Wandergliding: Camping in the Jungle

January 14^th, 2022

Late in the afternoon, I hopped onto the resort’s long boat with the guide Linder to cross the Amazon for our night out camping. A mother and adult daughter from Lima with their guide Cesar came along as well and they were going fishing. We docked at the same spot as we did yesterday when Theresa, Segundo and I visited Monkey Island but this time we took a sidetrack early on and walked by a small village. It was cool to see how a small settlement exists in the jungle. There was a small football (soccer) pitch, a few buildings that functioned as the local school and probably about 15-20 house that we walked past that were on stilts about 8-10’ high for the wet season.

From left to right, guide Cesar, captain Robert and my guide for the camping Linder:

Some old workhorse plying the river.

We hiked only an hour out of the town to our home for the night. It was a pretty basic shelter with mosquito netting around it for walls, but it was raised up and had a covered walkway over to an outhouse. For just the two of us, it would do just fine. There were some thin mattresses inside and we had brought some sheets and mosquitos nets from the town when we signed in with the local office there.

The small village on the opposite side of the river from the lodge. The light blue buildings on the right are the school.

Linder giving me a guided tour.

Lawn mowing...Amazon style.

Another huge tree.

This is our home for the night.

Pretty basic...

Once we were set up for the night, Linder told me that we’d head off for sunset at a lookout tower. It was only about a 5 minute walk and we reached a swampy area where a couple of boats were moored. We hopped in one and started to paddle along a narrow waterway covered with algae. Monkeys were jumping around in the trees nearby. I enjoyed the ambience.

Nearby were a couple of boats that we could take for a paddle through this narrow, swampy channel.

Monkeys!

About 10 minutes later we reached the other side and hopped out of the boat. It was only another 10 minutes and we got to a lookout tower that was about 4 storeys high. As we climbed up, the structure creaked and groaned but seemed fairly solid. From the top, I scanned the horizon with some binoculars that Linder brought while he chilled out and had a nap. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of wildlife activity but the highlight for me was seeing a Hoatzin bird, which seemed so prehistoric.

The lookout tower.

The view from the top.

Spotting the hoatzin bird through the binoculars.

Scanning for wildlife.

As darkness set in, we started to return to our camp. We didn’t see much in the blackness of the forest but the paddle back in the boat was interesting. Again, didn’t see much, but the possibility of seeing a boa constrictor kept me on my toes.

A tarantula on the way back to camp...it got dark quickly.

Sure made the paddle back in the boat a bit spooky...especially when there's a chance you might spot an anaconda or caiman! Unfortunately/fortunately we didn't.

We ate our dinner back in the shelter and got to know each other a bit better. It was an early night for both of us as there isn’t much else to do, especially when your only light is a headlight. Unfortunately, I woke up a few times in the night with an upset stomach. It was raining (the first rain since I’ve been in the jungle in the supposed “rainy season”) so the covered walkway to the compost toilet was nice. Not to be overly graphic but on my second or third nighttime visit to the outhouse, I couldn’t help but see these large beetles, bigger than your thumb, feasting on what I had left behind. Eewww… Well, that’s what a composting toilet is all about I guess!

We were up around 6 am and hiked back to the small village. Luckily by this time, the rain had abated. Pedro was at the shore to ferry us back across the river with some ominous clouds to the south. We timed it well as when we were just walking back to the lodge, the skies started to open up.

The hike back in the morning.

An owl butterfly.

Camouflaged chickens on a side path.

A fancy house back in the village.

And on the other side of the road, the not so fancy house.

This poor rooster had no wings...but perhaps he still gets to get busy with the hens.

You can't really see it, but there is a big flat screen TV inside this house. Just seemed odd to me, these very basic homes with high tech.

Some of the plantations just outside the village.

Linder demonstrating how this plant's leaves are used for wrapping food up to cook them in a fire, or use as a plate or even transport the food (Mother Nature's tupperware).