The Amazon

Possibly the most incredible part of my journey here in South America has just come to a close. I spent 5 days in the most lucious part of the world, the amazon. We landed in a small tourist town called Rurrenabaque. The town is nestled into the mountains of the rainforest. The first thing that hit all of the group, the humidity and the heat. It was expected, but for me living in that kind of atmosphere is not normal. And I never really got used to it, but that didn´t distract me from the amazing place I was in. Our adventure started the next day as we all jumped into an oversized canoe and traveled up the river Beni. We got our first real taste of the vastness of the amazon. Giant mountains towered over us that were covered in moist green trees of all varieties. It was beautiful to say in the least. Our camp was between the shore of the river and the dark depths of the forest. The first day we trekked into the heart of the forest by foot. Our guide, Freddy, was amazing. The guides have an amazing knack for hearing and seeing wildlife. A few of the astounding things he pointed out to us were a posionous tree, a tree that heals wounds, bark you could chew on, and countless insects. The posionous tree was amazing because a few drops of the liquid that lay just beneath the surface of the bark could kill a human. We had to look away while he hacked at it with a machete because if the liquid had gotten into our eyes we would have gome blind. Intense. The tree that heals wounds had a red liquid that resembled blood. It looked like the tree was actually bleeding. The next day we hiked even further than the day before into the forest. There wasn´t a trail. But thats where we were rewarded the most. We got to observe the parrots in the tops of the trees, and we happened upon a large group of wild pigs that were foraging. They make the weirdest noises. The parrots too. When they made their bird calling noises it sounded exactly like a small child screaming. A bit unnerving. That day a group of us also took a dip in the river. It felt absolutely delicious. It was such a relief from the heat. We floated down the current on logs we found on the shore. It was great. After our swim we boated up the river for a few minutes untill we were at the parrot house. It´s this cliff side that all the parrots build their houses in. They dig holes into the side of the cliff and raise their babies there. We saw so many parrots. Their colors are beautiful. Red, blue and yellow. And they are elegant flyers. The part that all the girls mooned over, including me, was that parrots mate for life. So you could see all the pairs because they always fly together. So cute. That night we did another hike. There we saw the biggest tarantula I have ever seen. It was on the ground near its den hunting for prey. So cool. The other guide, Angel, made jaguar noises through this tube that would attract them to our area. Although it didn´t work because no jaguar appeared, the noise itself was an experience. And after we did a bit of stargazing. The stars are so bright and numerous. And we saw countless shooting stars. It was such a cool experience, but wait, the pamaps are next!