My trip buddies this time were none other than my brother, Marc, and good friend, Richard. I definitely like the arabian look that these guys are sporting here to elude the blasting equatorial sun.
The first spider spotted on our trip... we saw several of these on the beach waiting for our motorized canoe to pick us up. They are about 1 inch long.
Here is our group, recently refreshed by the rain, in our canoe!
One of our first stops was in a local Siona community... house on the ground and on stilts as well. I believe it is because the water raised to a "flooding" level in the winter time.
Pictures of local girls doing their laundry.
Other girls canoeing down the river.
We tried to paddle in the home-made canoe... but the top of it was so close to the edge of the water, that if you were not careful, you could easily flood it.
This is a picture of some of the primary forest (not yet cut down) scenery, with the magnificient & tall Ceibo tree overlooking the river.
During our trip, we stayed in huts owned by our travel company and managed by locals. As you can see, these huts had no walls, which intimidated me at first... but we never had any problems with big insects or anything.
Still, the only thing that seperated us from the wilds of nature was our mosquito net which loosely hung over an air mattress and two light sheets.
The view of the river from our hut during a rainstorm.
One of the families that served us dinner and managed the huts.
Inside one of the huts, we found this massive moth... whose eyes glowed orange from the reflection of the flash light.
For some reason, these leaves caught my eye. They have such a beautiful shape.
On the other hand, this plant has thorns on the leaves themselves as well as on the stalk. This plant is used to punish kids that are bad or simply to improve circulation. When it is swatted against your skin, your skin breaks out in a rash and is itchy... not really a pleasant experience.
I found this three inch long centipede near one of the huts we stayed in.
As you can tell, Richard didn't have breakfast that morning.
Spiky thorn trees.
These trees have an amazing lower trunk. They are almost the signature trees of the rainforest for its uniqueness and size (we saw ones up to five feet in diameter).
This bug that is attached on the tree trunk, is actually not a bug anymore that is. It is the exoskeleton of a cricket. We they are ready to shed their skeleton, they latch on to the tree. This tree had half a dozen empty shells on it!
Charvel, our lead guide, is opening pods from this branch. Inside we found lemon-flavoured ants that live in the tree in order to protect it from other insects... and yes, we ate them!
