C'mon vamonos! Everybody let's go! Where are we going? AMAZON! Where are we going? AMAZON!

This weekend was the trip to the AMAZON!! We left at 4 in the morning on Friday to catch our flight to Iquitos. From there, we caught our boats to where our lodge was on the Amazon. The weather was immediately noticable how different it was from Lima...there was actually sun! The bugs were also immediately noticable. I won't be surprised if I got skin cancer from all the deet I used this weekend, that stuff is so strong it ate away my nail polish and the paint on my watch. But I still got about 50 mosquito and chigger bites nonetheless. Friday we took an afternoon hike through the jungle around where our lodge was and that night I went tarantula hunting with one other girl and a group of boys...talk about branching out of my comfort zone! We found tarantulas on the trees, and even better on the ceiling of our bungalows, super duper. The whole weekend wherever we were going we sang Dora the Explorer's song, "C'mon vamonos! C'mon let's get to it, I know that we can do it!" Abby would have loved that Dora's spirit was in the Amazon haha. The next morning we got up early to watch the sunrise, go bird watching from the boats, and visit a local village. We saw giant lily pads and a jungle man with a giant machete. That afternoon we saw pink and gray dolphins in the river, which was insane because I had no idea that dolphins existed in rivers. We swam in the water where they were but the fish freaked me out so I was the picture-taker haha. After lunch on the boat, we hiked through the jungle. The guide told us to keep our eyes on the ground because there are snakes. Um, no thank you. It was all I could do to keep my eyes forward and tell myself "don't look down, don't look down". I sang the "Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book to keep myself calm and not have a heart attack. But all in all it was awesome! I swung from a vine, drank water from a giant vine, stood on a termit mound the size of a house, and almost got attacked by a million mosquitoes...all worth it though. Sunday we played volleyball and soccer with a local village and headed back to Iquitos to eat, shop, and catch our plane. I wish I could write more but it would take up 5 pages. There are more pictures on my Facebook because the ones below are just a tiny bit of them.

Things learned in the Amazon:
1. No matter how much bug spray is used, you will get eaten alive. Period.
2. Machetes are your best friend.
3. Malaria pills make you have obscene dreams.
4. It's 100% safe to ride on the back of your man's motorcycle while holding your baby.
5. Likewise, it's totally normal to fit your family of four on one motorcycle.
6. Dora the Explorer could never actually hack it in the Amazon. What a little brown liar.
7. If your bag is covered in soy sauce after you pick it up in baggage claim, just laugh because who the heck would have tried to check their leftover Chinese food??

This is my brother Choche from my new house walking my roommate Laura and I to catch our bus to the airport at 4am. He looked ridiculous in my pink bags but I thought it was hilarious!

Our plane when we landed in Iquitos. "This is your captain speaking, prepare to be amazed!"

These are the boats we were in all weekend...thank God for the canopys.

This is what our bungalows looked like...there were about 4 or 5 of us to a bungalow and about 200 bugs to every five feet haha.

My bed...fully equiped with a bug net. Still I was terrified that bugs were going to climb in but thankfully they didn't...or at least I didn't notice.

I think I'm ready to start my own gang.

George, George, George of the Jungle! I didn't post the picture of where I slipped off because of all the sunscreen on my hands haha.

Sunset at the Amazon. Game over.

Tarantula hunting. I was the loser who didn't have a flashlight so I got to borrow my roommate's lighters that had flashlight lasers on the ends of them. I'm sure I scared off the spiders and alligators with those!

No big deal, just one of the tarantulas hanging out on the roof of our walkway to the bungalows. By the end of the trip we'd walk under them without even hardly noticing. This was as close as I was going to get because I knew they jumped.

Had to look close to find this sucker on the bottom of a tree...the military could learn a thing or to about camouflage from these bad boys.

"Kevin, I'm going to feed you to my tarantula."

The cutest little girl I saw this weekend, totally content washing her clothes in the river. Humbling.

Queen Victoria waterlily. The biggest type in the world. Please notice jungle man to the left with his giant machete and giant intimidation factor. Also, while we were taking pics here our guide says, "This is the perfect habitat for anacondas!" .... ..... .... Cool, bro.

Climbed the walking tree that moves a few centimeters every year. These boots were made for walkin' :)

Some kind of giant centipede thing...

The tree that we made it to at the end of our walk. It's over hundreds of years old.

View from the boat down the Amazon.

Fishing for piranhas with just a stick, a line, a hook, and some chicken meat. We went old school on this trip, no new-fangled rods for us!

The surprising thing, my boat alone caught over 20 fish. Here I am with my first piranha!

And here's my little friend for dinner. Delicious but not much meat and a million little bones that poke you...ouch, Charlie.

Do not be fooled, this sloth is real! haha from the picture thought it looks like a stuffed animal. Moved about as slow as one, too.

After our game of volleyball with the jungle girls. They kicked our butts but then we rallied and won our second game. One of the most fun things I did this weekend!

Back in Iquitos we fed turtles pieces of bread like would feed ducks at home. There was also a massive fish but it's really hard to see in this picture. Just pretend a shark is in the water and that's about the size.

In Iquitos before we went back to the airport. Everyone drives mototaxis and motorcycles, they're awesome!