The Great Jungle Trek

I spent my birthday in the jungle!

We had two guides who were amazing- one of whom carried Addi the entire way- both of whom made us work to keep up. They led us up and down steep slippery jungle trails for about 5 hours- in which time we saw several orangutans (including the feared and infamous Mina) several Thomas Leif monkeys (the grey one in the attached photos) and macaw (which I think I am spelling wrong). We climbed over trees, waded through waterfalls, slipped on mud, and tried to embrace the thigh burn. They taught us a bit about the medicinal plants we passed and pulled a leech off of Jim's leg...which was a bloody ordeal. I had brushed the 50 ants off of him earlier in the day all by myself- no help from the guides there! (Some trees were coated with ants and if you didn't notice before you grabbed an ant tree for support, you were also coated with ants- instantly).

Speaking of ants, our guide made us smell a giant ant that orangutans and humans eat to settle diarrhea. I was hesitant...but we all sniffed it. This ant smelled like ammonia! The scent was so strong it literally made our eyes water.

At the end of the trek, our guides and we jumped onto three inner tubes tied together and white water rafted back to town. The cool water was a welcome reward. It was amazing fun and fearless Addi loved it.

I can tell that I am too tired to do this day justice in a blog, and I know my photos don't do it...but it was an amazing experience. One I would highly recommend...but suggest you are in good shape for! I can say now that I'm glad we didn't do the two day trek!....our soft-ish bed is much a needed reward!

I trekked the jungle. I did not turn old today! :-)

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