We woke up at camp at 6 for a motorized canoe ride. We saw some more of the baby leche monkeys, some beautiful blue butterflies, then hit the jackpot. We saw an entire squad of squirrel monkeys jumping right above us OVER the river from tree to tree. It was amazing!

After the boat ride, we returned to camp for a breakfast of a corn “tortilla” stuffed with cheese, plátanos maduros, scrambled eggs, ham, and fruit (papaya, watermelon, pineapple, babaco). Next activity was another forest walk. We saw some beautiful flowers, as well as some nicely camouflaged insects and a couple of tree lizards. We also saw a HUGE banana spider that is apparently very poisonous and was hanging out in our camp.

Upon returning, we packed up camp then headed back to the lodge to drop off our things before heading back upriver for a nature hike led by our chef, Tobias, who is a 75 year old native of the area. The walk was super informative and very interesting. He showed us a tree that, when injured, released a white milk that is used to treat parasites in the stomach. We also learned how to make things waterproof using sap from the rubber tree.

We also learned about Chacra del Diablo, which was a symbiosis between ants and a tree. The ants actually lived in the branches of the tree. The ants produce an acid that, when it rains, falls down to the ground and keeps any other plants from growing around the trees. It causes a natural clearing to form in the forest. In return, the ants get to feed on the tree. A nice side effect is that the ants taste like lime! We got to try them and they were delicious!

We also found some coconuts with grubs inside that eat the inside of the coconut. We got to try those too! They had a little taste of coconut, but Cassie didn’t feel that she would need to eat them again…

One of their treatments for tuberculosis was a mixture of that grub oil, stingray oil, and armadillo oil. He also showed us multiple different types of palm trees- one for fiber to make fishing line, one for blow darts, one for the roofs of their houses, another whose bark could be used as a grater/shredder, and one that they ate the fruit of after soaking. It was crazy to see how he identified all the different ones with all their different unique uses.

As we finished the hike it had started to rain so we headed back to our lodge for a lazy afternoon while the heavy downpour passed. When we got back, on the shoulder of our guide turns out he had brought along an extra passenger from the walk, a scorpion! Thankfully he saw it in time and no one got stung.

Our last activity for the day once the rains cleared was Piranha fishing! We didn’t have to go far, or wait too long, before they started taking our bait. Cassie caught one pretty quickly! Hers was fairly small so we threw it back, but, thankfully our boat driver got a much larger one that we got to have fried for dinner. It was remarkably delicious!

After dinner we also got to play around with natural (temporary) tattoo making. One of the fruits we had picked up during the day is used by some of the local tribes for their own tattoo’s so we gave it a shot. The juice of the fruit is completely transparent when you’re using it to draw (which makes it a little tough) but by the next morning the ink comes out pretty black. If well made, they can last up to 8 days! We hung out a little longer and headed to bed after our long day full of adventures.