After a whirlwind few weeks in the incredible Galapagos Islands, we wanted to check off another bucket list item: The Amazon Rainforest. There’s a very unique area deep in the jungle along the Amazon River that houses the border between Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, called the tri-border region. Because the area is so remote (only accessible by boat or plane), there is no border control between the 3 countries, you can move freely into any of the countries and explore the Amazon in all 3 of them!
We booked our flights from Quito to a small airport in Leticia, Colombia, the main Colombian city in the tri-border area. Unfortunately, we had a pretty brutal overnight layover in the Bogota. We landed around 10 pm, and our flight the next morning was at 4:30 am so we didn’t think it was worth getting a hotel. It was financially the right choice…. But man we’re getting old and nights like these are getting harder and harder! We sucked it up and had a miserable night of half sleep in a corner of the Bogota domestic terminal, before waking up at 3:45 am to walk to our gate. The flight to Leticia was short and sweet, and within 1.5 hours we were landing in the Amazon jungle!
Because our flight departed so early, it was only 7:30 am when we arrived at our accomodation, Hotel CHAFO. We were nervous that we wouldn’t be able to check in early, but it was a family run B&B with amazingly kind and gracious owners that let us check in right away to our room. We cranked up the AC and had a much needed shower. The roof of the accomodation was tin and a huge rainstorm blew in, putting us straight to sleep.
The next few days we took to rest and recharge. The Galapagos had been action packed with tons of adventures, so we were a bit burnt out. We just wanted to spend a few days in bed relaxing before we braved the jungle. We spent the next few days in bed, only really leaving to get some food and stretch our legs.
After a few days of resting, we decided to go out and shop around tour companies, knowing we were interested in doing a 4-day-3-night (4D3N) jungle tour. We found some companies on Google Maps, but when we showed up to the pinned area it was just a residential neighbourhood with nothing there. We walked around for almost an hour before we finally found a company called George of the Jungle. We walked in and were immediately greeted by the owner, George.
We expressed interest in doing a multi-day jungle tour, and George immediately started showing us this slideshow of random animals like snakes, spiders, sloths, caimans, birds, etc. The quality of the slideshow was absolutely terrible, all of the pictures looked like they were taken on a 2005 Motorola Razr. The slideshow went on for what seemed like forever, and when it ended George let us know that he had a 4D3N tour leaving the next day, and because it was so last minute he would give us a good discount of over 50 USD/person (the whole tour was only around 200 USD so it was a big discount!).
We hadn’t expected to be leaving so early, but because it was so much cheaper we decided to take it. In hindsight, we don’t know how the marketing pitch worked on us, but the big discount and lack of other options pushed us to join the tour. We spent that afternoon running around town picking up some supplies like snacks, sunscreen, insect repellant etc. and getting ready for our day.
That evening, we tried to decide what to pack and bring into the jungle, and realised that we had little to no information about where we were staying or what we were doing. We had asked George what to pack, but he very nonchalantly said, “Oh you know, like 1 pair of long pants, a swim suit, rain jacket, bug spray, normal stuff”. We put together our bags as best we could and hoped for the best!
The next morning, we walked with our bags to the George of the Jungle office and met the rest of our tour – 2 Dutch guys named Stef and Sjors, as well as a Germany couple named Nikki and Joe. George handed us each a pair of rain boots, and we set off with one of the employees down towards the river. We didn’t know where we were going or what to expect (communication wasn’t the greatest on this tour). As we reached the water, we boarded this tiny, rickety little boat that was super low to the water, and started cruising down the Amazon river. We passed by some indigenous communities that lived along the banks of the river, and also saw both pink and grey river dolphins in the water!
After about 1.5 hours, we arrived at an indigenous village and met up with our local guide, Patrick, who spoke English. He arrived on a different boat, and we loaded up into our new mode of transport for the next few days. It was currently the transition season between the dry and wet season, so many parts of the jungle were flooded and we were able to drive the boat into the mangroves to see wildlife.
We saw a bunch of different birds like macaws and parrots, sloths, monkeys, etc. on that first boat tour, so we were stoked that this was going to be an amazing trip in nature. After our boat tour, the captain drove us down a little river to a big wooden hut built on stilts right on the water, in the middle of absolute nowhere. This would be our basecamp for the next 4 days. The lodge was nicer than we were expecting, with a big covered veranda with hammocks, and each couple got a private room with mosquito nets, a small toilet and shower head. It was very basic but nicer than sleeping out in the jungle.
We had a quick lunch and Patrick let us know that our second activity of the day was a jungle walk. He told us to wear long pants and long sleeves… but George didn’t tell us to pack long sleeves, and given how hot and humid it was, we didn’t think to bring any.
