Sorry, Guys, But…

5/27/10: Iquitos, Peru

[Editor's note: One more time, please give a big round of applause to guest poster, Amy! After today you're stuck with just Kevin and Zhou for the rest of the trip.]

There’s a lot of things we’ve skipped out on telling you—a whole day’s shenanigans is just too much to fit into one tiny blog post. For example: the lodge serves fruit loops every morning for breakfast (not just fruit loops, but isn’t it a bit odd to have fruit loops in the jungle?); also, frogs like to crouch on the rafters at night and sunset on the Amazon is beautiful.

These details don’t actually matter. They may be funny or interesting to hear, but they’re not actually important or relevant enough to make it in. Here’s two that are:

1. We are actually exploring the rainforest with three other people. Two of them are a young couple from Boston and the third is a Londoner going on vacation between jobs.
2. These three people left today. (That was quick, right? We just introduced them to you and now they’re gone!)

Ok, so maybe these details seem even less important than the breakfast fruit loops. Relax; it’ll all be clear soon enough.

(Speaking of skipping out on things, I actually skipped out on our 6:15 birdwatching boat ride this day. Oops. Zhou and Kevin say nothing out of the ordinary happened. Don’t worry! This morning wasn’t important!)

After our breakfast fruit loops (and other appropriate jungle breakfast foods), the six of us went out on a motorboat to see the craziest lily pads of all time. Not only are they big enough to comfortably enclose three or four rowdy babies, but they also have defensive spikes all around their undersides and stems. This means that your tiny tots tumbling around on top of the pads will be protected from any attacking Amazonian fish.

The lily pad edges: Don't mess with them.

Large enough for an army of babies.

After appropriately ooh-ing and aah-ing at the giant lily pads and their defense mechanisms, the six of us returned to the lodge to have lunch. And then—this is where things get exciting—the other three people left. And cool things happened.

Don’t get me wrong—they’re awesome people. They’re really nice and have a great sense of humor (they have to, in order to put up with us). The thing is, like Zhou said yesterday, six people tramping around the Amazon is just too much. We make too much noise and scare all the animals away, and when we finally do see some, it takes forever for all of us to actually spot the animals and take pictures. Sorry, guys, but…

…it’s cooler here without you.

Zhou & I in our canoe, excited to (quietly) paddle around the Amazon, spear fish, and see monkeys.

And Kevin.

Moises with his speared fish.

The night hike - would we have seen this giant toad with six of us in the rainforest? I don't think so.

The whip scorpion.

I would have been quite alright with this tarantula running away from the sound of people. Sadly, we were too few to make a proper ruckus.

The lesson of the day, then, is that, while exploring the Amazon, tread lightly and hope that everyone else leaves midway. Then the rainforest is all yours.
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Picture of the Day: A frog waiting in the rafters to attack unsuspecting passersby.

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