Follow the Journey

We arrived here on Sunday evening after a long travel day. We were dropped off by the Arajuno Bridge and then took a motorized canoe (which was pretty awesome) to our destination. My first thought when we pulled to the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, was that it was much more modern than I expected. The facility is very nice, which is a relief because we are working quite hard and it is lovely to have a good place to recharge. On Sunday we just relaxed, but on Monday we hit the ground walking slowly while carrying bags of sand. Our first project here was building a nesting ground of sand for the endangered yellow spotted turtle. Construction simply involved hauling and dumping sand for 4 hours on both Monday and Tuesday. The days were long, but everyone was highly motivated to help the turtles repopulate themselves after their population was greatly reduced by dynamite fishing in the surrounding rivers. Jack is now known as the ‘American Hero’ for his incredible sand carrying abilities and willlingness to pick up the slack for the entire group. Harvey and Will were dealing with some upset stomachs, but rested and recovered and are now completely FIRE (that’s a good thing). On Wednesday, we repopulated palm trees that our host Tom was growing in his jungle nursery. The work was a nice change from sand hauling and the work day overall was fairly enjoyable. Our afternoons have been thoroughly enjoyable. On Monday, we visited the AmaZOOnico, which is a wildlife rehabilitation center and we saw a lot of fascinating and incredibly cute animals like the ocelots and spider monkeys. We also heard a lot about how prevalent hunting is in the Amazon. On Tuesday, we took a 3 1/2 hour hike through the jungle that was not only long and sweaty, but incredible and knowledgeable. There is more life existing in the Amazon than anywhere else any of us have ever seen. It was incredible to see a place so far outside of humanity’s sphere of influence. On Wednesday afternoon, we took a rest and hung out with each other. Thursday, we all enjoyed tubing down the river, the Arajuno River, which we have been swimming in on a daily basis to refresh ourselves. At this point, the group is very close and we are all enjoying each others company. It’s pretty awesome, but also, time has been passing by too quickly. An important additional note = the food here had been incredible! We are all pushing our comfort zones and enjoying ourselves in the process.
Check in soon,
Paxton