The jungle

Lukas, Malte and I got up early to go to the real jungle. We took a crowded bus to a national park a few hours away. On our way we saw a lot of forest clearance for growing soy, manioc or corn instead. :(
For two nights we stayed inside the park with our supernice guide and his family. We slept in our hammocks under a shelter (a tarantula's net right above us) next to their extremely simple house. Like all other houses in the small community it was built by the government. His wife cooked very good food (fresh fish, chicken from the backyard...) for us. We went for a little walk in the forest and saw two sloths hanging in the trees close to our hut. They were veeeryy sloooow.
We bought bracelets made from coulourful seeds and went to see a little rubber manufacture. We also saw and touched shrinking violets- really cool!!
In the evening we played pool with our guide in what seemed to be the bar. Three men from the village were sitting in a corner, they were drunk and sang. There was heavy rainfall and a thunderstorm, lights went off frequently so our dinner turned out to be a candle-light dinner. It was a weird but cool atmosphere.

The next day we stepped into the primary forest, our guide equipped with a machete. He explained lots of medical plants to us, fruits and insects (all in Portuguese, but luckily I am able to understand some Portuguese because some words are quite similar to the Spanish.) Beautiful butterflies bigger than birds fluttered ahead. The guide showed me how to make a funny shrimp from a palm leave.
Deeper and deeper we got into the jungle. (Malte smelled like a wild animal.) We were accompanied by strange, mystic sounds. A magnificent green hummingbird and a tiny poison dart frog crossed our way. The guide noticed some jaguar traces in the sand. Finally we reached some giant trees. They were incredibly tall; we could barely see the top! By the way I'm a big fan of mushrooms now: brilliant, how those delicate objects decorate leaves and treetrunks!!
On our way back (after 6 hours in the jungle) we passed a baby sloth that had fallen off a tree and that some kids had laid on the ground to dry because it was soaked from the other night's rain. We took turns holding it...simply amazing! Afterwards we painted each other's faces with natural paint that we had taken from some kind of seed.
At night we went across the street again for pool and drinks.

We got up at 4 a.m. the next day to catch the bus back to Santarém. In the distance we heard the strange sounds of a howler monkey.

By the way: I highly recommend reading Malte's entertainig and informative blog as well!