It was our last night in the Amazon and we knew it would be the most exciting yet.
So far we’d slept comfortably and safely in a hut on the Amazon river, with a comfy bed and high powered fans to keep us cool. But this night it was all about to change. This night, we were going to camp in the actual forest!
We set out while there was still light.
We took our little boat with provisions and wove our way through the trees until we got to shore. We carried our belonging to a camp and set about finding wood for the fire.
Fun story – as we were searching for wood, our awesome guide Matthias stopped in his tracks and asked us if we could smell something. I couldn’t really, so asked him what was it he could smell. Simply, a boa constrictor. Yep. He could smell that it had passed not too long before. We kept an eye out but said snake didn’t decide to grace us with her presence, but I did spend the rest of the time thinking any different smell was a snake!
We ate a feast of chicken, rice, and salad (all prepared by us using the fire we built!) and just sat about admiring it all. All the sounds around us, the absolute nature of it all. Nothing like I had ever experienced before!
I’m not going to lie, some parts were pretty scary.
We heard a 6 meter cayman alligator calling, because he got territorial and was not pleased by our presence. Luckily, he decided to leave it at that and didn’t decide he needed to come claim it back. Phew!
Oh, and just above my hammock resided a jumping spider.
You know, those ones that jump and attack for no reason? Yea, those. There were many spiders and tarantulas around us, but that one did scare me more than the rest. My dear friend Pam would not have fared very well.
Even though my inner child wanted to run screaming, I decided to take deep breaths and just face it through. Such a big girl now!
After a shaky night’s sleep, we woke up to freshly brewed coffee and boiled eggs with toast.
It was not the easiest of nights. Monkeys tend to get very loud and scream right above you, while I was still on alert in case that huge alligator decided to come knocking! Not to mention the jaguars…
I needed a wee in the middle of the night and woke Matt to come with me as a personal body guard. Don’t think I would’ve been able to get through the night without him!
Matthias had a look around and announced we weren’t being watched by any animals. Besides all the sounds, all of the animals stayed well clear of our camp.
All except this fellow, who decided to come say an early morning hello! Don’t worry, he’s not poisonous!
I’m pretty sure we annoyed him from all the picking him up and paparazzi-ing, so he said his grumpy farewells and got out of there before we could snatch him up again!
It was a night unlike any other!
I’m sure we were never in any imminent danger, but it does really humble you to the power of nature when you realise just how defenseless you can be.
Would I sleep in the jungle like that again? Maybe. But I did love the experience and am so glad we did it!
Hi, I'm Teffy, a qualified Nutritionist and avid foodie. This blog is all about inspiring a balanced life through delicious and wholesome foods, with not a diet in sight. Healthy eating shouldn't be hard and stressful, it should be easy and fun - Working with my clients they are constantly amazed that yes, food can taste great AND be good for you!
