Jungle Japes

Its been about 5 weeks that I have been in the jungle and its going farely well. A few weeks ago I spent some time at a different community called Irsham. This community is the most isolated that I have been to, the only way of accessing this village is a 3 hour hike deep into the jungle. I made the trek with a couple other volunteers from the Arutam station and a guide and it was going pretty well except for the fact that an hour into the hike it started to rain terrentially. All of our clothes were just completely soaked head to toe as we were cought in this fierce storm and there was no way to go back because we have already gone so far. Not to mention we had our huuge backpacks on at the time also. Nevertheless we made it to Irsham and settled in, met the tribe which we were greeted with huuge smiles, ate dinner and slept. Irsham is a really cool place because its pretty much just a chief and his family of about 6 daughters and one 18 year old son and wife, and they are pretty much almost completely self sufficient from the land they live on it was a really cool experience to be there. As for the work the next few days it was extremely tough and rigorous but this station definetly was in need of volunteers the most and i was more than happy to help. Later on in the week we were taken on a trek even deeper into the Amazon for about 3 hours, found a nice spot, and set up a camp to sleep in the middle of the jungle for the night. We collected wood and leaves and made a shelter for us to sleep in for the night. Building a shelter and collecting food and sleeping in a random spot in the middle of the jungle was definetly an experience I will never forget. For 3 straight meals all we had to eat out there were snails and plantains and water. During this camping excursion the 18 year old son went out hunting and cought a monkey which we later brought back to the hut and cooked up and ate for breakfast.
After spending some time in Irsham I returned back to Arutam for a week just to relax and take it easy for a bit because Arutam is the most comfortable of the stations with facilities like showers and toilets and a little better food. Then I headed back to the Chinimp tuna community to spend another week there. It was cool to see all the villagers there again and they were really happy to see me again. I did some pretty cool stuff there like hunting for ants, where we go out at 4 in the morning with these huuge torches and light them next to these ant hills and then all these giant queen and king ants with wings fly out towards the fire and we collect them for food later. It was going pretty well but then i felt myself getting bit all over and looked down, only to see that i was completly covered with ants head to toe getting bit all over, in my shirt, my pants, everywhere. But i delt with it and we got plenty of ants. Ants were then served with almost every single meal that week, and i learned to like them. Or at least deal with it.
Upon departure i was given a bunch of gifts from the family like some pretty cool bracelets, a necklace, a sachel bag, and some pottery. As for the 2 and a half weeks I have left I think I might just stay at the Arutam station but we will see. Thank you for reading and ill try and post more soon.
- Justen