We've left the major tourist trail behind now and have headed into a much more remote national park. There's no town, we're in a lodge a few kilometres from the park entrance, and once again you can''t get anywhere without 4WD. It's a beautiful setting and we've got our own porch, complete with hammock, rocking chairs and dog, from where we can enjoy the view.
Getting here was something of a mission though and in the process we have learned that Ben doesn't really go in for the whole economy travel thing! As we got off our bus I commented "See that wasn't too bad" and Ben's response was "I'm trying to imagine in what way it could have been worse"! Now admittedly I wasn't the one contorted into a strange position, stuck behind a girl who wouldn't move her chair forward or next to an overweight woman who allegedly kept farting (no it wasn't me!) with a ridiculously heavy camera bag in my lap but hey, it REALLY could have been worse!
The environment is completely different from where we've been so far. The forest is much more like woodland that we have at home, but much older and more gnarly-looking. It's like an enchanted wood in a fairytale. I keep expecting one of the trees to start talking to us or a vine or tree root to wrap itself around my ankle and hold me captive! There's spooky things caused by volcanic activity too like pools of boiling mud, multicoloured lakes and smoking holes in the ground that add to the surreal feeling.
Our animal watching was fruitless until we sat down to eat our lunch and the wildlife came bounding out of the forest to try and get a bit! The trees were suddenly filled with whitefaced monkeys (but not close enough for photos - obviously!) and a ridiculously bold coati actually jumped up onto the picnic table and tried to unzip our bags (no we didn't feed it). It looked like it would have been happy for me to give it a little cuddle though but I was just a bit scared of it's huge claws!
Ben:
More photos here!
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