Journey's for days: Jungle daze

Seeing my good friend, Ceci, in Lima before my flight!

You never think you're going to make it to the jungle in life. It's just such an amazing, overwhelming experience and you never think you'll be lucky enough. First I stayed with a family in a small jungle community called El Chino - one phone in the entire town, sleep in hammocks, houses on stilts for when the Amazon rises and thatched roofs status. Our guide was Miguel, who grew up in El Chino, and it was so cool listening to his stories and jungle legends. He showed us the smallest monkey that exists, El Leoncito, and he said he had a pet Leoncito growing up - they fit in your pocket, so he'd put his in his pocket as he'd go fishing for good! We got to walk around the jungle in rainboots (because you just sink until your knees in mud due to SO MUCH RAIN), eat traditional jungle food (all fish basically, platanos, lentils, beans, yuca and WORMS), and learn about all the different trees, insects and animals from a native family. I couldn't have asked for my jungle experience to be any better. I didn't want to leave their house because Miguel, Jorge and Jorge's wife were SO INCREDIBLY SWEET. Always teaching me new things about the nature around me. I wish they had Peace Corps in the jungle so bad!!