Guess where i was the past 3 days: yes, in the tropical Amazone! Every morning i woke up with a lot of jungle, bird and insect music. I learnt a lot about all the plants and animals here around the Madre de Dios river. It is how the guides describe it. The jungle can be dangerous, because it is not our home. If indigenous people would come to the Western world, they can also be hurt because of traffic or our different rules. But although you have to be careful in the jungle, animals dont attack you as long you leave them alone. Only mosquitos do, even when you use the repellent...

I saw crocodiles, capuchin monkeys, tarantula's, turtles, butterflies, black scorpions, frogs, a green snake, big insects and a lot of special birds while i was there. The most dangerous animals i saw during the night on a evening walk, accompagnied by Timon and Pumba, the local cat and wild pig of the reserve. They were following us everywhere and searching for their evening food. After that walk full of tarantula's i double checked my room to be save during the night. There was a lot of noice during the night so i was kind of worried. There was also no wifi and only electricity during a couple of hours a day, which made the experience even more real.

I have noticed that it is kind of hard to spot animals in the wild. They hide themselves, live underground or high in trees and are mostly afraid of people. So i was happy every time i saw one. It was the easiest way to spot them when i did the paddle canoe tour. We paddled the whole Sandoval lake around searching for animals close to the water. The most exciting moment was when a whole family of monkeys passes by in the trees next to us. Also when we ate lunch and a green snake appeared next to us, i knew i was in a real jungle.

One of the most interesting walks in the jungle was with Apolo, a guide that has been doing this for many years. He knew a lot about the plants and animals and their function in the jungle. Some plants have healing power, which can be used for headaches, stamoc pains, etc. Termites and their house e.g. can be used as a medicine tea when you have bladder stones. Trees can become more than 600 years old, so they are huge! And it's survival of the fittest that counts: a lot of plants climb up on trees to find some sunlight. There are also walking trees that consist of a lot of little trunks and move to other places with more sunlight.

The cherry on the cake was the zipline activity from tree to tree over 30 meters high! Really amazing! Next post about Machu Picchu!