Primitive Camping Excursion - as if living in a bamboo hut in the rainforest wasn't remote enough

Gigantic Ficus with tiny rubber tree (white bark)

As if living in a 3 hut compound, in bamboo huts on stilts with no walls, electricity or running water in the middle of the rainforest, miles and miles, and miles from nowhere wasn't remote enough, someone decided that we needed to take a "primitive" camping trip. I know, it wasn't my idea (I think it was Justin's). Not that I objected, it was an adventure after all. The guides were not too happy about it though.

We packed up some of our stuff, pulled on our jungle boots (so not great for long hiking, but apparently necessary to protect from snakes), and hiked off into the jungle.

The Penis Tree

Into the wild

Inspecting Grub Nut

We weren't following any trail that I could discern - I have absolutely no idea how the guides found their way to where we were going, nor how we got back. The hiking was super tough in many places. There were several times where we had to cross marshes on narrow logs - I fell (with my pack on) and had to be rescued more than once. Eventually they found me a walking stick. It was sweaty, muggy, and buggy, but wow.. the plants and trees were AMAZING. I hadn't realized the the jungle right next to the river was so much smaller and thinner, it was already so dense. But the farther in we went, the more mind-boggling the trees became. Fear of dying in an Amazon marsh aside, it was truly amazing, and everything I had imagined being in the Amazon rainforest would be like.

Grub nut

Michael eats grub

The boys ate grubs (above), I chickened out. We found a penis tree (also for the boys), a stilt palm that literally walks through the jungle in search of more sunlight, water vines, canopy bromeliads, and one of my favorite medicinal plants Uncaria tomentosa (Cat's claw).

Stilt Palm

Canopy Bromeliads

Water Vine

Cat's Claw

Eventually we came to our camp site next to a lake. Oscar provided fish hooks and fishing line. I don't remember how the first fish was caught, but we cut up the first fish and used it as bait to catch the rest of the fish. I found the lucky spot, and ended up catching a whole bunch of beautiful chubby black oscar fish - which were SO much better than piranha - they only had a central skeleton, and were all white meat. So good! Oscar (our guide, not the fish), found and cut down a heart palm for us and we goto to eat the heart fresh out of the tree - also amazing.

Fishing

Oscar Fish!

Dinner for all

Heart Palm for dessert!

After eating the boys cut down some balsa wood, used vines for ropes and built a raft, just to say they had. We slept in tents and hiked back out the next day.