly slithered in to the water. It was so long that it took about one minute for the whole body to become submerged.
You would think that is the end of the best day of my life but it’s not! Later that night our guide showed us where to find four tarantula holes. He also showed us how to lure them out and I got very good at this. After the lights went out, my friends and I took our flashlights and went on the hunt for tarantulas. I managed to get one to come out of its nest and it was so cool! I took videos of the tarantula and my friend got a video of the anaconda petting. I will try to post everything as soon as possible.
The following day, I went to a lookout tower above the forest and saw a macaw [no sure of the spelling] and a toucan and green parrots. We didn’t see much else from the tower. Other groups had monkeys come within 10 feet but we didn’t see any that close. I guess I shouldn’t complain since I was in the only group that saw an anaconda J After that we walked through the forest and saw wooly monkeys in trees. We ate lunch and then headed for forest canopy bridges. We had harnesses since the bridges are very shaky but it was a lot of fun to be up high and see across the whole forest. We didn’t see very many animals but the sights were beautiful. There was an extra high ladder that led up a HUGE tree so of course I had to climb it! I have pictures of the bridges too that I’ll post later. I saw a lot of bullet ants while on the bridges. They are about one inch long and if you get bitten by one you have four hours of excruciating pain. I didn’t get bitten and I was very careful around them.
That night we went caiman watching on a canoe and we saw four. All of them were small in comparison with North American alligators but it was still fun to find them at night. My guide was by far the best and he brought us a present one night. It was a white trash bag with something inside so we shined a flashlight to see inside and it was a tarantula. I was so excited! While on the ground I videotaped the spider and it kept charging at me. Our guide picked it up and put it on us. I have never been more excited and scared at the same time in my entire life. I asked him to not let the tarantula get up to my neck but he didn’t really listen. I was freaking out a bit [more like a lot] as the spider got close to my ear and you can see my terror face in the video. I definitely need to send the video to some show because I even laugh at the face I made. The first time I tried holding the tarantula it jumped off of me onto the ground. Yes that’s right people, tarantulas can jump and my friend got a picture of it jumping in midair.
During one of the hikes we stopped at an ant nest and my guide picked it up. He broke it open and told us to eat the ants. They are very small and called lemon ants because they taste like lemon for real. It was weird eating them because they actually taste good and they fizzle on your tongue when you eat them live.
I also braved my fears of dark open waters and I floated in the Tiputini River with only a life jacket for about 30 minutes. Of course I was freaked out by everything that touched me BUT there was no way I was going to be the only chicken that stayed on the boat. I was only touched by leaves and sticks, no piranhas or caiman!
I seriously had the best weekend of my life and will have to visit the amazon again someday. I am sad that I didn’t see a puma or jaguar but I knew it was very rare. The way back was long again but we stopped at a Warani [indigenous tribe] town and they performed a “traditional song” for us. After we watched the performance in the straw hut I casually looked behind a corner and saw the rest of the “tribe” watching a big screen tv from their house. I am not sure if it was fake or if the dance was part of keeping their ancient culture alive but it was fun to watch.
I can’t wait to post the pics and videos for you all, I just hope it doesn’t take forever to download. I’ll try and be quick!