While in the Amazon for just one short week, we observed nearly
400 different species of birds.

Harpy Eagle (known as "Jason" because of hockey mask like face color)

A gilolo parrot
 
 

A hoatzin, the "missing link" between birds and reptiles.
It has scales AND feathers, and has been called a modern archaeopteryx.

 
 
 

Blue and gold macaw parrots

Scarlet macaws
 

Toucan sam

Amazon cockfight- a chicken versus a harpy eagle. Poor chicken.
 

We also saw many cool trees and flowers

Bromeliad

Crown of thorns

Giant water lillies

How giant, you ask?

 
 

Villagers process manioc grain, the stuff Wheaties is made of
Fifty feed away is a marijuana field, in case you've ever wondered why you can't eat just one Wheatie.

 
 
 

Dense foliage

Some trees are hundreds of feet high.

See the muddy slope in the foreground? That's the waterline. During
the rainy season, water reaches that high, flooding trees up to 30 feet high.
There are species of fish that survive only by eating fruits off trees during the rainy season.

We saw cool insects, too

Blue morpho butterfly, the brightest pigmentation in nature

A walking stick

Leaf cutter ants

All sorts of cool fish live in the river itself, which is so dirty (with mud, not pollution) that you can't see your hand if you submerge it.

That big black fish is a black pirranha, the largest pirranha. The smallest, the white pirranha, is so tiny that I didn't know that I caught one until I reeled in to check my bait.

The most common pirranha, however, is the red bellied.

See what I mean about gross water? By the way... yes, there were pirranha in that water, yes, they bit us, and yes, it hurt. Theoretically, red bellied pirranha won't attack unless there are 80 or more of them, but I wouldn't be comforted in seeing only 79. They can skeletonize a cow in two minutes.

Froggies and snakes:

Monkeys!

A three toed sloth. They really are that slow.

My brother and a monkey. My brother's the one on the left.
 

Caymans!
Caymans are related to alligators and crocodiles

They get big.

One night, we went for a "Cayman hunt". We took a little boat out into the river, in the pitch black. Eventually, we stopped the boat, and our guide said, "Wait here". Then we heard a splash, and him walking away. Again, pitch black, again, middle of the jungle. About 15 minutes later, we heard a thunk in the boat, and the guide shouted "Someone grab that". He threw a baby Cayman into the boat. Yeesh.

Who read "Capybopy"? It was one of my favorite children's stories, yet no one's ever seem to heard of it. Anyway, here's a capybara.

 
 
 

You may have been thinking up until now that we were "roughing it" on this trip. Let me assure you that this is far from the truth.

Our boat, "La Esmerelda"

Our dining room: fine china, a 5 star chef, and tuxedoed waiters

My grandparents enjoy a tasty meal of pirranha. It was yummy.

In stark contrast, the people we met along the shores live in near-total poverty

We were told to bring old T-shirts to give to them in exchange for local arts, crafts, and food. We joked that in 20 years, a national geographic expedition would reach the "deepest, darkest Amazon" only to find people wearing "Irving's Bar Mitzvah" and "Bayonne, NJ Class Reunion" T-shirts.
 
 
 

All the villagers were very taken with my blond haired, blue eyed cousin Alanna. Children followed her around all through the villages.

Oh yeah, we also saw a jaguar.

 

 Back