Deep in the Amazon rainforest...

Trip Start Jul 22, 2008
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15
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Trip End Jun 20, 2009


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Where I stayed
Hotel Yewae
(Leticia hotels)

Flag of Colombia  ,
Monday, April 6, 2009

    Finally another tick on the list of things to do before I die. There was no way I was leaving South America without seeing the amazon. And it's absolutely amazing, just like I imagined, just as I'd seen in the movies. We (Alexandra and I) arrived this afternoon after 2 flights - like all flights Colombian, we had to go to Bogota first - a taxi ride to the dock and an hour-long trip on a lancha (a type of river speed boat) right up the Amazon to the lodge, about 65km from Leticia, the biggest town in the Amazonas department. The boat ride was great - I had my "wow" tourist face on the whole time. The widest part of the river we passed was easily as wide as Lough Neagh. The air here is very close and there are a lot of bugs and mosquitos, but having lived on the coast for the last 9 months, these things no longer bother me.
    The lodge - Hotel Yewae - is situated right on the river - in fact it's actually IN the river at this time of year. The river is in flood and the hotel is built up on stilts and connected by a series of decks and gangways. From the main deck you can sit on a lounger or at a table, have a beer and just watch the river go by.
    After organising which activities we'd like to do during the week, we went on a walk around the lodge (although there's really not anywhere to go to since the river is so flooded!) and then to a lecture on eco-tourism and the different projects they were trying to implement in the area. It got dark during the lecture, and the jungle, which had been fairly noisy up til this point, suddenly errupted into life with birds, crickets, monkeys and lots of other sounds I didn't recognise. It was absolutely breath-taking to hear. The crickets, of course, were the loudest. Their song rose to a giant crescendo which was almost deafening, and then, all of a sudden, as one... they all stopped. Altogether at exactly the same time. The silence which followed was so loud I nearly laughed.
    After dinner it's more or less straight to bed. The generator cuts out at 10pm and since we're 65km from anywhere on a hotel propped up on stilts, there's not really a lot to do except sleep!

Photos from this adventure coming soon as well!
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