Global Health Adventures: Amazon Day 4: Night in the Jungle

Tuesday, November 14

After postponing our night in the jungle secondary to rain on Monday night, we awoke Tuesday hoping to have good weather for a night in the jungle Tuesday night. Indeed the rain ended and we had enough sun during the day to dry our wet shoes and clothes that were soaked during the previous day's journey.

Before heading to the jungle for our night of camping in the forest, we set out for a manioc plantation during the morning. In addition to growing manioc, this farm also grew pineapple, as shown below in the photos. We also encountered a plant that could be used to paint one's face (also see the photos below...). After a morning at the plantation we returned to the lodge to eat lunch and prepare to leave for our night in the jungle.

We set out for our night in the jungle at about 3 pm, and noted a few threatening clouds in the sky en route. Fortuantely, we were nearing the camp when a few rain drops began to fall. The rain ended up amounting to little, and we actually had a dry night in the rain forest, quite a contrast to the previous night. Our first task was to erect our hammocks and mosquito nets, which required us to procure some vines and sticks from the jungle to support our mosquito nets. Our guide set up the nets and hamocks for the ladies in our group, but left the three of us to figure things out for ourselves. Just as it was beginning to become too dark to see, we were able to complete the setup of our hammocks. We had a great dinner of chicken around the fire, and headed to bed only after Nate and half of our group went off on an unsuccessful search for more caimans. While not finding any caimans, our guide vaught a bullfrog, and Nate found a wasp (or rather was found by a wasp which subsequently stung him). We retired to our hammocks to enjoy a night in the forest, falling asleep to the sounds of frogs, insects, and all of the noises of the jungle.

Face Paint