What have you found to be the most amazing aspect of your voyage in the Amazon Basin? Is it the vibrant colors worn by the avian residents? How can it be so difficult to find a scarlet red macaw in a leafy green tree? Or a plum-throated cotinga that looks like it flew right out of a Crayola crayon box? Find them we did and many other splendidly colorful and interesting feathered creatures. What is it like to swim in a black water lake where you cannot see down to your toes? And do you keep all your toes? There are piranha in the lake, and a few caiman as well, not to worry; we came out with all digits intact.
There are mammals we have added to our lists of sightings that we may never knew existed, now we have seen the secretive Amazon brush tailed tree rat, along with three-toed sloths, a river otter, gray dolphins and pink dolphins. On our monkey checklist we have marked off squirrel, red howler, brown capuchin, brown titi, monk saki, and saddle-backed tamarins. Who knew we would find bats perched upside-down on sticks in the water? Could you have guessed that we would find 98 different species of birds?
How did meeting the people that live, work, go to school, calls the small riverside communities home make you feel? These are proud, hardworking, welcoming, and gracious individuals that showed us nothing but genuine hospitality when we walked into not only their village, but also their homes. Would we do the same in our own neighborhoods?
If you cannot yet answer for yourself these questions, then we invite you to join us and experience the mystery of the rain forest, the plentitude of life it holds, and the gracious hospitality of the people that call this enchanting place home.
