Friday morning was the first time I got to see the lodge in actual daylight, and it was unreal. The whole place is built right into the rainforest, literally on the river, like someone took a treehouse fantasy and made it real. We had breakfast at the main lodge with the river running by below, which is a hard view to top. After that we did pottery with an indigenous master potter, learning a traditional method and shaping our own bowls. I actually got the hang of it after a bit, and I’ll admit I was pretty proud of how mine turned out. Later we headed down to the river to swim and ended up playing with a bunch of kids from the community, which was honestly one of the highlights of the day. Pure, no-language-needed fun.

In the afternoon, we piled into the back of a truck and rode out to the local cacao growths, where we got to try fresh cacao flesh straight off the tree. Wildly different from chocolate, sweet, milky, almost citrusy, and nothing like what you’d expect. That night we went on a guided walk through the rainforest, which is a completely different place after dark. Bugs the size of small pets, glowing things, plants doing things plants shouldn’t be allowed to do, and even a bat at one point, which felt very on-brand for a jungle night walk. Incredible.

Saturday was basically one giant river hike, and it might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We suited up in massive rubber boots and went deep into the rainforest, then headed down through the river itself. At points it felt like a lazy river through the Amazon, just floating and swimming between sections of trail, surrounded by vines and plants I have no name for. We saw multiple waterfalls along the way and went cliff jumping at a couple of them, which never stops being a rush. At one of the natural pools, things devolved into a full-on clay fight, which I lost but also kind of won, depending on how you measure it.

We got most of the rest of the day off to rest, which was very welcome after spending hours essentially being a fish. That evening I finally got to meet Todd, the cool American guy who married into the family and built this whole place up from the ground. After two days of seeing what he created, getting to actually meet him felt like meeting the wizard behind the curtain. Tomorrow we’re taking a seven-hour canoe trip deep into the jungle to visit the Waorani nation, which sounds equal parts exhausting and incredible. Can’t wait