Day Off in the Jungle

Today was our only full day off in the jungle and it was definitely jam packed. We slept in a little longer than usual for an 8AM breakfast of pancakes, little sausages, mango, papaya, and grapes. After breakfast one of the Peruvians with us Juanito's wife came to sell and trade her crafts. They were some of the best I'd seen anywhere so far, so I bought a bunch of stuff from her and also traded her a T-shirt that I'd been holding onto for years and I gave her kids a coloring book and pencils. Since her stuff was so nice and I know her husband it was nice to support the family. 

After browsing her artesenia we got ready to go out hiking. Because of the bugs in the jungle we wore long pants, long shirts, rubber rain boots, and hats. Basically we were sweltering hot and still covered in mosquitos. I've never seen so many! We split into two groups for hiking and set off into the jungle. Sadly I didn't see much in the way of animals, but is was still nice. I saw three spiders, a ton of leaf cutter ants, bullet ants, cicadas, and a butterfly. We also saw a rubber tree, wild cacao (mmm chocolate), a root that's super porous and we could drink water from it, enormous ficus trees, strangler trees, seeds that are so hard people call them vegetable ivory and make buttons out of them, hearts of palm, etc. Basically I saw a lot of jungle. A few people saw a tree rat and a marmoset but I never saw it and was sad. 

Our hiking group. Jose Luis, me, Fritz, Paige, Stephanie, and Ida

After getting back from the hike I felt super nasty. I was sweaty and smelled like a mix of sweat, sunscreen, and deet. Yuck. I played some cards for a bit with down of the group and eventually gave in and joined the people swimming in the Yarapa River. The water was really nice and it felt amazing to cool down! We got out just before lunch with enough time to change into dryer clothes. Lunch was fish with beans and the usual. 

After lunch we played more cards, since that's basically what we have to do here, and around 4PM we went out on the boat to see the dolphins. We saw lots of both the grey and pink Dolphins where the Yarapa meets the Marañon River (spelling likely wrong there, sorry). It was really relaxing and fun. I saw up top and got a few okay pics, though they are definitely hard to snap! They're on my nice camera so I can't upload those until I'm home most likely since my computer is so full. On the boat ride back we spotted a toucan as well just as we were coming back to Yacumama, which was amazing. One more animal down!

After dolphin watching we played cards again (shocker) and just before dark I took s shower and found some clothes that were still actually clean. We then played, guess what, CARDS, again until dinner which was chicken stir fry and the usual. Plaintains made their return today. 

After dinner we started one the the residents presentation, but broke for came to celebrate two birthdays in the group, one of which was today and the other who's is tomorrow. There's no over here, but the cake in a pan was delicious!  We then finished the presentation and dos one more before bed time. While brushing our teeth we found another banana spider in the bathroom, but we chased him into the wall and we're hoping he doesn't return. Otherwise it's now bedtime and I'm exhausted! 

Our spider. It was enormous.