Check out that view! This was my (our) room for about 4 days and 3 nights recently. But man was it an adventure to get there before we could wake up to this. The 3 hour boat trip was especially exciting. Well, exciting if you have a certain level of nerves of steel. After a 5 hour bus ride to the start of the boat route, it started raining as soon as we stepped out of our bus. The joke of the day was all the people that had put on sunscreen in the bus as to not get burned in the open canoe-type boat. Another problem was that we were a bit late on schedule. The boat part of the trip took 3 hours and to reach our destination before dark we had to have left the dock at 3PM max. But we left at around 4. Meaning that towards the end it become extremely dark.
@tanjakolader already went in on her experience of this exhilarating boat trip in her recent post if you want to read more about her viewpoint. This was the first time she did this trip and my second time after 5 years.
@tanjakolader/tourist-in-my-own-country-ralleigh-falls-d-1
But before we get to that darkness part, getting in the boat and loading every piece of luggage, food and drinks in the rain was a challenge in itself. Not to mention that once I got to my seat in the front of the boat, I notice that there was a gas cylinder (for cooking) right in front of me. I always think those things will explode at the slightest movement, so that was a mental challenge on top of everything else to ignore it. It didn't help that a gasoline tank for the boat motor was on top of it. xD But as you can see in the picture below, I got over it.
We had about 1 hour of peace, and then the darkness came.
On top of that, out of all 4 boats, we got the boat with the faulty motor. Funny story, my first time doing this trip 5 years ago, I was also in the one boat with a faulty motor. Safe to say, I might be the problem. The motor stopped a few times during the day, but always started up again, and then about 10 min removed from our destination in the dark, it gave up and wouldn't start anymore. So there we were, floating in the dark, on a river in deep within the rainforest in the middle of the country. Luckily all the boats were keeping track of each other and one came to tow us for the remaining distance. Water was getting into the boats, it was dark and the situation was uncertain, but eventually we made it, and the real adventure began.
In the middle of the above picture you can see a small piece of our lodge with 4 rooms on top, and 5 rooms on ground, all with an amazing view of the river.
It was definitely worth waking up to the view of our room.
And last, but certainly not least, the balcony view. Only thing missing is the ability to jump straight from the balcony into the water. :)
