I Feel Like Huck Finn

Buenos dias con todos! Gracias por leyendo mi blog. (good day everyone! thank you for reading my blog)
and greetings from Nauta! it feels so strange to have internet after so long. Part of me honestly didnt want to check it, didnt want to concede the wild part of me thats been alive and thriving within my jungle atmosphere. Its really interesting how much your perspective on something can change so quickly. When we first went into the jungle, we had an epic ride on a pretty big river barge. In big letters on the side was painted Capicidad 150 personas, no mas. I would estimate there were about 375 people or so on that barge! and we were all in hammocks. Everytime we would leave to go up on deck, 20 more hammocks would spring out of nowhere. It was a mind blowing experience.

It feels so strange to blog about this now, since this was back in June. Its really been that long since weve had internet, as Im sure all you parents are quite aware of. We were on the barge for a total of about 60 hours. That blew my mind. We sat in the harbor for 27 before we even moved, because the boat didnt have enough cargo for the down river trip. Crazy huh? way outside the American pardigm of fast food service. Time is completely irrelevant here, which makes me feel right at home. I like the laid back feel of cultures that dont revolve around the clock.

When we were on that first barge ride, I remember seeing canoes along the shore, and people in the trees along the shoreline, and thinking about how crazy it was that people lived there. And then, two months later, Ive lived there, Ive rode in those canoes, Ive gone cayman hunting (yep that story´s coming) Really, this whole summer has involved a lot of water travel, both for transportation and recreation. Weve been spending an average of about 5 days per village.

In between our first and second place, several of us guys (and Scottie) got to ride on this little boat (well what we thought was little at the time. Remember the tidbit about perspectives.) The boat was probably about 40 feet long, by 7 feet wide or so give or take. It was completely open, with an outboard motor. I wish I could upload some photos from it, it was pretty sick. So we were out there in this big canoe basically, pioneering the way for the rest of our group who were coming in on the barge later on. We had an 8 or 9 hour boat ride like that, exposed to the sun all day. And it was glorious. I really did feel like Huck Finn, and on all of our subsequent boat rides, ive kind of got that feeling as well. Weve done a lot of boat travel this summer. Now for the fun cayman hunting story.

So we spent some time in Florida. Yep Florida Peru. Several of us were so confused when we were told we would be spending six days in Florida. We probably saw the most crazy jungle stuff in this village.. including a sloth, caymen, and an anaconda. The anaconda was about 12 feet long, and had been captured by some fisherman, and they brought it to show off.. it was an intense experience. I have a really cool picture of it trying to strike its handler.

So this one night, Cesar our translator took 5 of the guys (Jordan, Kevin, Jared, Josh and I) cayman hunting, plus our two Peruvian guides. We left pretty late at night, getting into a pretty darn small boat that looked huge later on, and we travelled along the coast, and then crossed the river. I remember thinking there hasnt ever been anything quite that much like Indiana Jones Ive ever done. So we get to the other side, and its raining, and theres a lake through some of the brush that we had to carry one of the small canoes to. Our quides are literally running through jungle and crazy mud with canoes on their shoulders.. it was insane. So we finally get to the lake. it was super shallow, and looked like anaconda wirtten all over it. Keep in mind this was the day we saw the anaconda.. so it was on the brain a little. Three of us, kevin josh and I, get into one of the cnoes with our guide, and it instantly starts to fill with water. No bueno. So Im thinking theres no way. Our guide pushes off, and we go like ten feet and sink. The water was only about knee deep at this point. So we emptied out bailed out, got back in. Sunk again. So one more time we repeated the process, and as we were getting back in, Josh had one foot in the boat and our guide decided to peace it. So Josh leg upset the boat and it sunk again. Good fun.. It was seriously so funny. But after that Cesar decided we had too many people, and so I took for the team and decided to stay back with cesar in the big boat. I pulled my rain jacket around me and slept ion the bottom of the boat.. it was a crazy night. The boys came back with four small caymen that they ended up letting go because they werent big enough to eat. Cayman is seriously delicious by the way…

It was such a laughable adventure and one I will never forget.

I feel like Huck Finn..