Jungle Fever

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Amazon Region Don´t worry, I haven´t caught malaria or dengue fever. And I haven´t married a local or anything (although the tour guide was quite the Brazilian hottie!). By Jungle Fever I am referring to the extreme humidity in the Amazon that makes you feel like your body temperature has risen 20 degrees (degrees Farenheit of course. Degrees celsius wouldn´t make sense, duh). But besides the humidity (and mosquito bites on my ankles) my jungle excursion was spectacular. I saw many monkeys, even more caiman, sloths, pretty birds, river dolphins and even a plocotamus (sucker fish). I ate more different types of fruits than you can imagine, but can´t remember any of the names since all were told to me in portugese. And the jungle itself was simply incredible.

I stayed at an ecotourism site called the Mamirua Sustainable Reserve which is a protected Amazon area. That meant not many people around except us responsible tourists and scientists in the area; Jaque Cousteau´s daughter was filming a documentary in the reserve at the time too! This part of the Amazon is unique because it is flooded for half of the year. (I thought all of the Amazon forest floods, but was wrong!) What this means is that there are some species that are only found in this area. And I got to see them! Cool, huh? Also the trees that have adapted to the area are quite amazing as well. Amazing...Amazon, huh I just made the connection. Same word base? I´ll get back to you on that?

Anyway, check out the photos. I was in the area just before the flood season, so the rivers were rising, but we could still hike around the forest. And check out the map to see exactly where, in the middle of nowhere, I was.

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Photos

Up close and personal
This is Leo, a very aggressive caiman since the cooks feed him. I was only 3 feet from him which explains the closeup.

Sloth
There were so many sloths that were hard to spot at first (their fur matches the tree bark). But once you spotted them, you could watch them for hours (although it got boring after a few minutes. They really are quite slow.)

The floating lodge
This was the lodge that my room was in. It was completely afloat in the river.

View from a Hammock
This is where I took my siesta each day at the reserve.

Village life
We visited a village in the reserve, and this was one of the villagers that followed us on our tour.

Water line
You can see on the tree bark how high the water rises in the wet season.

Comments

[anonymous]

Soopper
Did you go swiming????

[Jenn]

Amazing!
I am loving this vicarious tour. Thanks for continuing to keep us updated. We miss you!

[Jason Tyne]

What's a Caiman?
Be careful around those monkeys; that ain't Great Adventure! (I told you about my monkey attack in Tanzania, didn't I?)

[Five]

What´s a Caiman?
A caiman is from the alligator/crocodile family. A little smaller (but some were still over 3 meters long!) Couldn´t swim in the river because of them!

[Jason]

Oh...I see.
...and they have nicer smiles. :)

[Cynthia]

Dreams?
No red snakes, right? Or pink ones? haha