5:30 pm Thursday afternoon. Ok folks. Right about now we should be in a canoe on a river in the Amazon surrounded by jungle, snakes, birds and monkeys. Hopefully Sophie isn’t crying.

Here is a little somethin’ somethin’ I have been alerted to regarding the Amazon. Apparently, it has been raining a ton. So what does this mean for us? Well…..(deep breath), it means that we get to ride in a canoe after it has rained lots and lots making the river high and more exciting . The canoe skippers don’t mind because they won’t bottom out as much, but they have to navigate through a lot more debris. I keep thinking it sort of like a theme park ride where you don’t always know what’s going to jump out of you, except that something really could jump out at you…like a big fat Anaconda. Ok…I am so kidding. Our staff person, Andrea, says she has never seen an Anaconda in this area of the Amazon, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t seen snakes in this part of the Amazon. We will get to that in a minute.

So, we are going to take this canoe to our jungle lodge where we will have absolutely no contact with the outside world. Imagine a group of people who spend a good portion on their computers living without Internet or phone connection. We are going dark my friends. Then we will spend the night right on the river in a quaint jungle lodge, wake up on Friday morning to canoe 45 minutes down the debris filled river and land on a rocky beach. Finally, we will trek up through the jungle to the Compassion center.

So back to the snakes. The other thing that my dear staff person from Ecuador let me know is the mud is deep from the rain…and oh by the way… she saw a viper out here two weeks ago. She is recommending boots for the trek to the Compassion center.

Now, hopefully I haven’t freaked my mom out, or anybody else because we wouldn’t do anything that would put us in great danger, but it could be exciting, and as Bon Jovi says, we will be livin on a prayer.

Honestly, it should be amazing! Can’t wait to tell you all about it on Friday night!

Oh by the way…I use to be a lifeguard.