Most of the birds we saw in the Amazon were Hoatzin
They hang out in big groups
All looking in different directions
It was hard to get one looking at the camera
Most of the time they were mostly hidden
Or some would be facing the camera and others not
Or they’d be flapping around
They run away when there is danger
And their babies flop down into the water
And then swim to a tree and climb up with their dinosaur claws. We didn’t see any babies though.
We saw a sloth
And she wasn’t sleeping
Her friend was sleeping
That is most of what sloths do.
But they also eat
The sloths were all wet from the rain
They didn’t look very happy about it.
If you scrape this plant with a machete
And then light it on fire, the oil smells nice. This is probably not the most important thing to know if you’re lost in the Amazon. But at least you have a machete and a lighter.
This plant is where quinine comes from, which was good to treat malaria. But all the malaria is resistant now, so that’s also not terribly useful to know.
We recommend not getting lost in the Amazon.
There are big trees
Much bigger than Kerri
They start out as little trees
A tamandua climbed this tree and was super cute but way too fast to get a picture.
This tree bleeds rubber.
This is a millipede
This is another cicada chimney
Maybe. Honestly we don’t remember.
This is a bullet ant. Do not touch.
This is a tarantula.
Don’t touch him either.
Here are some other ants.
If you let these ants crawl on you
And then smush them all over your hands, it’s supposed to keep the mosquitos away.
Here’s some weird fungi
And some flooded forest.
The boat had an engine, but it was loud.
So we turned it off and rowed to hear the sounds of the Amazon.
Matt rowed while Kerri did nothing.
We went around and around in circles.
Then Kerri rowed while Matt did nothing.
And we went slightly straighter.
I think Matt just didn’t want to row.
We took a boat far away from our perfectly good hotel
To sleep in hammocks
In the middle of the Amazon
They can’t build a hotel here because the water goes up to here in the rainy season.
But in the dry season the water stays down here
We had bed nets to keep the insects out
But they were smelly and interfered with the view.
