This was a serious trek, and it was so flippin cool. After about 7 hours of hiking into the jungle mountains, swimming upstream and climbing up waterfalls (as they call them, really just big rapids for the most part. Only two were taller than me..), finding different plants and wildlife, I was beat. It was quite an adventure. I have to say though, the whole time I was looking around at all these new things, I kept thinking about how we have this back home in Texas. Our plant and wildlife is obviously somewhat different, but the overall idea very much exists. And, our waterfalls are much better. And, we don't have cobras. So, who wins really.
When we started the day our guide told us to be careful, as many things in the jungle, particularly the snakes -- king cobras and vipers, were extremely fatal. What kind of advice is that?! Thank you sir; I will be sure to be aware... All is well, though, as each and every one of us made it back safe and sound. Luckily, there were only five on the tour. I can't imagine doing that with upwards of 20 people. He told us it is busy like that in-season. Woah! After slathering our bodies in bug spray from head to toe, we were off into a whole new world.
Here are some select pics from the day. My attempts to put them in proper order were unsuccessful, so you see them as you see them. We couldn't take anything with us on the hour of swimming against the current and climbing waterfalls, which was obviously the most picture-worthy part of the trip. However, everything else was also of great interest.
Lia, me and our guide after returning from the waterfall swim. He said we were going to play a game and then had us paint each other's faces. Who knows..
Starting off the day with a stop to feed some monkeys.
A rubber tree. Very, very cool.
Lia pulling on the rubber. It was just like any other I have ever felt.
Our guide in the bamboo forest. Do you see a path? Not me. I would have died on an island of starvation without him. Absolutely no idea where we were at any given moment. Although I must say, I have become slightly more in-tune with nature, and could have possibly found water and my general direction from the sun. Impressive, I know :).
This picture is slightly deceiving, but I will go ahead and let you believe I'm as high up as it looks.
The group waiting for something unknown to pop out of a hole. It was a spider. A big one. He never came out..
Swimming at the lunch stop and "waterfalls". It was so cold and so clean. They had some mini-catfish that would swim all around us and nibble at our toes.
Facing my fears and sliding down. Hitting all the rocks while tubing as a child has pretty much scarred me for life, but I got over it. This was fun.
Bamboo needles. Many places here advertise "Bamboo tattoos". These are the needles they use to do them. OUCH!!! Don't worry mom and dad, no way in hell would I ever get a tattoo here. Just sayin.
Lia and I laughing as we were trying to climb up a tree. This was towards the end of the trek so we were pretty beat, but you just gotta go for it sometimes.
A camouflage tree. I never knew this existed in nature. It was incredibly cool to see.
Swinging like Tarzan and Jane.
This was the last part of the trip. Crossing the river in this manner isn't as easy as it looks. The current was quite strong.
This guy was a greedy fella. He stole all the fruit from the other monkeys we were trying to feed.
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