After another night of sleep in a hammock, I awoke refreshed, but a little sore in the legs (the natural arc of a hammock keeps your legs locked). Jeffson told me that the last night was one of the coldest he's felt in a long time. Funny that I slept comfortably in a tank top and light blanket. I guess the Canadians will let me back home after all. It was cool to wake up and go to a cabin kitchen for breakfast again - bread and coffee. I understand now why it's so popular here to drink coffee with sugar - it isn't very good coffee here (ours is better at home). It was a bright day, even with the clouds in the sky. It sort of felt like it was going to rain, but I'm pretty sure you can't predict the weather here so i would just have to see. We packed up all our bags, rolled up the hammocks and after a little while, we were on our way. Again, just like on the way here, we stopped by some friend's houses. One guy joined us on the boat - turned out he needed a ride into Manaus which was an hour away by boat. The stop after was pretty cool. The man at this house asked me to come and see him. So I jumped off the boat and came over. Turned out he wanted to give me something; he opened his palm and poured into mine, Cayman (alligator) teeth. It was a really cool surprise - maybe i can make something out of them; wear them around my neck or something. I would have really enjoyed the rest of the boat ride, but about half way back and several miles out, I was shot in the bladder with a terrible urge to go. I wouldn't usually bring up the topic, but i have to. Back at the cabin, there was no bathroom, except for the one on shore. The only problem with that was the swim to get to it. Kind of an inconvenience for one wanting to keep dry. I was constantly around the family the whole time and started to notice something: I was the only one that ever had to use the bathroom! It's like the rest of them just didn't have bladders. They must have been pee ninjas the whole time, leaving and returning without anyone noticing. And so I tried my best to adapt. And thus my point is, I could only ever go to the bathroom when there was an open area on the perimeter of the cabin with nobody around, so I could pee in the river. Because everyone was everywhere this morning, packing up everything, there was no place to go and I had to uncomfortably hold it. Ok, finished the toilet talk. We made it back to the docks, packed everything back into the VW van and made for jeffson's house. It was nice to see everyone back home again, and lunch was sure good here. We ate, then Jeffson left for the hospital to get his arm attended to. Meanwhile, the first Harry Potter movie was on TV so I watched it for a little bit. It was pretty amusing, but what I found the funniest that hufflepuff in portuguese was Lufa-Lufa. It sounded even funnier coming from the sorting hat's mouth. Jeffson returned later with a bandage around his arm. They had cut the skin to find the thorn, but it was no longer there, so they patched him up and sent him on his way. Apparently they aren't fans of using medical imaging when they don't have to. Having worked at a hospital, I can say that sometimes back home, they perhaps overuse the imaging on patients. Anyway, hopefully his arm heals up soon. He had intended to clean his pool today, but of course now he couldn't so I offered to help with this. I think it looked much better after, however the unfortunate side effect of the process was that even after a shower, i still smell like chlorine. We had some dinner, then to finish off the night, we went over to the neighbour's to celebrate their daughter's birthday. I'm not completely sure, but it seemed like she wasn't all that impressed with the party and would rather be elsewhere. Maybe it's a teenage girl thing. Anyway, food was good and the conversation with Jeffson was in english, so overall a good night. We talked about many things, one thing being how my stay has been here. I have truly been treated like family here and have enjoyed every moment with them. Jeffson said that I'm only the second volunteer that he's taken on so far, and the first one wasn't a great experience. They clashed a lot, so he was happy that I had such a good time, living the same experience. I'm sure that him and his family will always be my friends. Anyway, time to see if I can get to sleep with a decent sunburn like the one I have! It caught me off guard as it only got sunny for a short time at the end of the boat ride, but it was enough. Hopefully this is the last burn I get and the rest is all tan. I'll need a good base by Ecuador.
The lodge as we left
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