Sleeping with Scorpions, Spiders and Cockroaches

Believe it! We did find and sleep with (after killing) all these creatures on our class trip to the Amazon. Despìte the creepy crawlies, I had an incredible time visiting the jungle region of Ecuador last week (as in the first week of March, not the week that just happened). School really can´t get much better than that!

We set off on Tuesday and arrived at the Cabanas Alinahui where we were staying for the week. Promptly after getting settled, and killing out first round of bugs, we headed out for a jungle trek with our guide, Pedro. He taught us about medicinal plants, how to identify ant colonies vs. termite colonies that seem to grow like tumors on the trees, how to swing on a liana (vine) and about the ¨walking trees¨that grow there that have roots above ground and constantly grow new ones to move towards the sunlight. We also saw a baby vulture that was nested among the giant roots of a tree. It´s mother was high above in the tree and the baby stays hidden in the roots (about 3 feet high) until it matures and flies out. We headed back for dinner and to get ready for more adventures the next day!

Wednesday morning we got the amazing surprise of being served pancakes for breakfast. We were all super excited and gobbled them up! Then, we headed out for another jungle hike to a waterfall. Along the way, we learned more about how the indigenous people use plants to build houses, eat, clothe themselves, etc. Pretty much nothing goes to waste and they´re pretty creative people, even if by necessity! The waterfall we finally arrived at was beautiful and we could climb on the face of it and behind it while big Blue Morph butterflies fluttered around. Afterwards, we ate a picnic lunch by the river that flowed out of the waterfall. Just another day of school...after lunch we headed to a mariposario (or butterfly house basically) where we saw all the stages of a butterfly and so many varieties it was dizzying try to photograph them all. Way of transport from the waterfall to the mariposario: the TOP of a bus. I have had some crazy bus rides but this by far was the scariest! The bus was too full for us to ride inside so the obvious solution to our guide was for us to all climb up on top. Even our teacher was a little sketched out but we all made it there safely after a couple close calls with tree branches. Our final stop was a small town by the river where Capuchin monkeys live in the city square by day to get fed by the locals and toursists and live in trees by the river at night. These monkeys were super smart and not afraid at all of humans. One guy in our class, Steven, had brought a bag of fruit and was trying to get it open to give to the monkeys when one of them jumped up on him, impatient to get the fruit he knew was inside the bag. Steven freaked a little and threw the bag towards the other monkeys. They all proceeded to open the bag and split up the fruit. One monkey even turned the bag inside out and licked up the mushed banana inside. Crazy smart!

The next day was a blast! We took a motored canoe down the Rio Napo, which flows into the Amazon river, and also got to float down in tubes for part of it. We picnicked again by the river, then visited a museum of indigenous people, where we got eaten alive by mosquitos. Finally, we headed to the AmaZOOnico, a rehabilitation, rescue and release place for animals that have been taken from the jungle as pets or to be sold in markets or are injured. It was sad to hear how people think an ocelot cub will be a good pet and then can´t handle it when it grows up or how birds are carried to markets and even if only 1 out of 10 lives, the smuggler still makes a profit. They had beautiful, rare animals like capaberas, the largest rodent in the world, picture the size of a pig but with the appearance of a guinea pig. We got to see a jagurundi, a small black jungle cat attack a piece of meat for lunch and drink blood!

After our class events officially ended, we all stayed one more night, went on another hike to a waterfall and lagoon and then headed home to avoid getting more bug bites. I must have had 50 or 60 by the end of the trip! Thankfully, they are healing up now! And all the itchiness was totally worth it...