Day Two brings much excitement as we head on a two hour bus ride through vibrant green jungle to the “port” of Nalta. And I use that word “port” very loosely. We rode in an open air bus with bags of bread hanging over our heads and chickens in burlap sacks that would be used for our food along the way!

And trust me the when they cook chicken they use every part and I mean EVERY part! Well except the feathers!

The dock at Nalta is unique – not to the Amazon but to what you might think of when the word “dock” is used. There is no dock that the boats tie up to – just shoreline where the boats pull in to load or unload cargo and people. You get to the canoe-like boats down a steep, often muddy embankment that has rivulets of open sewage running down it and trash strewn on it. Naviagting your way was an adventure and I prayed that I wouldn’t fall and land in it. Yuck. All 24 of us piled into the small boat with our luggage, animals and food! Packed in like sardines comes to mind!

See the garbage – add to it raw sewage and you get the idea.

Our boat that would take us up and down the Amazon for 4 days! This is the view from the outside and next… the interior. Notice the hard wood bench style seats with bo back support. Ahhhhh  the luxury! But we were so excited, it didn’t matter.

The first village or pueblo was about a half day trip. We passed by lots of small huts along the way and a couple of times fish even jumped into the boat! Seriously.

Often we would see groups of huts but more often there were just a couple together.

I’ll leave you with the last parting shot of Pastora Consuelo and the unlucky fish that literally jumped into the boat on one of the guys! Look at her expression – She is taking a bit too much pleasure in this whole ordeal.

And if this is Day 2 … can you only imagine what the rest of the trip was like! Ahhhhh stay tuned for the rest of the adventure of taking “Jesus to the Jungle!”

In His Mighty Grip,

Stephanie