Aren't those the famous last words or many an intrepid traveller?
The previous day our guide had suggested that upon the return trip from our trek through the Amazon rainforest, we should take a river raft trip back to the lodge. It would be fun and we'd probably get a little wet but everything would be fine. Considering the day was hot and humid getting a little wet seemed like not a big deal and after a long sweaty hike might be quite refreshing.
The next day started warm as we boarded our motorized canoes to get to the jungle trail. Seeing as how it's the rainforest we had to where knee high rubber boots to hike through the mud from previous days rain.
Along the way we saw a bird that followed us for the first part of our hike.
Then we did a chair zip line to get across a gorge.
While there wasn't much wildlife there was still plenty of colorful flora to photo and admire.
As we reached to the peak of a hill to overlook the lower Amazon river basin it began to rain. Now I don't mean a little misty rain or even a little everyday sprinkle I mean a full on pounding big drop welcome to the jungle kind of rain. The trees offered little protection from the wet, in fact they offered so little that the tour guide decided to just give up talking about the stuff around us and hightail it back to the dock because in his very own words "when it starts to rain here the wind blows really hard and then trees fall down." Great. Thus we double timed it back.
Once back at the dock we all piled into the canoes and headed across the river to the far shore. When we got there, the guide asked if any of us were still interested in the raft ride. A handful of us raised our hands. We figured we are already wet whats a little more. As we stood on the shore in the pouring rain we watched 4 island natives start pulling tree logs together and roping them. Oh gawd, we thought this is truly a raft, a real Huck Finn on the Mississippi raft, except this was the Amazon river---in a rain storm. When they were done we stared skeptically at the 5x8 foot raft while our guide said it was made of balsa wood and would float easily. We looked at each other and thought we'd come this far lets get it over with. So six of us and our boat paddler/steerer climbed aboard with one last instruction from the guide to take off our rubber boats as they could fill up with water and drag us down. Ugh. We did as told and not we are in our wet sock feet. When we all get aboard the raft sinks into the water about 6 or so inches putting us in water up to our waist but still floating. Last chance to change our minds until they push us out into the middle of the river where the current picks us up and drags us down river.
By this time we realize we've made a terrible mistake and this ride is going to take at least an hour back to the lodge---in the pouring rain--hip deep in water--that's murky---with species you can't quite see in the water. At this point all we can do is laugh hysterically because we are too frightened to do anything else including moving. And yes we'd heard those stories of things swimming up into orifices so all the guys cuffed our pant legs a little tighter. One of us made the mistake of trying to reposition himself causing one of the logs to roll and the raft dipped to one side and all of us yelling "NOBODY MOVE!" From there it was just a comedy of jokes, barbs and singing "My Heart Will Go On" to keep our minds off being stuck in the middle of the river, especially when we lost sight of the other canoes for those folks who decided not to take the raft. We tried to get our paddler/steerer to go faster but he didn't seem to speak any English and just laughed thinking we were having the greatest time. We saw people standing on the shore waving at us just knowing they were laughing at us also thinking "estupido tourists". Of course this is also the time when it started to rain harder, if you can believe it and the wind started to blow, just great.
Soon we hear a buzzing and see one of the canoes coming our way and then speeding on buy---with our guide on board waving and laughing--right then we decided to take some off his tip for that. Especially since the boat kicked up more waves to add to the ones that where already splashing us on what was like a category 1 rapid. Then the lodge came into sight and we wanted to cheer but we were so cold and so wet I told everyone we need to use our own hands to help paddle this thing faster. And nearly 1 hour after our adventure began we hit the dock at the lodge and you've never seen 6 people move faster to get off something. I have never been wetter in my entire life, even my ass cheeks were wrinkling and puckering. I padded back to my room in my wet sock feet, disrobed quickly and spent the next 20 minutes in a blazing hot shower.
We all met later and over a few beers decided we would tell everyone it was the best thing we ever did and we would go on the company's website and write raves about it so that everyone after us would experience the joy of rafting down the Amazon like we did. Ahhh...travel...got a love it.
Answer to previous posts trivia question: January 1st 1914 from St. Petersburg Florida to Tampa.
This posts trivia question: How much rain can fall yearly in the Amazon?
The previous day our guide had suggested that upon the return trip from our trek through the Amazon rainforest, we should take a river raft trip back to the lodge. It would be fun and we'd probably get a little wet but everything would be fine. Considering the day was hot and humid getting a little wet seemed like not a big deal and after a long sweaty hike might be quite refreshing.
Once back at the dock we all piled into the canoes and headed across the river to the far shore. When we got there, the guide asked if any of us were still interested in the raft ride. A handful of us raised our hands. We figured we are already wet whats a little more. As we stood on the shore in the pouring rain we watched 4 island natives start pulling tree logs together and roping them. Oh gawd, we thought this is truly a raft, a real Huck Finn on the Mississippi raft, except this was the Amazon river---in a rain storm. When they were done we stared skeptically at the 5x8 foot raft while our guide said it was made of balsa wood and would float easily. We looked at each other and thought we'd come this far lets get it over with. So six of us and our boat paddler/steerer climbed aboard with one last instruction from the guide to take off our rubber boats as they could fill up with water and drag us down. Ugh. We did as told and not we are in our wet sock feet. When we all get aboard the raft sinks into the water about 6 or so inches putting us in water up to our waist but still floating. Last chance to change our minds until they push us out into the middle of the river where the current picks us up and drags us down river.
By this time we realize we've made a terrible mistake and this ride is going to take at least an hour back to the lodge---in the pouring rain--hip deep in water--that's murky---with species you can't quite see in the water. At this point all we can do is laugh hysterically because we are too frightened to do anything else including moving. And yes we'd heard those stories of things swimming up into orifices so all the guys cuffed our pant legs a little tighter. One of us made the mistake of trying to reposition himself causing one of the logs to roll and the raft dipped to one side and all of us yelling "NOBODY MOVE!" From there it was just a comedy of jokes, barbs and singing "My Heart Will Go On" to keep our minds off being stuck in the middle of the river, especially when we lost sight of the other canoes for those folks who decided not to take the raft. We tried to get our paddler/steerer to go faster but he didn't seem to speak any English and just laughed thinking we were having the greatest time. We saw people standing on the shore waving at us just knowing they were laughing at us also thinking "estupido tourists". Of course this is also the time when it started to rain harder, if you can believe it and the wind started to blow, just great.
Soon we hear a buzzing and see one of the canoes coming our way and then speeding on buy---with our guide on board waving and laughing--right then we decided to take some off his tip for that. Especially since the boat kicked up more waves to add to the ones that where already splashing us on what was like a category 1 rapid. Then the lodge came into sight and we wanted to cheer but we were so cold and so wet I told everyone we need to use our own hands to help paddle this thing faster. And nearly 1 hour after our adventure began we hit the dock at the lodge and you've never seen 6 people move faster to get off something. I have never been wetter in my entire life, even my ass cheeks were wrinkling and puckering. I padded back to my room in my wet sock feet, disrobed quickly and spent the next 20 minutes in a blazing hot shower.
We all met later and over a few beers decided we would tell everyone it was the best thing we ever did and we would go on the company's website and write raves about it so that everyone after us would experience the joy of rafting down the Amazon like we did. Ahhh...travel...got a love it.
Answer to previous posts trivia question: January 1st 1914 from St. Petersburg Florida to Tampa.
This posts trivia question: How much rain can fall yearly in the Amazon?
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