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Traffic on Pan-Americana Highway after huge explosion, I wrote before, was restored and I decided not to go through the head hunters (head shrinkers) territory. They probably have never seen a folding bicyclist and may have a temptation to shrink my head as a souvenir. Instead I started long bus ride to Lima, Peru. However, before I will continue let me finish with Ecuador.

Travel to South America (part II)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 14:07:41

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about the Amazon Jungle but it is better one time to see... First, there are not so many blood suckers as I expected. Much less than in Siberian taiga. It is like on Karelian peninsula. Second it is not so hot. You are always under the shadows. So, in the hot afternoon in Karelian forest it is hotter. It is very difficult to move here. The forest is dense and criss crossed with vines. So it is very easy to get lost because you cannot go straight and always have to go around un-penetrable parts of the forests. I had a compass, which I always carry with me, and I knew the general direction of the river, so I wasn't supposed to get lost, but anyhow there were a few scary moments. I made a little fire and swam in the river to be sure, that I can do these normal things in the forest. River, by the way, was full of alligators and kaymans, so you have to carefully select the place to swim. The jungle was full of unknown and sometimes scary sounds. I was hypnotizedised by one sound which sounds like somebody being chocked. It became louder and louder and at the end, it sounded like a bears roar. The guide told me the next day it was monkey. I went toward this sound, which came out of a large tree. When I came under the tree the sound stopped. The ground under the tree was soft and covered with dead leaves. I layed down and fell asleep. I woke up because somebody shouted Alex, Alex. The guide with 4 support employees went to look for me. They were very serious and scared. I was the first tourist ever, that was "lost" in the jungle. Normal Western tourists do not go to the forest farther than the latrine without a guide.

The next day we had an activity called swimming with pink dolphins. The only person willing to swim with them was, you guessed it, me. My companions were afraid not only to swim, they were afraid to touch this water because there can be dangerous parasites there. This was in-spite of dozens of vaccinations they did before coming here.
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