¨Dont Touch! Its Spikey and Covered in Ants!¨

The amazon is...intense.
It is hotter and buggier than you could ever imagine. There are trees that walk (actually), poisonous worms that look like mustaches, trees that are 2,000 years old, and bullet ants that are 2 inches long. THERE ARE SO MANY ANTS. As we hiked through the jungle, we heard descriptions and warnings for all the plants and animals we saw. Almost all of them included the phrase ¨dont touch this...its spikey, poisonous, and covered in ants.¨

Our first few days on the boat trip were really nice. Actually, it was like being on vacation! Everything was cooked and cleaned for us by the guides, and we spent most of the day enjoying ourselves in the shade on the boat. Sometimes we would adventure into the jungle and walk to waterfalls and swimming holes, were we cool off and hide from bugs under the water. Our last night we went mud diving into quick sand, which was an experience I will NOT forget.

On our thrid day, we arrived in Asuncion, a small village of 35 families, no electricity, and community water spigots. We slept together in the old, empty school house, crammed under seven mosquito nets which were always swarming with insects every morning. The group split up among several houses for meals everyday. The ¨vegetarian hut,¨ as we fondly called it, was some of the best food Ive had in Bolivia so far. Our candlelight dinners were always a highlight of the day.

Asuncion is a very tropical town with a tropical lifestyle. It was never decided what we would be doing until five minutes before we were going to do it.
The purpose of our stay in Asuncion was ¨volunteering.¨ I put ¨volunteering¨ quotes because they really did us the favor by finding work for us to do. Usually they just put machetes in our hand and had us chop stuff down. We spent several days clearing a trail for tourists, and another afternoon chopping down trees and vines in a banana field. My favorite activity was ¨volunteer birdwatching¨ which I did with a Bolivian biologist conducting a census on green and yellow macaw parrots in the area. It was a slow project and required a tolerence of boredom, but it was truly incredible to watch dozens of birds flock back to their nests as the sun began to lower.

The rest of our days were occupied with various tasks. One night I went fishing with all ¨the boys¨ and a few village men. We caught one fish the whole night and we didnt get back until nearly 1:00am, but it was still a good time. It was cool to be on the water so late and wonder what creatures were hiding in the dark jungle along the shore.

In the afternoons, when the heat was too hot to handle, we would shed our clothes and ¨bathe¨ in the river. The river was so full of mud and silt that we would usually come out dirtier than we started, but it was still always nice to cool off. After swimming, we would sit around and eat fruit.
The best part of being in the amazon is the fruit. I never dreamed that Id pick a starfruit off of a starfruit tree to eat, but now I have. I have also eaten more oranges and grapefruits than I have in my life combined; they simply COVER the ground in Asuncion and all the surrounding areas. All the things we pay high prices for in the exotic produce secion of Food Lion are found here, growing wild in the jungle.

Asuncion was such a lovely place; although we´d been there less than a week, I was sad to leave this morning.
After an hour long boat ride we arrived in the Amazonian tourist hub of Rurenbaque. With the paved roads, electricity, and large number of gringos, I am experiencing a bit of culture shock. We will be here for another day, then head back to La Paz to plan the last (!!!!) 3 weeks of our journey.