And now, after months of suspense, we come to the main event, the “jungle” portion of the jungle saga…
First, there have been some additions to our little group of 
explorers – our guides. The main guide, the one we corresponded with before the trip and the one in charge of the expedition, was Klever. Yes, his name is clever, but with a K. And let me tell you, when you are about to plunge into one of the world’s most dangerous environments (on the Don’t Go There scale, it is right above your little brother’s closet and just below the Great White Shark feeding tank), you find that rather assuring. Or at least, I did once I saw the size of machete that he was bringing along. I wasn’t so excited after I heard his advice on what to do if you get lost*. Incidentally, this picture was taken seconds after he had been bitten by that snake he is holding as he grabbed it 
out of a tree. Yeah… not quite living up to his name at that point. There were two more guides that came along (obviously the gringos can’t paddle their own canoes, that’s just a disaster waiting to happen… I mean, do you know how to handle a canoe in the event of a caiman attack? Me neither), as well as a cook and Old Man River. Now, I’m fairly sure that he had a real name, but nothing else seemed to fit quite as well. He said that he was in his sixties, but he looked like he was a little closer to his nineties. Most likely because of the hand-wrapped cigarettes he smoked the whole trip, which would have killed a lesser man long ago. I don’t know if you can tell, but that canoe he is paddling has a wake. Anyway, as we paddled our way through the jungle, Old Man River was always there behind us, silently puffing away on his cigar-sized cigarette, faithfully ensuring that our food and emergency supplies were safely transported to the next campsite. And when he wasn’t masterfully handling the canoe, he was out fishing for our dinner. But we’ll have more on that later.
The preferred method of touring the jungle is by canoe. Why, you ask? 
Well, for many reasons. A) The jungle looks like this, and that isn’t necessarily something you want to fight your way through. B) It’s the rainy season, which means what once was dry land is now about 10 inches underwater. Once again, not something that makes for a fun hike. C) Gringos know nothing about the jungle. Keeping us in a canoe, and therefore unable to touch anything, ensures our survival. Now, occasionally an Amazonian citizen will find its way into the canoe, and moments like this are especially perilous. Take for 
example, the brightly colored caterpillar that appeared in our canoe one day, which led to an equally bright welt on Frank’s arm. Consequently, we traveled single file in our canoes, staying fairly quiet to keep from scaring away the animals. Because, after all, that was the point of being there. The set up was two gringos and one guide per canoe, like so: 
It was a good set up, because it allowed room for our bags, creating a great backrest. Each canoe had been hand carved from one of the gigantic trees in the forest, and we were told that they last five to seven years.
The first day in the jungle didn’t provide us with a lot of critter sightings. We were still fairly close to civilization (hm… maybe I should’ve put some 
quotations around that last word), so we needed to get further into the wilderness. However, we definitely got some closeups of a few jungle spiders. My guide seemed to specialize in getting as close to these monsters as possible, despite my very forceful assurances that I had a wonderful zoom on my camera and therefore did not really need to get anywhere near them. The middle of the river was fine for me, really. This first spider had a fairly small body, but its legs were so long it ended up being bigger than my face. Yes, this is how I measure things in the jungle; how does it compare in size to my face? 
If it can reach from one ear to the other, it is way too big for me to get close to. My face won the comparison contest with this other spider, but he was still very interesting. Once again, he would have been even more interesting if he was farther away. My favorite part of that first day though, were the trees and the parrots. You know those bright blue, yellow, and red parrots that are all the rage in pet stores? Well, I found where they come 
from. You could hear them long before you could see them, and there was something amazing about being in a handcarved canoe, floating through the Amazon, as wild parrots flew around overhead. Truly a unique experience.
And, needless to say, it was very green there. After all my time in the desert, I was surrounded by lush forest and as much water as anyone could ever want. So, to end this segment, here are a few of my favorite forest photos. When we return, we’ll be moving on to Day 2: Paddling through Darkness.
* find a really big tree and bang on it until someone hears it and comes to get you. This tree, for example, would be a good one to attack when lost.
