La Selva

Sorry it´s been so long since I´ve posted! I was in the rainforest for four days and I´ve been super busy since I got back. The rainforest was amazing. I don´t know if I can do the trip justice in one entry. It may take two. But I guess I will try...

First, let me just say that this trip was one of the best things I´ve done in my 20 years on this planet. It was amazing. First of all, it only rained the day we arrived. The other three days it was sunny and gorgeous. We´re talking about the rainforest! The word "rain" is in there for a reason!

The forest was so beautiful. I really don´t have words to describe it. Everything was so tranquil and the people who were there just seemed so small, like we were just one more species living there along with all the others. There was so much life! Every tree had other vines and plants growing on it, insects all over it, animals living inside it, birds nesting in it - it was like the forest itself was one giant organism. We saw soooo much! Our group was large so we broke up into two smaller groups of 7 with two guides for each group. Our guides were Javier and Jose. Both were indigenous men from the nearby village of Sani Isla. Javier was the official guide because he spoke perfect Spanish and a little English. Jose probably said 10 words the entire time but he was TOTALLY hardcore. He walked ahead of the group to scout things for us and he could pretty much clear an acre of forest with a few choice swipes of his machete. Our first day we spent two hours watching birds from a 150 foot observation tower built around a GIANT tree. Of course I didn´t have a pen to write down all the names of the birds we saw but we did see a black headed parrot and a green and yellow parrot and another bird with a bright red beak. Using Javier´s scope we could see the birds soooo close up! It was like watching a National Geographic special, except we were actually there!

Our 4 hours trek after bird watching was so great! We saw lots of medicinal plants like dragon´s blood. We also saw tons of insects and swung on vines from a tree. The best part was when we heard a howler monkey marking it´s territory. It literally sounded like someone had a giant piece of machinery in the jungle. It was so weird and SO loud. Once we heard it, Jose just took off through the trees with his machete and we followed him off the path. We tracked a howler monkey! HOW COOL IS THAT?! We literally found the exact tree it was in! We tried to scope it, but I still couldn´t get a very clear view unfortunately.

That night we went out on the river to look for caimen (I have no idea how that is spelled, but basically they are crocodiles of up to 20 feet in size - we saw two.) Cooler than the caimen were the stars. I have never seen stars like that before in my life. They were reflected perfectly in the river which had still black water. It was like a mirror. It was really a spiritual experience looking at the stars on the water. I just thought about how small I am in the cosmos and how fleeting I was in that incredibly ancient forest. Incredible.

We also played soccer with our guides in what was essentially a mud pit. Afterwards we all swam in the river (I was assured that the piranhas in this river were not the aggressive kind and caimen are actually shy.... yeah.)

The second day our hike kind of sucked cause one of our group members got super sick and threw up repeatedly and we had to turn back. The only cool part was watching Javier take off and return with a medicinal root which he carefully peeled and used to make medicine for Laura. Unfortunately she was not keeping down even water at that point so she promptly threw it up and we didn´t have time to see if it worked.

That night was the highlight of the trip. We went on a night hike. Yes, that´s right: just me and a flashlight and two indigenous guides and the rainforest. And I´ll tell you what - the crazy shit comes out at night! We saw a tarantula that was ENORMOUS and I didn´t even freak out! We saw tons of insects and tons of venemous centipedes too. We also saw a tree mouse and two snakes from the boa family. They were harmless and the guides plucked them right up so we could hold and touch them. Super cool. We climbed the observation tower again and this time we could see the fire from an oil well off in the distance. It made me sad. But it´s more complex than it seems. The indigenous community which the guides were from has gotten lots of stuff from the oil companies like a new school and meeting hall. If these people were better provided for by the government maybe they wouldn´t be so susceptible to that kind of exchange. It reminded me of the way we have ripped off the American Indians: here, have some beer and guns in exchange for your land!

The only bad thing I have to show for the trip is about 100 mosquito bites and also, I got sick the last night, but now I´m better. Oh, and I may have brought back bed bugs. Not really sure what I´m gonna do about that yet....

ANTS! I forgot about the ants! I saw Conga ants that are venemous and huge and live in small colonies of 200-300 ants. I saw leaf cutter ants that follow the same path every time and literally have worn trails in the grass by the lodge. I also saw lemon ants which live inside of tree branches and have a symbiotic relationship with the trees. Javier cut a branch open for us and we ate them. They taste like lemon.

The lodge had amazing food, the guides were the nicest people I´ve ever met. Everything was environmentally sustainable. I slept under a mosquito net! I think that´s all....

Now finally, if anyone has heard - there´s been some drama with Colombia and some talk of war. So who knows? Maybe I´ll get evacuated and be seeing you all sooner than I thought. Let´s all pray for peace because the last thing this region needs is a war. As usual, the U.S. would be on the wrong side of things (that is, Colombia´s side.) Anyway, Ecuador has recalled it´s ambassador from Colombia and cut off diplomatic ties which is pretty intense. We´ll see what happens.

Love you all!