Lacandon Jungle Ahoy!

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Greetings everyone,

'Tis the day of travel, however this post of course is being done AFTER we left the jungle.

Me and my housemate were up pretty early, tieing up the loose ends of whatever we had not yet completed. We got our stuff to the front door, pretty early, or so I thought. When waiting outside, our neighbouring classmates also came out, one all packed and ready to go, the other one to see us off (because she got her passport stolen, if you don't remember). Their host mom was nice enough to ask me if I had anything to eat yet, and as I hadn't, she offered me to have a slice of watermelon. Yum! Now... as I was enjoying my slice of watermelon... up came our transportation to pick us up. Apparently we were first on his list, and I was thinking we'd be the last.

So, sadly I had to leave several bites of watermelon behind as I helped to get stuff loaded. One last hug with the classmate remaining behind (due to certain circumstances) and I almost cried, partly because she won't be with us (she's about the only one I have a strong connection with), and partly because I didn't want to leave San Cristobal. Before I got on the van, my host mom handed me yet another small bag of goodies, this time a package of cookies, small water bottle, and a few golden apples. Seriously, their generosity is putting me to shame... I wish I could have given them a card but trust me, some of my classmates tried hard to find a place that sold cards but failed to find any. Perhaps we should have asked members of our host families or other local friends (or maybe I should have made one at home before we left). Too late for that...

I admit after getting on the van that I was thankful we were first, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get the best seats on it (backseat corner :P). We left and went around the route to pick up the rest that were on the list for our van. We only had a bit of trouble locating one pair, but other than that, everything went smoothly (except some of the group were waiting outside for longer than they thought they had to wait, and as I had mentioned before, it gets pretty cold in San Cristobal during the night and early morning so they were freezing by the time we arrived).

After picking everyone up (on our list. there's another vehicle for the rest if you haven't got the idea by now), we left San Cristobal and drove for a few hours before we got to have breakfast (buffet style). After breakfast, it was time for the nice, long, agonizing drive to the jungle. It was going to take just about the whole day to get there, as there were factors such as bad road conditions and military points. Our coordinator said that once we arrive at our final destination, we could go swimming in front of his cabin. That was not to be... as we ended up arriving almost in complete darkness.

The drive was not the most fun, as you could tell from the last paragraph, as there were a lot of road/speed bumps (I kid you not, it's probably like one every five feet). Didn't like the choices for lunch but I had to eat something, and at least I got to see some wild parrots. They were all green so they blended quite well into the trees, and I swear I took a picture of the pair but either I accidentally deleted the one that has them or I didn't zoom close enough for them to show distinctly in the picture I still have at that location. -Sigh-

Other than getting to see some wild parrots, not a lot happened along the drive, but I must say I've never seen so many chickens in my life along the drive.

On arrival we unloaded the vans and figured out who was going to group with whom. Of course, the only two guys of the group didn't have a choice but to have a cabin for just the two of them. In my cabin, we only had one free bunk which was the one above me (I got lucky with a bottom bunk), so everyone used it to dump stuff on it to keep out of reach of the creepy crawlies. Like scorpions.

The cabins were already equipped with bug nets over the bunks, and mine had three hammocks in the front which others envied because some didn't even have one. Fun thing about these cabins? The only thing between us and nature is a hanging cloth/blanket in the doorway. Good times...

Now after getting ourselves set up in our cabins, some have gone off to shower. As for me? I'm going to bed... I should have gone to shower but I was exhausted from being up early and on the road for as long as we were. Don't worry, I do take one eventually.

~Kedi~

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Photos

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The early morning as the sun's rising :P

004
Nice panoramic view from the lunch location :P

012
My cabin :)

005
Some rather noisy ducks there and a few turtles