Amazon Incredible

Andrew with war paint and his new sloth friend

(Andrew) We finally arrived at the Amazon and spent four nights aboard the Delfin II. My favorite components of our time here were:

1. Leaf cutter ants. We went for a walk in the forest. It was extremely sunny and humid on the water, but cool and moist under the canopy. When we stepped in the shade of the leaves, the moisture coated me with sweat. During our hike, we saw many animals including macaws, a red squirrel and a whole line of leaf cutter ants with cargo. The line snaked around trees. The ants crawled over anything in their path to get back to their nest.

2. Squirrel monkeys. I have always been a fan of anything that has the word squirrel in it. When I found out there were squirrel monkeys in the Amazon, I jumped for joy! Just after the leaf cutter ants, Dad spotted squirrel monkeys that were leaping from tree to tree. The next day, I spotted my own group of them!

3. Three-toed sloth. The next day, we took our skiff through the calm river occasionally hitting wake from pollution-emitting ferry boats. When we reached the mouth of a river, we could see the muddy brown and the crisp black water disapprove of each other. We visited the village of Puerto Miguel and were able to hold an ULTRA-CUTE 3-toed sloth. Her name was Pepita, and she was 3-months old! Her claws dug into us like we were trees.

Piranha bait

4. Amazon River hot tub. We jumped off the bow of our skiff into the caramel colored water. Thankfully, it was mostly piranha-free! The water was surprisingly warm, and there were pink river dolphins swimming around us surfacing every now and then to cause a bee-line to the ladder. Dad made photos of us jumping in and swimming.

The Amazon was definitely not a disappointment!