We put on our rain jackets, but it was a million degrees with 200% humidity, so it was worst case scenario to be wearing long pants, long socks, rain boots, and a rain jacket. We were absolutely sweating buckets as we stepped off the boat to walk into the jungle, and were immediately swarmed by thousands of mosquitos. We had already put on so much bug spray, were wearing all long layers, but were still getting absolutely harassed by these mosquitos. They would fly into your nose, into your ears, into your mouth. It had also just rained, so the jungle was incredibly muddy. We were walking in ankle deep puddles of sloshy, slippery mud.
As we were walking through the jungle, Patrick also kept pointing out animals, bugs, and plants that could kill you. He would be like, “Oh you see that tarantula over there? It’s super poisonous stay away.” “You see that tree over there? Well it’s covered in fire ants and their sting in incredibly painful, don’t touch them”
So not only were we trying to avoid everything poisonous in the jungle, we were still getting completely swarmed by the mosquitos. Patrick then drops a fun fact that “there’s actually 3 types of malaria in the Amazon, there’s the mild type, the more severe type that will make you go blind, and then the 3rd type that’ll kill you. Oh but don’t worry, there’s not THAT much malaria in this area of the jungle.” Panic level was at 100 after our lecture on how everything in the forest was poisonous and malaria was going to kill us, the vibes were bad, and we were already lowkey regretting booking this tour. Although we did end up seeing some cool wildlife like monkeys and lizards, the walk lasted over 2 hours in these miserable conditions.
After we finally finished the traumatic nature walk, and our driver navigated us to the Amazon river. We stopped and Patrick told us we could swim, but he hadn’t told us before the walk to prepare for a swim so we didn’t have our swimsuits. We were wearing our 1 pair of long pants that we didn’t want to get wet because they would never dry, so while all the boys just stripped into their boxers and jumped in, we grumpily sulked in the boat. After our group finished their swim, we headed back to the lodge.
We were happy to have some downtime in the afternoon to enjoy the hammocks and lake, although there were still many mosquitos. That evening, Patrick said that it was time to go on an nighttime nature walk through the jungle. Saz and I were quick to pass and told him we were too tired to go. Instead, we stayed behind and watched the sun set over the Amazon River from the hammocks.
We were so happy we opted out, because when the boys came back they said there were even more mosquitos than earlier and they basically just saw a big frog.
That night we headed to our room to go to sleep under the mosquito net, and it was a rough night. The air was super hot and humid, and there was absolutely no circulation in the room. The owner of the lodge was also apparently having a huge party with his buddies until 2 or 3 am (god knows where they even came from because we were actually in the middle of nowhere), so it was loud, hot, stuffy, and miserable.
Patrick had told us we needed to be up at 6 am to do an early morning activity, so we reluctantly woke up at 5:45 am after our terrible night’s rest to get ready for our excursion. Unfortunately for us, the entire staff of the lodge overslept because they were partying all night, so they were late to pick us up. We could’ve slept in for at least another hour, so we were already starting the day in a grumpy mood.
The first excursion of the day was a bird watching tour via boat. The highlight of the morning was when we saw a group of beautifully coloured Macaws soar above us through the trees.
We had a quick breakfast and started on our next activity for the day… nature walk #2. We were remembering yesterday’s horrible experience all too well, so we were majorly dreading the next nature walk. We asked Patrick how long the hike would be so that we could mentally prepare. He said the whole walk would be 2 hours, and we reluctantly set off on our next jungle walk. It was less muddy than the day before because we were in a different section of the jungle, but there were debatably more mosquitos.
We had a 20 minute period of pure bliss when it started to rain and all the mosquitos fucked off. It was actually peaceful to be in the Amazon rainforest in a rain storm, and we had the opportunity to take in the peace and tranquility of the forest without the pesky little twats.
But it was very short lived as they all came swarming back in full force the second the rain stopped. It was hot, muggy, mosquito infested yet again.
There were barely any animals out and about due to the storm, but Patrick taught us about the different medicinal plants that grew in the jungle, which was very interesting.
At one point he handed us his machete and told us to strike a fallen tree as hard as we could. We took turns, and the machete bounced off like we were hitting stone. We learned that all the buildings in the jungle (and most importantly the stilts the buildings sit on), are created from this type of wood, which is remarkably dense, strong, and durable, able to withstand the rising and falling Amazon tides year after year.
I had been checking my watch dutifully, watching as the time ticked closer and closer to 2 hours. Right around the 2 hour mark, Patrick stopped the group and said, “Okay guys, are you ready to head back now?” We all looked around, confused and appalled… “You’re telling us this trail isn’t a loop?” “No it’s not a loop, we have to walk back the way we came.”
MORALE WAS LOW. Everybody was so unbelievably over the swampy heat of the jungle and the billions of mosquitos never giving us a break. Our group booked it back to the lodge, heads down, marching forward, not even taking in the nature around us. Just trying to get out of this godforsaken forest. To be fair it didn’t take 2 hours to get back, it was closer to 45 minutes, but only because our group was on a mission to GTFO.
