Visiting the Amazon had always been on my bucket list. Thanks to the Planet Earth documentaries (my favourite!) I've always wanted to visit the more remote parts of the world and see wildlife in their natural habitats. Now I can finally cross off the Amazon! Although I wouldn't mind going back someday and exploring a different part of it..since the whole region is huge and we barely scraped the surface on our 5 nights there.
We managed to see a lot of different species of animals but it wasn't easy to take photos of them. For example most of the time the monkeys were really far up on trees and quite hidden. Same with the macaws. I understand now that wildlife photographers must have endless patience, since it takes awhile to spot them in the first place...much less be able to get a good shot.
During our time there we saw: monkeys (I think 7 different kinds?), caimans, dolphins, 2 snakes (including an Anaconda caught by the village people), blue morpho butterflies, 1 sloth, 1 capybara, macaws, parrots, piranhas, lizards, frogs, lots of different types of birds, & tons of insects. I may have forgotten some..
I would have wanted to see a jaguar (we saw paw prints of one), toucans, poison dart frogs, armadillos..but maybe next time!
This was where our lodge was located. We stayed at the
Amazon Discovery Lodge which is on the banks of the Yanayacu River. I will post a full review of our stay in a future post.
We had to drive 2/2.5 hours from Iquitos to a town called Nauta, then from Nauta take a speed boat about 2 hours to the lodge. It was quite remote and very peaceful there. Our lodge was the only one in the area with any Internet connection (though it was super slow and not really reliable at times) but otherwise it felt like we were totally disconnected from the rest of the world.
Speeding down the Amazon River en route to our lodge!
I was a little bit surprised to see homes along the banks of the rivers. I never actually thought of people living right in the Amazon. I guess it wasn't as remote here as some other parts of the jungle though. The people here just spend their days fishing and hunting. Or making crafts (if they are in the village) for tourists to buy.
Here is our lodge! During our first days there we were the only guests, so it was just us and the staff. Afterwards we were joined by other travellers who came for 2 or 3 days. But it still wasn't a lot of people - always less than 10 guests at any given time. It was nice that it wasn't too crowded.
Each couple got their own private guide so that each tour was personalized. Our guide often let us choose which activities we wanted to do, go at which time, etc. I really liked that since the other tours we saw (from the 2 other lodges in the area) their boats always had a large group of people.
After arriving at the lodge, we got a few hours to rest. Then we went on our first activity - a boat ride to watch the sunset, look for caimans and watch the stars. I don't know if it's because it was our first activity of the Amazon but I think I enjoyed this the most. Or it was the most memorable.
Then we went around to look for baby caimans. Here is one our guide caught for us (for photo purposes only). They are so cute! They don't really move at all when caught. To find them we sailed around shining a flashlight in the water for flashes of red, which are their eyes.
It was so nice and relaxing, gently sailing around as it got darker and darker with lots of animal sounds around you. That was one of my favourite parts about the Amazon. At any time of day, you'll always hear tons of different animal calls to truly feel like you are deep in the wilderness. My favourite sound was the howler monkey. Their calls are deep roars and sound like very strong winds. It is a pretty frightening sound to hear if you are alone in a forest though.
The moon was so beautiful (you can kind of see it in the photo above) and unique. Then when it got completely dark, we looked up to see an endless blanket of stars. We sat in silence for several minutes just taking it all in. Living in the city, I don't get any chances to see stars in complete darkness. It is an experience I've had probably less than five times in my life but this was the most memorable time so far.
The next morning, we went on our first jungle walk!
A few steps in, we see our first animal - a snake. Can you see where it is? It's super camouflaged.
Zooming in..
The trees were all really cool with crazy roots.
Termite nest
The thickest tree trunk I've ever seen
Poisonous mushrooms
Then we found non-poisonous mushrooms which the guides picked for our dinner that night. They were delicious and tasted like the freshest mushrooms I've ever eaten! They wrapped them up in a large leaf and tied it with another plant into this cute little package. The machete is for cutting away any obstacles (branches for example) during the walk as some parts didn't have an actual trail.
During our walks the guides always had to walk first in case there was any dangerous animals along the path.
Resting in our room between activities. On the first day it was super hot. There's no air conditioning at all there - only fans. Also the shower has no hot water - only cold. It took awhile to get used to and we mostly showered after coming back from a hot jungle walk or other activity.
We got pretty lucky with the weather since it rained overnight the second night and brought cooler weather for awhile. I never expected comfortable temperatures of the low 20s in the Amazon. Also I was expecting it to rain a lot but it literally didn't rain at all (except overnight one night) during our days there! It was always beautiful and sunny.
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