Queen of the Amazon

March 13 – Word of the Day: Mariposa (Butterfly)

So for our second day in the Amazon we were to eat an early breakfast so that we could go on a rain forest hike right after.  I should mention that they gave us these giant rubber boots to wear on the hike which was pretty fabulous because 1) it was muddy but 2) it protected your feet and legs from danger. While we didn´t see any snakes on the hike, we were told that the Amazon is home to a wide variety of poisonous snakes.  We did see a TON of bugs on the hike though — big and small, colorful and not so pretty.  We kept seeing this gorgeous blue butterfly which would always elude me so I couldn´t get a picture.  I had to pull one off line though to show you… the Blue Morpho butterfly.   This picture doesn´t do it justice though.

The naturalist guide, Carlos, was very informative and taught us all kinds of cool things about the Amazon.  I could make this post really long and boring for you, but I´ll spare you and tell you that the most interesting thing we learned about were the lemon ants which you can apparently eat.  After eating the Palmetto weevil larvae the day before, I wasn´t feeling quite so adventurous, but J decided he was and tried them.  Ewww!

They make all kinds of things out of the palm leaves including hats, crowns, jewelry, parts of their houses.  The Quechua are very resourceful people.  Our guide demonstrated making a crown out of the palm leaves and then crowned me queen of the Amazon. 🙂   Halfway through our rainforest hike we got to take a basket chair zipline which was pretty fun, but less exciting than our ziplining in Costa Rica.  It was definitely HOT and we were ready to jump in the river after the hike.  We didn´t have to though because we were able to cool off on our raft ride back to the hotel.  They showed us how they made a raft out of balsa logs and each raft could hold ten people.  Sitting on it though you get pretty soaked.  Here´s a picture of J on the raft before we started (aka got soaked).  It was pretty cool though and I can now say that I could make a raft assuming I have a tool to cut wood.

After we returned to the hotel, there were optional activities for the afternoon.  Some people chose to head into town and explore… we figured we´d get enough of towns and cities throughout the rest of the trip so we skipped that option.  Others decided to go to the Butterfly Farm, but after the big blue butterfly in the amazon that morning I decided it was cooler to see them in the wild.  So J and I headed to an animal sanctuary run by some Europeans.  The Ecuadorian government sends animals there that need to be rehabilitated and those that can will eventually get re-released into the wild.  There were a lot of animals there that will stay at the sanctuary permanently including some “illegal pets” confiscated by the government.

Starting with the top left and going clockwise you can see a toucan, a tapir, me and my parrot friends who kept whistling at me and a cayman (similar to a crocodile).  There were a variety of other animals too including lots of different birds, monkeys, a capybara, and snakes.  J was in heaven.

I have to say that even though I will be sad to leave the Amazon tomorrow morning, it wil be nice to be back in slightly cooler and less humid temperatures.  Our room is open air (with screens of course) so it can get quite hot… especially if you want a sheet on you to protect you from mosquitos that sneak in.

I can confidently say though that J and I want to come back to the Amazon though probably through Peru or Brazil in the future to see other areas of it.