Today we left our hotel and were with a couple from New York City and a woman from Turkey. We drove to the dock and took a boat to another dock area further down. Then we drove on a paved road and then a dirt road to another dock, and took a boat to the lodge.

We are in the Amazon jungle. It’s very hot. Honestly, I had no concept of the Amazon at all when we planned on coming here.

The Amazon river is enormous. When you are driving down it in a boat, it is as wide as some good sized lakes. Also, where are our jungle lodge is, the river is also under some of the tallest trees in the jungle, since in this season it is flooded. We could drive the boat right into the jungle forest.

We were taken, on the day we arrived, on a boat ride and piranha fishing.  We went through the jungle in areas on our boat. It is very confusing. Really, I’m very impressed by our guides because we didn’t even come back to the lodge until long after dark, and it was crazy driving down the river in the darkness and still find our way back.

We are staying in a little hut. We don’t have air conditioning or hot water.

There are 2 other couples here, who arrived before us. Another US couple came with us, as well as a girl from Turkey. After lunch, we all went on our piranha fishing trip. We saw monkeys playing in the trees and some birds.

I caught three piranhas, and Josh caught two. His first one was too small and was thrown back into the water. His second one was very angry, and escaped back into the water after we took a picture.  The fishing was a lot of fun.

After that, we looked for caimans in the dark. Our guide finally found one and told us about them. Then we headed back to the lodge, ate, and went to bed.

The night in the jungle is unbelievable. It is blazing hot, with no air movement. The sounds of the jungle are incredibly loud. There are squawks and cries in so many varieties that sleeping is difficult.

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