Gun Shots, Piranhas, Electric Eels and Pink Dolphins.

You are reading this post a few days late as we have just emerged from an amazing trip in the Amazon Jungle. The reason it is late is because we have had no internet or phone for the past 4 days! But let me start at the beginning. I was woken by loud gunfire at 5.10 am in the town of Lago Agrio and four shots later I decided it was time to get going, so we boarded the 7.30am bus to El Puente de Cuyabeno wharf, about 2 hours drive. It was there we loaded into a canoe for the 2-3 hour ride down stream to our lodge. But the ride down stream was not just a chance to ride in a canoe but a chance to see some of the incredible wildlife and jungle we had come to see. We hadn’t gone more than 15 minutes, and we can across a mob of spider monkeys crossing the river. These were the first of 30 amazing animals we encountered on Day 1. We arrived at our rather primitive camp just in time for lunch. After a short siesta we headed back upriver to find some more animals and eventually ended up in Laguna Grande (a lake over 10m deep). This lake dries up in the dry season but right now it is a favourite haunt of the famous Amazon Pink Dolphins. These weird animals are nearly blind and rely solely on sonar to catch their prey because the water is so unclear, they can also twist their neck in circles as thier vertebrate aren't fused. Our guide suggested at this stage we should jump in and swim, after first pointing out that the piranhas, anacondas and electric eels usually swam closer to shore! The swim was great. It was then back to camp and on the way witnessed a boa constrictor and some weird fish bats and checked out some caimans (the amazon version of crocodile). We also saw a large tarantula but luckily it wasn’t the biggest of the species found here which is nearly 1ft in size. Overall, a great first day of our Amazon adventure.