Peru Part IV: Amazon Jungle

I was the most nervous for this leg of the trip because the description of the place made it sound like I was going to basically be sleeping in a tree house in a jungle.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had recently gotten a new accommodations as part of the tour and it turned out to be my favorite part of the trip.

The smudge of red color is a macaw in the wild!

Hello, young grass hopper

tree frog

little whip snake

capybara

The first day we took a boat cruise along the river and saw whatever animals we could see, which wasn't much.  I knew not to expect any awesome jaguars unlike some people who thought they would just be chilling in broad daylight for stupid tourists to capture on camera, so I thought it was fun.  At night we did a night hike where we saw mostly creepy crawly things.  I had a wasp land on my back for a moment and luckily it flew away when I commenced the requisite freakout.  People didn't laugh at me too much, probably because they were glad it wasn't them.  Next morning, we took a jungle hike.

Walking in the jungle!

this is why you do not touch random trees to maintain balance in the jungle

Even though merely touching this frog would send me to my death bed within an hour or so, I still was not as freaked out by it as the non-poisonous spider in the last picture

walking palm.  It actually moves about 6 inches a year, hence the name

We had to cross a lake to get to another portion of the jungle... and the lake happened to be laden with piranhas and electric eels.  Yeah, was this me who really did this?  Because I'm really not that adventurous.  But I guess if I can survive South Central, I can handle a couple pesky eels. 

so pretty

awesome birds

does this mean batman is nearby?

look, I'm an awesome bird.  Observe me in all my birdy glory.

Que que natura, you will understand!  (points if you get the reference)

Afterwards, we just had a lot of free time to kill.  I loved just the general ambient sounds of the jungle.  And it was nice to relax and be away from technology for a bit.  I loved it.

cool shot of a creepy critter

pretty butterfly

sunset

I had this all to myself!

totally legit

I also wanted to include some videos because I figured it was one of the best ways to capture the jungle since it is so ALIVE.  First video are some birds that were around our lodges - their song makes me nostalgic for the jungle!  The second video is just the general jungle-ness (pardon the Blair-Witchiness-of-it).  Third video is of the piranhas.