Global Health Adventures: Amazon Day 3: Birds, Worms, Ants, Rain!!!

Monday November 13

We awoke early after a night sleeping in hammocks under mosquito nets for an early morning boat trip to watch birds. The 5:30 am start was a bit harsh, but the bird-watching was quite enjoyable as we headed up river on a small boat observing the birds of Amazonas, also searching unsuccessfully for sloths. The plans for the day called for bird-watching followed by breakfast, with a morning hike in the jungle, and plans to sleep in the jungle that night. The weather would later change those plans, but the morning began well with the bird-watching and breakfast.

After breakfast, we again boarded the boat to head to another part of the jungle for our jungle hike. We reached the jungle as a light rain began falling. Fortunately, in the jungle we were largely sheltered by the canopy of trees above us. We headed through the jungle enjoying the sounds of insects, birds, and the rain falling on the trees. We were shown how to use palm trees to create fans, hats, or even the roof of a shelter. After trekking a bit further, we were shown a fruit/nut that harbored edible worms inside. Chris B and I immediately tried one worm each. Chris B. wasn't a huge fan of the taste after the worm popped in his mouth. I was game to try two more, and didn't find the taste bad at all. No one else in the group cared to try the worms, despite my enthusiastic recommendations...

We continued through the jungle as the rain picked up a bit, and eventually came upon an ant's nest attached to the trunk of a tree. Our guide told us that the ants could be used as a natural mosquito repellant by allowing them to crawl on your hands/arms, then wiping them off, leaving behind an insect repellant. Our guide also insisted that the ants did not bite. I again was game to try somethign new, and allowed the ants to crawl on my arms twice in an attempt to photograph the experience. Unfortunately, as I waited for a photograph while standing on a crowd of ants as well, the ants crawled up my arms and legs, at which point I learned that they do in fact bite... Nate also tried the ants, and also learned of their biting ability.

Shortly after the encounter with the ants, we headed back out of the jungle and began to boat back to camp. As we did, the rain began to pick up. This would not have been a hge problem had I had a rain coat, but despite my usual preparedness, I had forgotten to bring a rain coat on this trip to the rain forest (of all places...). As a result, I was quite soaked by the time we reached the lodge, and most of the remainder of the group with rain coats also were quite wet. The rain continued into the afternoon, and this lead us to decide to delay our trip to sleep in the jungle to the next night. The rain continued well into the night, proving this to be a wise decision.

With the original plans for the evening delayed by one day, we instead spent the evening playing card games at the lodge as the rain continued. We played a Colombian card game that our guide taught us, and then began playing endless games of Hearts, a series that would continue for the remainder of our Amazon trip. We retired to our hammocks for the evening, anticipating the activities of the next day which were slated to include a trip to a local village as well as the night in the jungle.

Our Guide, Herman, Poses with the Machete