As we arrived back at the lodge, we noticed a group of 3 new people who were coming to join the tour. Patrick happily announced our next activity – canoeing down the river! Despite the terrible morning, the clouds had cleared and it was turning out to be a nice day, so we were ready to give canoeing a chance. There are less mosquitos out on the river, and canoeing can be fun… at least that’s what we told ourselves.
There was a bit of a mixup with the canoe situation when the 3 new people and Patrick hopped in one, and the remaining 6 of us were crammed into the other. Make no mistake – these were not modern canoes, they were hollowed out heavy logs with heavy wooden paddles and little to no balance. Patrick and his boat were already long gone ahead of us, as the 6 of us tried to manoeuvre the canoe and catch up. We completely missed all of the explanations Patrick was giving, as we sat in the beating sun trying to row this heavy slab of wood.
As most of the jungle was flooded, Patrick then decided to row his boat into the mangrove forest to give us an “up close experience”. Our bulky, overstuffed boat tried to follow, constantly trying to balance the canoe whilst getting stuck between trees as spiders, mosquitos and ants crawled into our canoe and assaulted us. Patrick then piped up with another helpful fun fact: “Watch out guys, there are electric eels in the water so don’t fall in”.
Meanwhile, we noticed that our canoe was leaking and taking on water. Saz sat in the middle with a little bucket bailing us out as we tried to row our way out of this poisonous tree maze. Nobody was having a good time. I was running through scenarios in my mind to fake illness or injury to get to leave this 4 day trip early.
When we finally got out of the mangroves, Patrick offered us the chance to jump in the river for a swim. Despite the fact that it was 100 degrees and we were desperate for a swim, we were over half a mile away from the lodge and knew there was a zero percent chance we would be able to get 6 people back into this tippy slab of wood if we all jumped in. Our group collectively decided to just row back to the lodge and hop in for a swim there. Motivated by the sheer will of getting the hell out of this horrible canoe, we rallied together with the speed of an Olympic rowing team and booked it back to the lodge.
Back at the lodge, we hopped in for a quick swim to cool off, and then beelined for the bar to buy a bottle of rum and some cokes. If I was going to be stuck in this horrible (completely self inflicted) hellscape, I would at least have some alcohol to help me through it.
One of the new people saw me looking frazzled and came over to ask if I was okay and introduce himself. His name was Andreas and he was from Cyprus, travelling with his Greek girlfriend Katerina. I told him that we had had a ROUGH few days to say the least, and he laughed, saying that they had commented on how we all looked so miserable when we came back from our nature walk earlier in the day when they first arrived.
To his credit, Andreas had a really positive attitude about the situation and helped turn our night around. We had a nice evening chatting with Andreas and Katerina, sharing rum and cokes.
As night fell, Patrick told us to get ready for our very last activity of the day – caiman spotting. Caimans are crocodile like creatures that live in the Amazon river, so we were excited to go out and see one. We all piled into our little boat in the complete darkness, and sat in silence and Patrick scanned the mangroves with his powerful headlamp. Patrick soon spotted one, and we saw the beam from the headlamp reflected in a caimans eyes. We continued to search for more. It was completely silent and pitch black.
I noticed that our boat was driving up very close to the grassy water, and saw Patrick straddling the front of the boat, leaning forward. It quickly clicked that he was going to try and catch one! Suddenly, there was a commotion and we just see the silhouette of a caiman absolutely YEETING through the air, wriggling and writhing as it flew 3 feet out of the water. Patrick later told us that the caiman tried to bite him and so he let it go, leading it to soar through the sky.
It was one of the funniest things we had ever seen in our lives. The image of a wriggly caiman flying through the air is forever engrained in my brain. We drove around looking for more, and while Patrick didn’t end up catching one, we felt like it had been a successful mission. We hoped that meant our trip was taking a turn for the better!
On the morning of day 3, Patrick told us that our excursion for the day was driving the boat to the Brazilian border, where we would visit an animal sanctuary. We set off bright and early at 7 am, and the drive was absolutely gorgeous. We took a “shortcut” through the flooded jungle, so we were surrounded by amazing birds, trees, and monkeys the whole way. It took about 2 hours to arrive at the sanctuary, which was also in the middle of nowhere.
As we pulled up to the sanctuary, we noticed two monkeys swinging across the patio and down towards the boat. One of the monkeys stood up on its hind legs and marched down the stairs, hopped onto our boat, hopped onto my lap, and swung it’s way through the boat. Another monkey grabbed Saz’s hand and led her up the stairs. The cutest welcoming committee ever.
