The Pantanol Day 3

Trip Start Nov 21, 2006
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Trip End Dec 28, 2006


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Friday, December 1, 2006

At Last our final day in the jungle. Up again at 6 stiff as boards from all the riding (I gotta stop all this innuendo). Were in absolutely no mood for the jungle walk that morning. Its 6 am and its hot, easily in the thirties. We walked for around an hour and all we saw were a monkey, a parrot and a stupid armodillo. It was getting to the stage where youŽd see an aligator or a camen or something exotic and weŽd be like "oh yeah thats cool" and our guide Carlos would ask if we wanted to take a photo and weŽd be like "no not really" It amazed me how enthusiastic the guides were all the time and how knowledgable they were. WeŽd be driving along in the truck and the guides would spot something and stop and get all excited showing us yet another capivara but we stopped caring. I thought they were only stopping so we could see but they genuinely got excited at seeing the animals and these guys have lived out here all their lives. On our way back we stop suddenly. The guides spot the track of an anaconda on the dirt road and again they get excited, even more so this time A Terantula
A Terantula
 . Every one jumps out of the truck to see if we could spot it in the scrub. Carlos jumps into the swamp at the side of the road and looks frantically for it but unfortunatel we had been too late which was dissapointing.
Back at the camp weŽre all excited about leaving the place and looking forward to an air conditioned, bug free room and not having to wear repellent for a while. The truck drops us off at the road at 3. Its really hot at this stage. 41 degrees and the sweat is pouring out through us. I drank 3 litres of water and still didnŽt need to piss. It was unbearable. There was a litlle hut/shop at the side of the road to provide some shade but it was even more unbearable in there. Then my tooth started to act up. I had a filling re done before I left and was at me a bit last week but nothing compared to this. We were in the arse end of nowhere - hot,cranky and in pain. The paracetemol kicked in and after a few more bottles of water I was Ok again. 2 and a half hours pass by and no bus comes. Eventuall we are told that the road had been blocke around 100 km east by native indians protesting. Apparently they do it all the time and the last time it happened they blocked the road for 5 days. We had no choice but to go back to the camp. We were sickened!! I was so pissed off. Steve was too. It didnŽt seem to bother Fintan at all. We took the truck back with new people who had just arrived and it was funny to see how enthusiastic they were and how excited they were getting at seeing the Camens in the swamps. If only they knew what they leaving themselves in for!! About half an hour into the journey and as things couldnŽt get any worse the heavans opened and it started pouring. Thunder and lightning the whole shabang!!. Luckily our bags didnŽt get too wet. We spent the evening drinking again, trying to make the best of a bad situation and chatting to the new people.
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