We returned to the lodge for breakfast and were given some time to relax before our first hike of the day. Since most of the animals hide during the day, this hike focused more on the plants found in the area - the medicinal trees, plants used for make-up, and others for food. The guide showed us how to open a termite mound and get termites to eat - he and V ate a bunch of their finger, and I tried to eat one, but by the time I got it to my mouth, it had moved and ended up walking over my lips. I ended up having V flick one into my mouth. They supposedly taste like mint, but I had just brushed my teeth (and I only had one tiny termite), so I didn't taste anything. I wasn't brave enough to try more than one!
Our next demonstration was Brazil nuts - we were given a nut (the size of a softball) and a machete and told to try open it. We were each given three attempts. K went first (only a small nick), next was D (still only nicked it), then C (it flew off to the side when she hit it), and then me. I looked at how the open nuts had cracked and hit it that way - I got the blade in on the first stroke and it finally split on the third try. Girl power! The next step is to break the edible part of the nut out of its smaller shell. There was a nut press on the table and the trick was to hit it hard enough to crack the shell, but not too hard to squish the softer nut inside. Lots of fun - they didn't taste quite right though, a bit like dirt (but it wasn't the season for them).
After V made us all up with "make-up" (red lips, purple eyes, and a white ? on my cheek), we ate a jungle orange (more like a lemon!) and headed off into the woods. It's amazing how disorienting the jungle is - I never knew which direction the lodge was in. Good thing we had a guide! He pointed out lots of different types of trees - "garlic" (it smells like garlic), quinine, and even a walking palm tree! The palm tree walks by growing new roots out from the trunk (which starts about two metres above the ground) in the direction it wants to travel and cutting off nutrients to the roots on the other side so that they die and fall off. It can travel up to two metres per year!
We had lunch back at the lodge and were able to either watch a nature video about the otters living on the lake or just relax. I watched the video then wandered around the grounds, taking pictures of the plants. Later in the afternoon, we hopped on board a canoe to go to the other side of the lake for a hike. The best part of this hike was swinging on a vine that was growing down from a high tree - not something you can do every day! It was hanging off a tree with large buttress roots, so I climbed up those and grabbed the vine. The first swing I didn't go very far, so pushed off the root for a better swing. I was planning on stopping myself after two swings, but my foot slipped and banged my shoulder into the tree instead. On my next attempts, I was able to get back onto the root (still not very graceful!) and hop back down to the ground. Back in the canoe, we could see a large group of monkeys swinging in the trees and then as the sun set, we paddled back across the lake. We stuck close to the shore and were able to spot the caymans hiding in the shallows - if you shine a light at them, their eyes shine back as two red dots. Very cool!
I sat near the look out and watched the stars with K for about an hour, then we went back to the lodge for supper. We didn't do anything besides play a board game that evening - we had to get up early for our flight home the next morning so couldn't stay up too late (and the lights go out at 10 pm).
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