This sanctuary was run by a local indigenous family, where they rescue and rehabilitate injured wildlife. They had a bunch of super playful monkeys, including spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and cappuccino monkeys. They would hop onto our shoulders, play with our hair, and climb all around our bodies.
All of a sudden there was a commotion – one of the monkeys had unzipped Andreas’ fanny pack, stole his cigarettes, and booked it up a tree. He chased it and bribed it with a banana to return the cigs. Hilarious!
After playing with the adorable monkeys, Patrick led us to their anaconda sanctuary. There was a big pool of water that housed 2 massive adult anacondas, as well as a baby one! Me being absolutely terrified of snakes kept a safe distance away, but it was cool (and petrifying) to see these massive snakes up close and personal.
Our next stop was fishing for pirarucu, a local Amazonian fish that can grow up to over 3 metres long! Because the water in the Amazon is super muddy and silty, there is absolutely no visibility to what is hiding under the water. Patrick told us to dangle the bait above the water and try to taunt the fish by pulling it up the second the bait touched the surface of the water. The reaction speed of the pirarucu was insane! One second all we saw was murky brown water, the next second a massive fish exploded out of the water to snatch the bait before we even had time to register what happened.
After an incredible time at the animal sanctuary, we said goodbye to the monkeys and drove off. Our last stop of the day was piranha fishing! Patrick had prepared some primitive fishing rods (sticks with line and a hook tied to it) and chopped up some chicken skin as bait. Patrick promised whoever caught the first piranha a free beer. We sat in the shallow waters with our bait, waiting for a bite.
Andreas was the winner of the free beer, as he reeled in the first piranha of the day! Patrick demonstrated its razor sharp teeth by holding the fish mouth up to Sazzie’s hair and cutting a strand of her hair! Sazzie’s catch was next, as she reeled in a big, beautiful, sparkly silver piranha! I managed to snag one out of the water but it escaped before I could reel it into the boat. Our group ended up catching 5 piranhas total, and Patrick killed them to bring home for dinner!
After a jam packed day of playing with monkeys and fishing for piranhas, we relaxed on the boat for the 2 hour drive back to the lodge. Day 3 had been amazing, and we were happy that what had started as a miserable trip was redeeming itself.
That evening, Patrick took the boys on another evening nature walk, while all us girls stayed back and relaxed at the lodge. We chatted with Katerina about her job as a refugee lawyer in Cyprus, and discussed our mutual love for Taylor Swift. #JustGirlyThings
When Patrick and the boys came back, we had dinner and Patrick gave us the itinerary for our last day. He said that the original plan was to do another nature walk, but we didn’t seem to like those so he asked if we would like to change the plan to taking the boat down to the Amazon river, looking for dolphins and sloths, and going for a swim in the Amazon river. It was a resounding YES and THANK YOU FOR READING THE ROOM, PATRICK.
Because of the change of plan, we were also able to sleep in until 9 am and have a relaxing last morning. Unfortunately for us, that evening a big, annoying group of French people came to spend the night at the lodge, and they apparently didn’t get the memo to be quiet in the mornings. Starting at about 6 am, they were yelling back and forth at each other while slamming doors left and right. Although we were woken up early, it was still nice to have some relaxing downtime in the morning to chill in the hammocks and enjoy our last morning in the jungle cuddling with the local puppies.
Around 9 am, we navigated down towards the Amazon river, seeing sloths, monkeys, and macaws on the way. When we arrived at the Amazon, we saw a couple grey river dolphins jumping out of the water! Saz and I finally had our opportunity to have a swim in the Amazon, and our whole group took turns jumping off the boat into the water.
Our last stop was a local indigenous village called the Gamboa Reserve. We walked through the village, observing their way of life. The highlight of the village was they they had recently rescued a baby sloth from the jungle, so we all got to take turns cuddling and holding the baby sloth. It was the cutest ever! Our 3rd and 4th days of the trip were the perfect redemption arc for a horrible start to our trip.
We headed back to the lodge to pack up our stuff and eat one last lunch, before our captain navigated us back to Leticia. It took about 2 hours to arrive back into town.
Patrick suggested that we all cross over into Brazil to check out a cool bar right on the Amazon river to try their fresh made caipirinhas, a sugarcane rum based cocktail, and we thought that was a great idea. Andreas, Katerina, Stef, Sjors, Saz and I hopped into 2 tuktuks and headed to the bar. Along the way, our tuktuk blew a tire so we had to make a quick pitstop at a tire repair shop, before heading the rest of the way to the bar.
The caipirinhas were absolutely delicious, and it was the perfect way to reflect and discuss our insane trip.
We watched the sunset along the banks of the Amazon river in Brazil with our new friends, and begrudgingly admitted that the trip was actually kinda fun (now that it was over)!
We had a few days of rest and recuperation back in Leticia after the trip, building up strength for our next adventure… a boat trip down the Amazon river to get us into Peru.