Waterfalls and Jungle Facepaint

Breakfast with our jungle friends was soon followed by a trip to the local waterfall.  There, Chuck got the royal spa treatment to turn her into the jungle queen:

Jakka delicately crowns her "Queen Tomatoface of the Jungle" and declares his intention to marry her some day:

Jakka admires his work:

Then, after the jungle facial treatment comes a massage, care of the waterfall:

Lovely.

Jungle Joys

More fun jungle stuff...  in addition to all the monkeys and orangutans and sweating and giant trees, we also got to try cinnamon and quinine in the wild, see rubber being harvested, and catch a glimpse of this super cool wild peacock:

When they first pointed him out to me, I thought to myself, "Oh, he's sitting on a log."  Then I realized that what I thought was a log was really his massive tail feathers:

He, in turn, was thinking, "What are you looking at, tomatoface?!"

Video, complete with Tim's hand flapping in frame for perspective on how close we got:

Jakka took the camera to document just how sweaty and red-faced ("tomato-faced," as he put it) we were:

He also captured this (massive, like the size of a small dog) ant carrying a big load.  Then he ate an ant in front of us, claiming it tastes like lemon.  He also ate termites while on the trail.  We declined a taste.

Disappearing into the jungle:

Oh, there's his little tomatoface!

Termite mound on a tree trunk:

Twisty vines strangling a tree:

Tim, chilling:

Chuck, trying not to strangle Jakka for taking so many photos of her:

Simon leads the way:

"Seriously, dude. Stop."

We ate a snack with this guy up in our business the whole time:

Simon's glamor shots:

Jungle view:

Winding our way through the steep, muddy, vine-covered paths:

Back to Bukit Lawang: People of the Jungle

Last time I was in Bukit Lawang (with Colleen and Scuba Steve), I had such a good time that I insisted we go back for more jungle trekking, rafting and general shenanigans with our favorite guides, Jakka and Simon. 

We arrived late night and headed out on the trek through Gunung Leuser National Park early the next morning:

Right of the bat we were in greeted with some wildlife... a troop of Thomas Leaf Monkeys (remember them from last time?):

Then some greedy macaques (or "cheeky monkeys," as the Bukit Lawang folk call them).

We did some vine swinging:

Some massive tree climbing:

And then, voila, all of our orangutan dreams came true... Tim and Chuck got their first sighting, and then another and another and another:

All in all we saw 5 adult orangutans, each with a little baby!  Pretty awesome day.  No Mina this time, although I can't say I am too too disappointed about that, given her

reputation for being a bit bitey.  We did see Sepi and her baby, though, who I had seen earlier in the year at the feeding platform.  I said hi.  She seemed good.

We also each sweated approximately 2 liters of water each... ok, maybe 4 liters for Tim.

 These pics are like the Where's Waldo of the jungle... find the orangutan:

Photos of us are courtesy of Jakka, who enjoyed playing the tourist for a day and gently mocking us... "Your country is so amazing!"