our intro to dugout canoe travel

Left at 9:30am for another 3 hours in the van - even more muddy and more trucks today. Stopped at a coca farm. Then got to the port to start our dug-out canoe ride at 12:30. It was raining and cold, but luckily the boat had a top. Was cozy in my new raincoat. Saw lots of great water birds and had lunch on the shore, near a capybera path. Saw capyberas after lunch right on the edge of the river. Arrived at Pantiaciolla Lodge at 3pm. Strange set-up with a walkway to your own bathroom and all rooms connected and open to the outside. As the dutch couple said, 'You can hear every time someone in another room sneezes or farts'.

Took an amazing walk through the forest before dinner. Leaf-cutter ants were absolutely everywhere -huge, fat paths of hundreds of them each carrying a leaf to their nest - so cute. There were trails on logs, going up trees, and everywhere. Never have seen anything like this. Was so exciting to see saddle-backed tamarins and dusky titi monkeys and red howler monkeys. Saw very strange cicada chimneys and army ants too. Seems so strange to be eating dinner in the tropical rain forest in a fleece, because the 'frijoles' is here. A joke in our group because I called the cold front 'beans'. Actually the cold front is called 'friajes'. Wonder if it will continue to be cold tomorrow. Can't wait to see more, but 5 h in the boat will be long.