About getting up early, mental powers and milk candy. Peruvian Chronicles. Day 12.

Very very early, as soon as the three alarm clocks rang at 5:15 am in the princess'room as well as in the other rooms, I had a vision as if I was a psychic or tried ayahuasca that I couldn't explain. The night before, after taking photos of the Milky Way, I couldn't find my lens cap and realizing it would be hard to find it in the dark, I decided to look for it in the clear of the day. While I was sleeping, I dreamt that the lens cap was on the floor, next to the deck railing. I jumped out of bed without even putting insect repellent on me and letting my roomies be the first ones to use the toilet. The lens cap was exactly in that spot. In your face ayahuasca. My dreams are powerful.

Of course I didn't want to get up so early, but seeing this sunrise from the river was worth it. I'm so happy with so little.

After the mystical experience and still not 100% awake, actually still more asleep than awake, we sailed down the river (or up the river?) to see the red crest parrots, Peru's national bird. The thing was that when we actually got to the spotting area, we had to watch them from far, far away with a telescope, and it had to be that early because it's at sunrise that this birds go picking on the clay walls for a few minutes and fly away.

No, I don't have a photo of the parrots because they were really far away for me to catch with my gear. But anyway I show you this pic of the clouds rising up at sunrise that is beautiful as well.

After the NatGeo moment, we sailed a little way back and stopped on the shore to have breakfast with pancakes and candy milk included (now was the time that the getting up early thing was worth for me, because of my fat spirit). This fact may seem trivial, but I was so excited because I hadn't tried this delicacy that is an essential part of my diet since I had left home almost two weeks before. Of course I started telling everyone that that brown thing we were eating was one of my country's national products and an item of dispute with our neighbour country.

With some energy gained for the rest of the morning and waking up completely thanks to the magic of caffeine, we started our trek in the secondary rainforest, on the opposite side of the river. This time, the walk has no ups and downs, luckily. Almost everything here is bamboo and it's less leafy than the primary rainforest (I wondered why is this place crowded with bamboo and there are no panda bears, no one took me seriously).

After a while walking, we had a rest from the walking but not from the sun. We reached a lake where we took a raft to watch some bird species that seemed to be today's main characters. I specially remember one kind of bird that I thought it could be somehow related to chicken, but maybe that was just me rambling beacuse of the heat. I was also thinking of throwing myself into the lake.

A mirror in the lake.

For some reason, these were the birds that somehow reminded me of chickens and I cannot remember their real name.

It's more than usual to see these nests on trees. I do remember the name of these species and it's golden orioles.

Afterwards, we saw tons of insects that looked like mutants and while German, our guide, was telling us about his first ayahuasca ceremony, I was stung by some bugs that looked like tiny drones. We learnt that if we ever got lost on the rainforest the key to survive was having fruits for staying hydrated and eating bugs for proteine, being termites specially good for this matter. And I add, probaly the most important thing for survival in the ainforest is not being found by a jaguar.

German is holding a little branch with an atomic ant. Can you believe that size?

In the rainforest, anywhere you look at, there's life to look at. If ou look carefully it's like a where's Waldo scene full of beings.

Biodiversuty left me breathless on this trip. So much that I made peace with biology, one of my nightmares in school, but now I'm craving to learn more.

After going back, the routine of a mender shower, a delicious lunch and a so desired nap. We had another trek to come, this time at nighttime, but my feet were crowded with blisters thanks to the 5 or 6 hours of trek in rain boots and the heat and my baby skin, so I decided to stay in the lodge to rest, prepare my backpack for the next day and chat with Michael, that got sick and didn't make it to none of the walks.

Sadly, this was the last night in our princess-of-the-jungle beds. And worst, the last time with the clearest skies.

Hasta la vista, cielito lindo.

*You can read the Spanish version of this post here.