Merry Christmas from the Amazon! (Monday, December 25th, 2017)

Merry Christmas from the Amazon!

It rained all night, like it seems to do here in the Amazon! The rain comes and goes on a whim.  It's never cold, just a little wet.  

But we woke to the sound of birds singing.  There are no windows in our room, just screens.  It's all about being close to nature here, and we love it.

We all met for breakfast in the dining room, anxious for our day of adventures to begin.

Nothing makes our youngest daughter happier than having fruit at her fingertips.  This is how they serve their bananas here at Le Casa Del Suizo.

This indoor/outdoor restaurant is so beautiful and the perfect temperature day and night.

Once we finished breakfast, we again jumped into the canoes to make our way back up the river to the Misicocha Private Nature Reserve about 20 minutes away.  

And the rain started again...

When we got to the reserve, we crossed a wooden bridge and entered a covered "tree house" where we hung our life jackets and prepared for our hike.  They provided walking sticks at the "tree house" for anyone who wanted one.

The amazon rain forest is the world's largest ecosystems.  We crossed several suspended bridges and flew through the jungle on a short zipline basket ride.  At the end of the hike, we took a rafting trip on a traditional  balsa log raft.  The rest of the day we chose an optional adventure at the Canopy Adventure Park.

We made our way up the path about 50 feet, before we made our first stop for a lesson on walking in the rain forest.

The lesson that Dario had for us is that when you are hiking in the rain forest, always step between the tree roots, never on them if you can help it.  The tree roots are very wet and extremely slippery.  It didn't take us long to realize that this was really good advice.

We very quickly found out why we hike in rain boots instead of hiking boots.  They keep all of the rain forest critters out!  This is a Congo Ant.  They are extremely poisonous.  Dario wasn't afraid of anything, but he was definitely afraid of this ant.  

We found a brazil nut laying on the forest floor.

This rain forest is beautiful!

There are many different colors of clay throughout the forest.

I became a tribal warrior.

A termite nest in the tree.

Soon we came upon a huge valley, and the only way across was through the canopy. So off we went.

So one at a time we came across.

Dario came across last.

There was life everywhere we looked.

A custard apple.

When we made it to the top of the mountain, the views were spectacular, even with all the clouds.

We all had fun trying to climb the tree.

Someone had to show off!

When we got back to the hut, this spider was waiting for us.  He was really pretty and really huge.

Then everyone was given the opportunity to raft down the river on a traditional balsa wood raft.

And then there was an optional swim in the Napo River as well.

Then back into the boot room to return our boots for now.

Then we enjoyed our lunch at the hotel before heading out on our next adventure of the day.