South America Day 29

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10th February

Today we were heading to Chalalan Eco Lodge deep within the Amazonian rainforest, 5 hours boat ride up stream from Rurre. We boarded the boat at 7.30am, donned our lifejackets and away we went. The river was high due to the wet season and also fast flowing, at times it felt like the boat was going in as we hit rapids caused by tree trunks in the water but 5 hours later we arrived at the landing point all OK. After a 30 minute trek through the forest we arrived at Chalalan. The lodge was set on a large lake surrounded by lush rainforest. The cabins were light & comfortable and we had our own private area.

The first afternoon we headed for a trek of 3 hours around the jungle looking at animals, plants & local traditions. The Chalalan Lodge is owned & ran by a local community based close to the lodge so they are very knowlagable about the area. We looked at giant trees 200ft tall & 20ft wide, lush palms with huge leaves and some which had legs instead of a trunk, and a variety of animals and birds including howler monkeys over our lodge. Alexandro our guide had grown up in the forest so shared his knowlage of madicinal and ediable plants in the area. The walk was great and fantastic to be amoungst such big plants and the noise of the jungle.

After dinner we headed out into the forest by torch light to spot nocternal animals. Our best find of the evening was a huge Taranchalla spider, bigger than the palm of my hand and apparently around 10 yrs old. We also spotted frogs, a small mouse like mamal & loads of creepy bugs going about their nightly buisness.

Again it was an early night to attempt to avoid the mosquito bites as they seemed just as bad here as in the Pampas.

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