April Fools!

---

This trip is amazing, with some interesting mishaps along the way. Today I woke up feeling kinda icky...congested like. I figured it was the humidity. It's the Rainy Season in the Jungle afterall. So today before my hike I had the opportunity to take a golf cart around the hotel perimiter. Normally that's not very cool but when your hotel is a series of platforms and towers in the Amazon Jungle, suddenly it's damn cool! I saw the tower where Jacque cousteau stayed back in the day, the King of Spain and of course...when The producers of Survivor: Amazon filmed here, they stayed at this hotel.
There is a tree on the land that archaeologists have dated back to 1500! there's a pic below. I still can't believe I'm in the Amazon Jungle! As I sit on the canoe, many emotions are running through me. First, I'm still in disbelief that I'm here. I NEVER thought I'd actually make it to the Amazon jungle. Mostly because I'm terrified of spiders and this is the land of tarantulas and various othere gynormous creepy spiders. Now I'm nervous because I've been psyching myself up for the inevitable....coming face to face with my fear. I am more curious as to how I'll react because I feel I've come a long way in my exposure therapy before I left Dover. I'm praying that i don't freak. But it's me...we'll see.

When we get to our place to hike, it's where a family lives and makes all sorts of stuff. mostly jewlery and things of the native sort. We head right into the jungle and I can feel my heart racing. I tell myself 2 things 1st--"don't look for them...and you won't see them..." and 2 "they ARE just bugs get the F*ck over it.) That one actually works well.

I know it’s cliché, but I really am aware how small I am at that moment. These trees are HUGE! Everything is huge! I see some small spiders crawling about…good. No panic! But they’re small… The guide is explaining all the trees and plants we see. There’s one that we use a stick to hit…and how many times we hit it lets the natives know we’re there. For example, hit it 4 times, it means we are visitors. Hitting it 5 times means we need help and the natives will come find us. Cool, huh?? Who needs a cell phone?!  as I’m still looking around I suddenly hear the word I dread “tarantula.” I wasn’t that close to my guide so I didn’t know exactly what I was going on. I just froze and waited to hear it in English. He pointed to the tree I was standing behind and pointed to the ground and said “this is a tarantula nest. If you look inside you can see…” At that point I didn’t want to know what I could see. I just quickly went around it. Not wanting to tempt fate. Later I asked one person if the tarantula was in there…and it was not. Woohoo! But either way I did learn something about myself. I didn’t panic at the thought of walking around the nest, I just swiftly moved by. I didn’t free-didn’t cry—I just went on about my business. Still, this is not the actually spider itself but I know it’s a huge step for me.

Once we finished the hike we went back to the home where the nice family lives and they explained the foods they make and we had a FRESH Brazilian nut. In retrospect that was probably a bad idea. But OMG I’ve never had a nut like that. (stay on topic people…)

The boat ride back to the hotel was nice and relaxing, except I was really feeling icky now. I thought the heat was getting to me being in the jungle and whatnot. Little did I know that I had a temp of 101. the rest of the day I just relaxed, keeping a damp cloth on me at all times just to break my fever. (That wouldn’t happen for 2 days though) I had to nap after lunch because I just wasn’t feeling great and I still wanted to enjoy my last full day in the Amazon. I have come all this way and I was NOT letting my fever get in the way of me experiencing the jungle. Nope.
Overall it was a great day! And tomorrow before I head back to Manaus I’m going to visit a native tribe. That should be fun!!

---