Sleeping in the Amazon rainforest (Peru)

I woke up to the darkest darkness I’ve ever seen. It had been this way since the electricity was cut at 10pm the night before. I’d barely slept, kept awake by the knowledge that only a mosquito net was separating me from the 3 palmetto bugs (think cockroaches the size of mice) who were sharing my cabin. The grasshopper and half dozen merely thumb-sized roaches weren’t even relevant.

I closed my eyes again – at least, I think I did… the blackness was so complete it looked exactly the same whether my eyes were open or closed – to focus on the racket outside. Sure, I know what crickets sound like, but I’ve never heard a jungle breathe. Every second was full of chirps and squeaks. Twigs snapped and every single one was a predator coming straight for my cabin. Water droplets large enough to be heard splattered, sometimes seeping in through our thatched roof. I actually signed up for this.

I grabbed the flashlight by my pillow and changed in the dark, tucking my pants into my socks because everything could kill you out there. In the jungle hike we took the day before, we encountered at least 5 bullet ants, known to have the most painful insect sting in the world. Our guide was bitten once as a kid and had a fever for 4 days from the pain.

We’d woken up before dawn for a very specific reason. An hour’s boat ride away was a “clay lick”, a wall so rich in minerals that local birds come to it to lap up their morning vitamins.

We stationed ourselves across the “lick” and were soon treated with dozens of parrots flying in to feed. The main event, though, were the macaws, who slowly edged down from the trees once the wall was empty. Named for their brilliant colors (blue & yellow, red & green, etc.), macaws make parrots look dull by comparison. They were spectacular.

When the macaws left, we hopped back into the boat with our guide to cruise for more wildlife and spotted massive capybaras (already the largest rodent on the planet), turtles basking on floating logs, and the cutest troop of squirrel monkeys.

Back in the lodge, we napped in a covered porch hammock (not yet willing to face the family of roaches that had evicted us from our room) while an actual tropical storm unloaded outside. We were too timid to go kayaking in the rain and tried to cancel our next trip. I say “tried” because our guide’s English wasn’t great and he simply could not understand that we didn’t want to go. After some painful back-and-forths we just gave in and went. It turned out to be delightful. The skies cleared and we floated down a very Amazon-y little river, covered in light mist and flanked by lush green. It felt both sinister and serene, like I was in the movie Anaconda but actually enjoying it.

In the evening, we set out on the water again, this time looking for caimans. A caiman is similar to an alligator but a bit smaller. Why, you might ask, would sane people go hunting for alligators in the dark on a small wooden boat? Our guides would say it’s because the caimans’ eyes glow red in response to light, so they are easier to spot at night using a big flashlight. I would say they wouldn’t … sane people wouldn’t go looking for aligatoroids at night. It was a thrill. We saw several eyes and heads poking out of the water, perfectly still to lure in their prey, and even a few full bodies.

Back home, we closed out the night by meeting the huge and beautifully ugly toad who guarded the common area bathroom for the rest of our stay.

This post was about one specific day we spent in the Amazon, but we were there for 5. It was especially outdoorsy and adventurous for us and we saw some amazing things, including bizarre birds, capuchin monkeys, a poison dart frog, a family of giant river otters, and two of my favorites: a tarantula and a three-toed sloth. You can find more pictures from the Amazon and our whole trip around Peru (we visited Machu Picchu and ate at the 7th best restaurant in the world) in the Photos tab, but some of our favorites are below.