We started our journey deeper into the rainforest with an early morning. We had an unexpected 2 and a half hour bus ride with the worst terrain you could drive a bus on, followed by our 7 hour canoe ride. The ride was so loud it was crazy and the whole canoe just vibrates so you couldn’t really sit without feeling some sort discomfort. I also decided to leave my phone back completely for this 3 day adventure because I wanted to be completely off the grid. The bus ride in my opinion ended up being worse than the canoe just because of how bumpy it was and the canoe was a pretty cool experience for the first time just flying through 70 miles of pretty much untouched land. My friends and I also found ways to make it fun by telling stories and playing games. We arrived in the evening to our lodge and it was the most humid environment I have ever stepped foot in. There was also not even a lick of a breeze and just everywhere including our dinner was covered in bugs, but bugs are a great source of protein in the jungle. We went to bed pretty much right when it got dark because it felt so late and I had no sense of time due to being off the grid and leaving my phone behind.

The next morning started with the cooks at the lodge screaming and laughing about as loud as a human possibly could and our rooms were a screen that was maybe 10 feet from where they were talking so it sounded very close (because it was and there’s no walls), and it was probably 5 AM. We had some breakfast and set off to this big tree with some cool vines on the canoe, and then went fishing with the president of the indigenous family. We caught about 5 of these little catfish things that we had for dinner but the guy was much better at it than us, but he was spending most the time fixing our broken engine as we were stuck for a while, and last ones in for lunch. We then set off to play some soccer and learn about the indigenous spears and housing situation which was cool. I lost all three soccer games which was disappointing but one of the things I thought was funny was there was this spider monkey running around the field as we played in the pouring rain, and I yelled “watch out for the monkey” as I kicked the ball, and it was just one of those moments that I will always remember. We then went down to swim with the tribe in the river as it poured rain and got darker, which felt very surreal, and we took the canoe back for dinner. We later came back to watch the tribe perform a dance, and we then performed to them Party in the USA, Sweet Caroline, and taught them how to frat flick before heading back. It was a rough night because our bathroom lights, toilet, and shower didn’t work, and there were maybe 20 roaches around the bathroom on top of our single bed sheet as I got swarmed by bugs all night.

The next day got started with more yelling and screaming which must just be the natural caffeine at 5 AM in the rainforest for the cooks, but we pretty much just gathered everything together and got ready to head back on the same 10 hour journey as the other day. This ride personally felt much longer and killed my head just from the loudness of the canoe but we tried to pass time by singing, playing hangman, playing imposter, and eating. We got back after another lengthy canoe trip and at this point I have mastered passing time with no entertainment, but we had to wait another 45 minutes in the heat for our bus to come. We then hopped on the bus for the same terrible ride which was just as bad as the first time and the shop we stopped at was pretty much fully cleared out, so I got 2-liter Sprite to sip on the bus ride. After the ride I was destroyed and we pretty much just hung out and ate dinner before calling it a night after we traveled around 20 hours over the three days on very little and bad sleep.