day 16 Amboro

We woke up at around 6:30 and one of the first things we saw was snake tracks in the sand outside our tent.  It seems we had a slithery friend come to visit us in the night:

This was our last day and we were very sad, but we had lots to do, so after a quick breakfast, we followed Hernan on one last adventure.

Our kitchen.

I had dropped the Samsung in the river the day before (DOH!) and it wasn't working, and the Canon seemed to have water in its innards, so we didn't take as many pictures as the previous hikes.  Lesson here: the Bolivian jungle is hard on cameras.

Right before we were ready to start our hike, we saw a critter swimming in the river next to our camp.  It turned out to be a RIVER OTTER!  A wild Bolivian river otter!  We felt so lucky, and were still talking about it as we started our hike.

Hernan was taking us up to a vista point, since we had had a vista point fail the day before.  The hike was steep, but very lovely.  At one point we had to cross a waterfall:

The view from the top was awesome.  We had the jungle all layed out before us.

We spent as much time as we dared up top, but we had another destination to see, so we headed back down.  On the say our guide showed us a vine that was filled with water.

We headed back the way we had come.  Once we reached the river, we followed it upstream:

A congregration of butterflies.  I think they were licking minerals.

More butterflies.

My man.

El rio.

After a bit, we reached our destination: what would turn out to be the most amazing swimming hole of the trip, hands down. 

The river narrowed between two rocks, making a deep, cool pool of water that was begging to be jumped into.

So we obliged.

We had an amazing time at the swimming hole, and all too soon it was time to go.  We could have stayed for hours more, but our driver would be meeting us to take us back, and we were already running late.

So, with heavy hearts, we went back to camp to pack.  We had a quick eat-all-the-food-that's-left lunch, then had some last minute fun before saying goodbye to our beloved campground.

Hernan, showing Jo to (what else) climb straight up this vine.

Tarzan.

Since we were running late, we took a different trail back, which kept us away from the river.  It was quicker.

We saw a couple of hikers coming in as we went out.  It was the only time we had seen anyone else.  We had had Amboro to ourselves.

We were an hour late meeting our driver, but he didn't seem overly concerned.  He was a super nice guy and I wish I remembered his name.

On the drive back, we stopped to take a picture of this mountain range because, according to Hernan, you can see a face if you turn it ninety degrees to the left.  See it?

Jo had some nifty souvenirs from his time in the jungle:

The river crossing:

We got back to Buena Vista safely.  We had tea and empenadas with our new friends before saying goodbye.

The rest of the night is completely anitclimactic compared to the awesomeness that was Ambora.  So I'll just fastforward: bought-some-huge-mangos-and-some-coffe-then-we-waited-for-patti-to-hurry-her-ass-up-and-catch-a-taxi-with-us-because-she-wanted-to-tag-along-with-us-back-to-santa-cruz-wen-to-monte-vista-then-santa-cruz-got-a-hostel-and-read-for-a-bit-and-went-to-bed-dreaming-of-otters.