The Amazon is taking a little bit of a toll today. Andrea woke up with a rash on her face - we don't know why. And we had some unfortunate bug encounters in the forest.
This morning, we went trekking through the forest on foot. We had to wear long sleeve everything. It wasn't as hot as I expected, but the humidity as intense (100 %). Toward the end, everyone was so sweaty and my glasses kept fogging up. It was a 2 hour hike, but it wasn't very strenuous.
The trees weren't as tall as I expected, but we did see a couple huge ones. The tallest we saw was 140 ft. We saw another tree called Carapanauba ("mosquito tree" in the indigenous language) whose bark or sap is composed of quinine. Tea made from the tree is a cure for malaria.
We didn't see any animals besides bugs and one frog. I didn't really expect to since we were a big, noisy group. The worst was when we all accidentally stepped on a huge ant nest. They were biting ants and they swarmed into our shoes and up our pants right away. You couldn't just stamp them all off. I got bit twice. Mom had it worst - she got bit at least 3 times that drew blood on her legs. We came across the ants one more time, but our guide warned us, so we ran through with no problems. When we got back to our rooms and changed, Mom found yet more one live ant in her pants. The trek was really interesting and fun, but I definitely like the boat tours better. It's funny - you might expect to see more cool things by actually going inside the jungle, but we saw way more animals from the boats.
I went to a fish lecture and learned some disturbing things about Amazon fish.
- The tiny fish that can get inside you from any orifice isn't found on the Negro thank goodness. If it climbs inside a woman from below, it stays and sucks blood out of her uterus. The only way to remove it from anywhere is through surgery.
- If the freshwater stingray here hits you with its stinger, you are in horrible pain for at least 24 hours. Apparently, the best remedy is for a naked woman to straddle the infected area. It wasn't clear to me if that's just a superstition, or if it really works like the jellyfish and urine thing.
We just went for a boat tour through the Tres Bocas archipelago. It was really cool - much better than the trek. We saw a ton of birds - egrits, macaws, parrots, a toucan, and a bunch of others I can't remember. Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out great because the birds were far away or flying. I learned that Macaws and parrots mate for life. When their mate dies, they stop flying and starve themselves.
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| toucan! |
I really like the way this area of the Amazon smells when we're in or near the forest. It's like being in a forest after the rain, but more pungent...it's hard to describe. You should go :)
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